Saturday, October 27, 2012

Bagliori Dorati redux

Back to the Uffizi in search of the Uccello Battle of San Romano, which we apparently missed on previous visits. Not hard to understand, considering the number of rooms involved just covering this exhibition. 
It's supposed to be at the very end of the series, but on the way we stopped to pay our respects to the St. John and St. Mark statues by Ghiberti and Donatello, respectively.
  Both of these original works have been replaced by copies in their respective niches in the Orsanmichele, as have the others.  Of the total, Ghiberti can claim three, while Donatello also did three, one in conjunction with Brunelleschi.  The St. Mark is  a  powerful and impressive work, and if  I can find (or take) a photo of it as it appears in the exhibition, I will replace this one on the right.
Then through a number of darkened rooms to the final canvas of the show, Uccello's Battle of San Romano.  This is the (likely) centerpiece of a series of three paintings, designed to be hung on three adjoining walls, and has been newly restored so that this reproduction is quite like the original. The other two, in the Louvre and National Gallery of London, respectively, are hung as pale copies  adjacent to this work.  I'd have to see the originals to determine their condition at this time.
                           
 
Leaving the Uffizi, for those dependent on ascensori for mobility, is another project worthy of a separate posting. However, my intrepid moglie has managed to overcome this obstacle at the Uffizi so that we are lead through a number of  locked doors and unopened rooms on the first floor to the room we've dubbed the dungeon, and thence to the elevator to ground zero.

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