Wonderful content. Thank you. The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena is an underappreciated treasure. (One correction - the Getty Museum is in Los Angeles.)
Loved this! The faces on the Coronation of the Virgin by Fabriano are so beautiful. The colors fill me with a warm delight! Thank you! It’s always a pleasure!
Thank you for introducing us to these magnificient works of sacred art. On a slightly unrelated note, I was struck by the fact that most, if not all of these are now housed in museums for tourists and other "cultural consumers" to enjoy instead of staying where they belonged, amid the prayers of the faithful. I'm sorry for the melancholy note and for what may seem like an obvious state of affairs.
Well, in fact it's rather for the best. These are extremely old paintings, and museums are really best equipped to conserve and study them. There are still quite a lot of magnificent works above altars in Italy, but the very best and most important are kept by people whose lives are dedicated to keeping them in good nick, which is a great deal more work than you might imagine, and who love them and appreciate them more than the degenerate Modernists currently in charge of the Church ever could. I cringe to think what the likes of the current occupant of Peter's throne would order done with something like Duccio's Maesta, given what happened to one of the Vatican's most important medieval crucifixes when the great shyster wanted a photo-op in the pouring rain. These are unserious men who cannot be trusted with these great things.
I stand duly corrected. Your last sentence sums it up perfectly. I suppose it would be overly naive, if appealing in a romantic kind of way, to want it any other way...
Thank you! So beautiful. Gold really does make a huge impact on art like this - and how skilled the workers and artists would have had to be! Mind boggling...
Thanks for writing this. I've thought images of this nature (i.e. right before Renaissance) were a little bit "weird" when compared to the more naturalistic stuff. Your content is really helping me reframe that and see the continuity to prior art/iconography -- and although not an artist myself, understanding how these were made is awe-inspiring.
Wonderful content. Thank you. The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena is an underappreciated treasure. (One correction - the Getty Museum is in Los Angeles.)
Oh thanks. Will fix.
Loved this! The faces on the Coronation of the Virgin by Fabriano are so beautiful. The colors fill me with a warm delight! Thank you! It’s always a pleasure!
Thank you for introducing us to these magnificient works of sacred art. On a slightly unrelated note, I was struck by the fact that most, if not all of these are now housed in museums for tourists and other "cultural consumers" to enjoy instead of staying where they belonged, amid the prayers of the faithful. I'm sorry for the melancholy note and for what may seem like an obvious state of affairs.
Well, in fact it's rather for the best. These are extremely old paintings, and museums are really best equipped to conserve and study them. There are still quite a lot of magnificent works above altars in Italy, but the very best and most important are kept by people whose lives are dedicated to keeping them in good nick, which is a great deal more work than you might imagine, and who love them and appreciate them more than the degenerate Modernists currently in charge of the Church ever could. I cringe to think what the likes of the current occupant of Peter's throne would order done with something like Duccio's Maesta, given what happened to one of the Vatican's most important medieval crucifixes when the great shyster wanted a photo-op in the pouring rain. These are unserious men who cannot be trusted with these great things.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/44071/damage-to-miraculous-crucifix-during-popes-blessing-not-serious
I stand duly corrected. Your last sentence sums it up perfectly. I suppose it would be overly naive, if appealing in a romantic kind of way, to want it any other way...
In a weird way, it’s kinda like how the Soviets actually preserved Russian icons that might otherwise have been tossed.
Which reminds me, one of the Madonnas you photographed had a bearing that closely reminded me of the Virgin of Vladimir.
Thank you! So beautiful. Gold really does make a huge impact on art like this - and how skilled the workers and artists would have had to be! Mind boggling...
Thanks for writing this. I've thought images of this nature (i.e. right before Renaissance) were a little bit "weird" when compared to the more naturalistic stuff. Your content is really helping me reframe that and see the continuity to prior art/iconography -- and although not an artist myself, understanding how these were made is awe-inspiring.
This substack is such a blessing.
Agree!!!
Those artworks.... WOW. Just wow.