Painted Glories

Painted Glories: The Brancacci Chapel in Renaissance Florence by Nicholas A Eckstein, 208 pages

The frescoes painted by Masolino and Masaccio in the Brancacci chapel of Florence's Santa Maria del Carmine have been drawing admirers since they were painted in the early fifteenth century, although, as Nicholas Eckstein relates, their intended influence was not merely aesthetic, but simultaneously devotional, memorial, and didactic, shaped in both their conception and reception by a continually changing social and religious context.  Most notably, Eckstein contends, the chapel was transformed after Florence's defeat of a Milanese army in 1440, a victory that was attributed to the intercession of Sts Peter and Paul and the Florentine Carmelite Bl Andrea Corsini.

Little documentation of the creation of the Brancacci chapel has survived down to the present, leaving a number of intriguing mysteries which Eckstein attempts to solve with a combination of careful deduction and informed speculation.  The result is a vibrant portrait of Florence in the midst of the Renaissance.  If there is a major flaw to the book, it is that the focus sometimes seems lost, so that the art begins to disappear behind the history.

Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico: San Marco, Florence by William Hood, 123 pages

William Hood remarks that Bl Fra Angelico enjoyed an advantage rare among Renaissance artists - as a Dominican friar, he worked exclusively for the Order and therefore never had to worry about finding new commissions.  His frescoes for the cloister of San Marco have an advantage as well, remaining in their original context despite the transition of the building from convent to museum, a process completed by the departure of the last friars in 2014.  In addition to detailing the techniques employed, Hood carefully explicates the relationships of the frescoes to one another, to the daily life of the convent, to contemporary movements within the Order of Preachers, and to the political realities of Renaissance Florence, considerably enlarging the reader's understanding of the painter's radiant work.

La Vita Nuova

La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri, translated by David R Slavitt, 144 pages

La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") is a collection of 31 sonnets written by Dante between the ages of 18 and 30, with prose introductions and explications by the poet.  The result is the story of how, at the age of 9, Dante's life began anew with his first sight of Beatrice, and how that love lasted throughout her life, and even stretched beyond death, into the eternal.

Slavitt translates the whole in a plain style, taking considerable liberties with the text.  The danger of a translation that aims to be "relatable", especially of a work distant in time and place, is that it will destroy what makes the work worth reading in the first place.  Slavitt clips Dante's wings and brings him down to earth.  The mutilated poet is easier to approach, but less interesting when reached.

Stones of Florence

The Stones of Florence by Mary McCarthy, 119 pages

Florence.  The home of Dante and Giotto, Donatello and Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Leonardo, Boccacio and Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo.  The city where Savonarola preached and the first opera was performed.  The center of European culture for two hundred years.

Novelist and cultural commentator Mary McCarthy wrote The Stones of Florence in the mid-'50s.  She attempts to capture the spirit of the city, of the ways it remained the same and the ways it changed down through its history, from its Roman origins to its Italian present, with an understandable emphasis on its Renaissance golden age.  Although very different from The Stones of Venice, the author justifies her Ruskinian title with the book's central reflection, that "a terrible mistake was committed here, at some point between Giotto and Michelangelo, a mistake that had to do with power and megalomania or gigantism of the human ego."

The 1959 edition is lavishly illustrated, with a full page photograph facing nearly every page of text (it is my understanding that later editions did not include these photos).

The Medici Boy

The Medici Boy by John L’Heureux     328 pages

John L’Heureux’s novel about one of the world’s greatest artists who ever lived, Donatello, is a deeply complex and fascinating portrayal of life in Renaissance Italy. L’Heureux, who did much of the research for this story in Florence, takes readers on a fascinating trip to the 15^th century.

Most of the story takes place at Donatello’s bottega (workshop) and is narrated by Luca Mattei, the sculptor’s devoted assistant. Ultimately, the book is about art and sex, specifically homosexuality, and the undulating tides of both passions.

Luca, born illegitimately, discovers women and his artistic talent before he turns seventeen. Three years later, Donatello hires him as an apprentice. He goes on to become the workshop’s accountant.

Donatello’s work involves recreating Bibical scenes and saints in wood, marble, and bronze. His talent earns him favors from the most powerful man in Florence, Cosimo de’Medici. It’s Medici who commissions Donatello to create a five-foot statue of David, the giant killer. But it’s Donatello's obsession with a street urchin, 16 year-old Agnolo, who becomes his primary model, and part time rent boy, that I found the most fascinating.

Supposedly in his 30s at this time, Donatello is at his artistic peak. He has many commissions and a stable of artists working under him. As Angolo comes and goes throughout the story, the bottega is sometimes chaotic and sometimes calm.

But, although homosexuality was common in Florence during this time, I was shocked to the degree in which men were penalized for this behavior. Sodomy was against the law and had a varying degree of fines ranging from a cascading series of monetary charges to hanging to death by fire.

The novel is very well written and completely absorbed me. Not a fast read, but a plot that ebbed and flowed, much like Donatello’s passions. On the book jacket, there is mention of a murder, so on first glance, I thought this was to be a murder mystery. Instead, the book is more literary/historical fiction. The murder doesn’t occur until very late in the novel---which is why I give TheMedici Boy four out of five stars.