Festa della Liberazione Italia

Dear Art Lover,

     My friend Ale popped onto Facebook chat this morning to say hello.  It went like this:

Alessandro:  Buon giorno!

Kelly Borsheim:    ciao! Come stai e buona .. FESTA???

Alessandro:  bene,oggi è il giorno degli americani!

Kelly Borsheim:  cosa? pensavo partigiani.

Alessandro :  senza i soldati americani sarebbe stato impossibile! anche se i partigiani si prendono quasi tutti i meriti......

++++

Which all means:

Alessandro: Good morning!
Kelly Borsheim: hello! How are you and happy .. HOLIDAY ???
Alessandro: Well, today is the day of the Americans!
Kelly Borsheim: What? I thought [Italian] partisans.
Alessandro: Without the American soldiers, it would have been impossible!  Although the partisans take almost all the credit ......

++++++++++++++++   

Orsan Michele, Florence, Italy circa 1944

     My 93-year-old friend Renato in Casignano (where I go to help with the olive harvest each Novembre) told me the first time he met me that he was just a boy when the American soldiers came to live in his home.  They made quite an impression on him… polite and friendly people, he said.  He also had the opinion that the Americans saved the Italians and I seemed to earn immediate bonus points with him, even though I could not have possibly had any connection to events of World War II.  Casignano is in the hills outside of Florence.

     Also on Facebook I got lost in looking at tons of images of Hitler and Mussolini’s visit to the Renaissance City, as well and the hideous scenes of the city after the bombing.  The images come from an album on the FB Page: titled Firenzepoco conosciuta  [The lesser known Florence]. 

     This first is an image of Orsan Michele, not far at all from where I used to street paint in Florence.  The Florentines moved most paintings and other portable artworks and valuables outside of the city and often into the hill country surrounding the city.  But for fresco and larger works, they built walls of sandbags and sometimes brick (as for the original ‘David’ by Michelangelo in the Accademia).  Granted if the art took a direct hit, it would be gone, but they were mostly trying to protect from shrapnel.

     This second is a gorgeous photo with the light and composition, but what a horror!  Hitler ordered some Florentine Jews rounded up, about 300, and sent to Auschwitz.  Only 107 of these people were deemed “good enough” for the camps.  The rest were killed right away.  In the end, only 8 women and 7 men survived the camps.

Florentine Jews rounded up and sent to Auschwitz

Bombs along the Lungarno Archibusieri

 

     This third is an image of the bombs set up under the Lungarno Archibusieri, beneath the famous Vasari Corridor and beside the Ponte Vecchio.  The caption says this was August 1944, but the bombs were never detonated.  Still, what a sight.. and sadly, there are so many much more terrible!

 

     This last I share with you today from this historical album first struck me for its beauty.  The light on the ruin of Borgo San Jacopo is striking in its shape and contrast with the surrounding city.  But, oh, such loss!  Borgo San Jacopo has been rebuilt and you might never notice how ravished it once was.

Borgo San Jacopo Bombed During WWII - Florence, Italy

Here is a good explanation and other context for 25 April 1945 and what it means to many Italians.

http://www.iodonna.it/attualita/appuntamenti-ed-eventi/2016/04/24/25-aprile-ecco-perche-e-festa-della-liberazione/?refresh_ce-cp

Google Translate does a good enough job on this article for you to understand it.

https://translate.google.it

     Also, I shared an album of war-torn Florence on my Facebook page.  The album comes from a page titled “Firenze poco conosciuta”  [The lesser known Florence].  Find them here:

https://www.facebook.com/firenzepococonosciuta/?pnref=story

So, happy Liberation Day, Italia!

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

War-Torn Tabernacoli Tuscany

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

On a recent weekend, I took some more painters out to my friend’s home in the countryside outside of Firenze, Italia. After a little walk around the vineyards and olive trees to get them acquainted with the landscape painting opportunities (and the fresh country air!), we ended up speaking with the neighbors here. There are multiple families nearby, but many of them are all related.

Bruno is in his 80s. He and his older brother Renato (who turns 90 years old this July 29th) grew up in their Tuscan “farm” during World War II. Bruno again brought out a picture he has of part of their family home at the time of the war. I had seen it before, but some things are worth doing more than once and my friends enjoyed the “live history.” These Italians seem to like me since I am American and they remember well that American soldiers stayed with them as they prepared to take back Firenze from the Germans. Bruno is in this first image as he shows off his bit of history to my friends.

We had asked about the tabernacle on the outside of the house. My friend Llewellyn is also interested in these. [Perhaps you will remember … or like to read … my art newsletter about the tabornacoli fiorentini that I wrote about some time ago.] Apparently, the original artwork in the tabernacle was a Della Robbia. This is a collective name for a historical family of ceramic artists and the studios are quite famous in these parts. The typically religious Della Robbias tend to be blue and white (white figures with blue glazed backgrounds), but not always. I must admit that they are not generally to my taste, but I have enjoyed some of them and their look is often easily distinguished from other terra-cotta or porcelain artwork of the time.

Bruno and Renato’s Della Robbia was bombed and destroyed during the war. Llewellyn is holding the image of the war-torn home, showing the tabernacle on the right. Later, the family commissioned a female artist with the last name Poggi (I believe), another well-known name in these parts, to create a new “Madonna and Child.” The last image is taken with the restored niche.

Happy Birthday, John Borsheim!

Protecting Artwork During War - Florence, Italy

This past weekend (29-30 Settembre) was European Heritage Weekend. This meant, in Firenze anyway, that the state museums were free to enter. While I spent my Saturday morning at Steve Armes' landscape workshop in Fiesole and the afternoon painting in my room, I was up rather early on Sunday morning to stand in line at the famous Galleria d'Uffizi.

There was a photography exhibit on the first floor from World War II. On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the war and
immediately began to make plans to protect its artworks. The first step was to move all that could be moved out of the
city of Florence into the neighboring countryside areas that were considered to be less of a target. What was not able to be moved were artworks such as frescoes in churches, carved portals, fountains, tombs, and, of course, large sculptures, such as Michelangelo's 'David.'

The exhibit was titled "Protezione dell opere d'arte" (opera = work, singular; opere d'arte = works of art). There were originally more than 5000 black and white photographs taken from 1940 to 1945 by the personnel of the Gabinetto Fotografico. However, many of them were lost in the great flood of 1966. (Markers showing the water levels that November can be seen in various points around the Renaissance city.)

I was especially intrigued by a photograph labeled "Firenze Galleria dell' Accademia. Lavori di protezione antiaerea del David di Michelangelo 25 gennaio 1943" In January of 1943,'David' was first wrapped up in place at the Accademia and then enclosed in a tall brick cylinder with a continuous dome cap (almost shaped like a grain storage "bullet" you see on American farms). This same "false wall" system was used to fully surround frescoe paintings and other substantial works of art in Florence.

On 30 July 1944, an evacuation of the city of Firenze / Florence around the bridges over the Arno River was ordered. But on the morning (night) of 4 August, the Germans bombed and destroyed all bridges, except the Ponte Vecchio. Liberation came later that month. However, there were four sculptures on the Ponte di Santa Trinita, representing each of the seasons, that were destroyed in the bombings. While most of the sculpture parts were found relatively quickly and restored, it was not until 7 October 1961 that the head of "Spring" (primavera) was finally found at the bottom on the Arno during some river maintenance!

(ponte = bridge; vecchio = old)

If you would like to read about the flood of 1966, please visit:
4 November 2006 Newsletter