Categoria: Florence
-
Michelangelo and the Challenge of David: The Birth of a Masterpiece
Michelangelo was just 26 years old when, in 1501, he offered to carve the David. The Cathedral of Florence wanted to decorate its buttresses with statues of prophets, and in the warehouses of the Opera del Duomo there was a block of marble—over 5 meters tall, from the Fantiscritti quarry in Carrara—that had been sitting…
-
Strange marks in Florence
I had actually seen these signs before but didn’t think they were related to this context. Often, along the walls of a religious building, such as that of the Florence Baptistery you can find spolia (i.e., the reuse of architectural or decorative elements from Roman times) or the famous and mysterious magic square, the Sator.…