A preliminary drawing and a final painting by Filippo Lippi in Florence

I want to present here an example of how a bit of enjoyable homework can help art-lovers gain some extra insight into how a masterpieces were created by Renaissance artists. Before a recent visit to the Palatine Gallery at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, I was idly looking through a book of Renaissance drawings held in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe at the Uffizi Gallery. Among them was a very delicate, three quarters sketch of a female head, surely intended to be a Madonna, depicting an absorbed and very sweet expression, and, among other features, a refined hairstyle embellished with veils. At the same time, I had a look at a catalogue of the holdings at the Palatine Gallery, and - lo and behold! - the Madonna in the wonderful Tondo Bartolini turned out to be the final version of the Uffizi sketch.

Both the preliminary drawing and the final painting are by Filippo Lippi. The Tondo has long been thought to have been commissioned from Filippo, who was Carmelite friar, by the ambitious and wealthy Florentine merchant, Leonardo di Bartolomeo Bartolini. More recent investigation by Jeffrey Ruda interprets the coat of arms on the reverse of the Tondo as that of a member of the Martelli family and re-dates the painting to between 1465 and 1470 based on similarities to Filippo's final frescoes in the Capella Maggiore at Prato Cathedral.

By looking at a good reproduction of the drawing, one can see that Filippo used first a silver point on paper prepared with a warm, yellow ochre ground, and then refined the silver point outline with thin and light lines of white lead applied with a brush, giving the physiognomy and hairstyle a lovely softness.

The preliminary sketch matches the painted figure down to the most minute folds of the cap and in the ribbon that holds and twists the hair at the top under the veil. One can also see that Filippo was experimenting on the ochre paper with the effects of the light coming from the left, by applying a white wash. 

However, my aim here is not to argue the fine details of art history and connoisseurship, but rather to encourage visitors to Florence who plan to tour the galleries, to spend some time with some art books as a preparation to seeing the works themselves. You never can tell what serendipitous insights will strike you!

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2021 - 2026. All rights reserved.

"Il Magnifico 1492" - a fabulous exhibition promised for Autumn 2026 at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence

Start planning now! The Uffizi have announced that they are putting together an exhibition for Autumn 2026 that will reconstruct part of the unequalled art collection assembled by Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (1449-1492), "il Magnifico", as it was in the year of his death in 1492.

Portrait of Lorenzo il Magnifico by Vasari

More than a hundred works borrowed from around the world will form a reconstruction of some of Lorenzo's collection - the collection that helped earn him the description "Il Magnifico" - once housed in the Medici family palazzo in Via Larga, Florence - now the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. The exhibition is based on the description and inventory prepared in 1492, shortly after Lorenzo's death. The Uffizi promises us a selection of paintings and sculptures, including several famous masterpieces, as well as vases, gems, cameos, coins, codices, and maps, reflecting the interests and curiosity that were among the characteristic traits of the Medici family that ruled Florence and Tuscany between the 15 C and the 17 C.

Bronze medal of depicting Lorenzo il Magnifico

Lorenzo was a shrewd and capable politician and diplomat, and a fervent promoter of the arts, literature and philosophy, himself a poet and prolific letter writer, defining the very concept of patronage. He surrounded himself with some of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time, including Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, as well as supporting artists such as Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Verrocchio and Michelangelo, transforming Florence into the undisputed capital of the Renaissance.

Don't miss this exhibition if you will be anywhere near Florence during Autumn 2026!

More about the Medici family.

  

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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Montaigne in Tuscany

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born at Château de Montaigne near Bordeaux in 1533, in the same year as Elizabeth I. He died there in 1592. The Château still stands unchanged and I have visited Montaigne's evocative tower and study there, where his books remain as he left them on now hugely sagging bookshelves.

Michel de Montaigne

Montaigne lived through the long summer of the High Renaissance and the slow decline of the intellectual optimism that had marked the Early Renaissance. As my faithful and learned readers will recall, Montaigne is famous for his essays, a genre that he invented and devoted, in his case, to the discovery of a sane and humane manner of living by studying the world in relation to himself. After four hundred years, they are still very much worth reading. As he says, he admired and emulated the soldier's love of bluntness and distaste for claptrap. Take down your copy, select an essay about a topic that interests you, read it slowly two or three times and then think about it when you have a spare moment. One essay a fortnight is optimal. For those misguided souls who as yet have no copy, there are two excellent modern translations of Montaigne's Essays readily available, one by M.A.Screech (1991) and the other by D.M Frame (1948). 

Montaigne's tower at his Château.

Montaigne's Travel Journal

To read Montaigne at his most polished, we read the Essays. However, he also wrote a travel journal that was never prepared for publication and which casts fascinating light on Montaigne's interactions with those he met of all social stations and his observations of how the people lived in the countries he passed through, especially in the spa towns that he visited in the hopes of relieving his painful kidney stones. The Travel Journal is included in D.M. Frame's volume and Frame's translation was published separately by Northpoint Press in 1983 with a introduction by G. Davenport.

Montaigne's journey to Rome 

Montaigne's principal destination was Rome which he approached, accompanied by some friends, a relative, his secretary and servants, by a circuitous route through France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He set off from his castle in 1580. In that year, Shakespeare was sixteen, Michelangelo had died in the year of Shakespeare's birth, Raleigh and Drake were on the high seas. Francesco I de' Medici, the second Grand Duke of the cadet line of the Medici family, would rule in Florence for another seven years.

Montaigne was a keen observer of the agricultural production, food served and culinary habits of the places he stopped, and yet there is no mention of pasta, macaroni, or similar dishes in his journal. It seems that pasta was still not a commonly eaten dish in Italy from Rome northwards during the 16 C.

 

Map of Montaigne's journey through Italy, including Tuscany.

Montaigne enters Tuscany

Montaigne travelled from Innsbruck in Austria south and through the Austrian Alps via the Brenner Pass, continuing south through Bolzano, Trento and Verona, then west through Padua to Venice, which he hugely admired. He retraced his path (something for which he had a strong aversion) towards Padua and so south again to Bologna. From there, the party passed through the small town of Loiano and immediately after Piamaggio entered Tuscany. They then "followed a road which in truth is the first on our trip that can be called uncomfortable and wild, and in the midst of the mountains more difficult than any other part of this trip." This road was over the Passo del Giogo di Scarperia (882 m) in the Apuan Alps, to the east of the deep valley followed today by the railway and the A1, and led to Scarperia in the area of Tuscany known as the Mugello, the home territory of the Medici family where they owned estates as well as castles and country villas to which they retreated when out of favour in Florence. Montaigne described Scarperia as "a very small town of Tuscany where they sell quantities of little cases, scissors and similar merchandise." In fact, Scarperia then as now was also famous for the production of knives, especially pocket knives. It's one of the few places where you can still buy a hand-made flick knife over the counter. Just don't get caught carrying it on the streets of Florence!

A hand-made Scarperia knife.

On the road to Florence, Montaigne and his party visited Villa Pratolino (now part of Villa Demidoff) which had been completed only twelve years previously by Francesco I de' Medici.

Villa Pratolino as it was when visited by Montaigne.

Montaigne's first stop in Florence

Montaigne entered Florence for the first time on 22 November 1580 for a stay of just a couple of packed days. He explored the town within the walls, climbed to the top of the Duomo - right to the top, apparently entering the gilt globe which, as he mentions, is large enough to hold four people. He visited the Grand Duke's stables "which are very large, with arched roofs; there are very few horses of any value here: at least, there were not, when we went over them. We were shown a sheep of a very strange form; together with a camel, several lions and bears, and an animal as big as a large mastiff, but of the form of a cat, all striped black and white, which they called a tiger." The next day, he dined with the Grand Duke and his wife. At this point, Montaigne, while regarding Florence as beautiful enough, noted that in this regard that it had no advantage over Bologna, little over Ferrara and was incomparably inferior to Venice. As we shall see, he later revised this opinion.

Florence in November

Montaigne's departure from Tuscany and first stay in Rome

From Florence, Montaigne continued southwards first to Sienna and then to Buonconvento. In Sienna, he noted particularly that the Duke of Florence keeps Silvio Piccolomini close to him - a policy of keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer. Montaigne rated Piccolomini "the most able nobleman of our time in every kind of knowledge and exercise of arms." As we shall, see, he dined with Piccolomini later on his journey through Tuscany. Just past La Paglia, his party left Tuscany and continued on to Rome where Montaigne stayed from 30 November 1580 until 19 April 1581.

Montaigne's journey to take the waters in Tuscany

Montaigne took an unusual route from Rome back to Tuscany to take the waters at La Villa near Lucca. Instead of retracing his steps, he took a longer route through Umbria to the Adriatic coast, passing through Narni, Terni, Spoleto and Foligno in Umbria and so on into Le Marche to La Muccia, Valchimara, Marcerata and Loreto, where he stayed for three days, a couple of km from the Adriatic coast. Loreto was an extremely popular pilgrimage destination and Montaigne describes it in great detail, especially the Sanctuary of the Holy House. From here they proceeded to Ancona, Sinigaglia and Fano, the latter "famous for beautiful women but we saw only ugly ones; when I enquired of a good man of the town, he told me that that time had passed." Oh well! The party then left the coast for Fossombrone and so on to Urbino. Montaigne wasn't much impressed by Urbino ("there is nothing level about it, and everywhere you have to go up and down." - how true!) nor by the palace ("nor is there anything attractive about this whole building either inside or around it.") Perhaps all those steep streets had put him into a bad humour?

Montaigne enters Tuscany for the second time

Sant' Angelo in Le Marche

From Urbino, Montaigne journeyed on to Castel-Durante (originally Castel delle Ripe, now Urbania), Sant' Angelo, described by Montaigne as "very pretty", which it still is, Borgo Pace and so over the mountains from which Montaigne was entranced by the view of the Valdarno. The party passed over the border into Tuscany and so to Sansepolcro and Ponte Boriano. Montaigne writes "We followed a long plain all split by horrible crevices which the waters make in a strange fashion." He was describing le balze, in geological terms the "bad lands" so famous in various parts of Tuscany, especially in the Valdarno and near Volterra.

Le Balze of the Val d'Arno

They passed within a couple of miles of Arezzo and on to Levanella (the hostelry at that time widely held to be the best in Tuscany) and along the route through Montevarchi, San Giovanni, Figline and Ancisa where all the motorway on-ramps are these days, to Pian della Fonte, and the next day to Florence where they stayed only one night. Next day onwards through Prato and Pistoia. They made a brief diversion to Poggio, the Medicean Villa di Poggio at Caiano (Villa Ambra) in the Province of Prato ("a house about which they make much ado"). This palace was the site of the notorious, almost simultaneous deaths of Francesco I and Bianca Cappello in 1587, six years after Montaigne dined with them in Florence – poisoning was suspected although they probably died of malaria.  

 

Villa Poggio a Caiano

After the visit to the villa, they continued on to Lucca where they stayed a couple of days before moving on the their principal destination, the Spa of La Villa.

Montaigne's first stay at La Villa

La Villa is now one of three small towns that make up Bagni di Lucca, about 25 km from Lucca, and Montaigne stayed there twice, first from 7 May until 21 June 1581, treating himself for kidney stones, about which he has a great deal to say, and socialising with the inhabitants and visitors of all classes who flocked there for the season and about whom he also has a great deal of amusing things to say. Montaigne gave a very successful dance for the local girls and handed out numerous prizes which left everyone happy.

Bagni di Lucca

Montaigne's second stop in Florence

Making a trip back to Florence, Montaigne travelled via Pescia, forgetting to visit the baths at Montecatini, "through absent mindedness" Pistoia, Prato and Castello, and so to Florence for a ten day stay, still complaining about the lack of glass frames in the windows. Among other activities, he dined with Silvio Piccolomini, whom he greatly admired, and discussed fencing, artillery and warfare. The Piccolomini are a noble family prominent in Siennese politics since the 12 C as leaders of the Guelfs and as bankers with branches in France and England as well as in Italy. By the 13 C they had reached their commercial peak, despite being twice banished from their native city, a Ghibelline stronghold. They managed to escape the economic crisis of the 14 C, thanks to large investments in land, and in 1458 were named counts palatine by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick III. The family included soldiers, prelates, literary men, and two popes - Enea Silvio, who became Pius II (1458–64), and his nephew Francesco, who was Pius III (1503). Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pope Pius II was born at Corsignano and during his papacy created nearby the beautiful town of Pienza as an ideal Humanist City, famous, among other things for the Piccolomini Palace and the Piccolomini Garden looking out over the Val d'Orcia. He also wrote an entertaining memoir which is still readily available in English translation and well worth reading.

 

 

Pienza and the Val d'Orcia 

As well as socialising, sight-seeing and attending the festivities of the Feast of St. John the Baptist (Festa di San Giovanni), Montaigne dropped in at Giunti's bookshop to buy eleven comedies as well as other books. The publishing firm of Giunti thrives in Florence to this day. Perhaps buying some books put Montaigne in a good humour? "I finally confessed that Florence is rightly called 'the beautiful'."

Montaigne talked to an "artisan, an able man and famous for making fine mathematical instruments, who taught me that all trees bear many circles and rings as they have lasted years  . . . and the part that faces north is narrower and has its rings closer and denser than the other". The first such observation is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in his Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting), compiled by Melzi some time after his death in 1519, but not published until 1651. It seems Montaigne noted what he was told in 1581, 150 years before the French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon next described the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings in 1737.

Montaigne's second stay at La Villa

On Sunday 2 July 1581, Montaigne departed from Florence for the last time and headed for Pisa. Montaigne was delighted by the fertile plains filled with crops, houses, small walled towns and villages. Even now, these plains are enormously fertile and laid out with seemingly endless market gardens and tree nurseries (especially olive trees) for sale all over Tuscany. They passed through Empoli and so onwards to La Scala, a small village in the municipality of San Miniato, and from there to Pisa where he stayed from 3 to 22 July 1581. Montaigne describes all the sights he visited and the eccentric individuals he conversed with, including Girolamo Borro whom he mentions in the Essays as having got into trouble with the Inquisition for being "too perfect an Aristotelian". He provides an excellent description of a violent fracas over who should perform Mass between some priests and some friars in the Church of Saint Francis "fighting with fists, sticks, candlesticks, torches and the like; they used everything", and much else of interest, in a very lively style.

Pisa

From Pisa, Montaigne returned to Lucca where he rented the well-appointed ground floor of Ludovico Pinitesi's house for two weeks, and enjoyed a varied social life among the Lucchese. He especially enjoyed dining in the loggias of the homes he was invited to. "A very great ornament indeed to the buildings in Italy is the very high, beautiful and broad vaults. They make the entrances to the houses pleasant and dignified, because all of the lower part is built with that construction, with wide and high doors. In summer the gentlemen of Lucca eat in public under these entryways, in sight of anyone passing along the street." Montaigne also describes the use of bird-lime to trap thrushes and other small, edible birds in specially created copses. The same method is used in the Val d'Orcia where these photogenic copses are still to be seen.

 The Cathedral of San Martino in Lucca

From Lucca, Montaigne and his party moved to La Villa for his second stay there, from 14 Aug to 12 Sept 1581, lodging in the same rooms as previously and receiving a warm welcome. Once again, a large part of his attention was given over to taking the waters and recording the state of his health. On Thursday 7 September, he received a letter from Bordeaux, dated 2 August, informing him that he had been elected mayor of that city and urging him to accept this honour, which he did.

On the 12 Sept, they left La Villa and returned to Lucca in time to enjoy the celebrations of the Festa della Esaltazione della Santa Croce. "I have not found in Italy a single good barber to shave my beard and cut my hair." How times change! On 20 September, they left Lucca, en route for Rome, Montaigne having taken the opportunity of sending two bales of cloth back to France. They took the route through La Scala, Castel Fiorentino, past the foot of Certaldo, noted by Montaigne as the birthplace of Boccaccio, and so to Poggibonsi to dine. Onwards to Sienna where they stayed for three nights. "The square of Sienna is the most beautiful that is to be seen in any city." Still true.

 

Piazza del Campo, Sienna

Next day they continued on to San Quirico d'Orcia (which Montaigne refers to as San Chirico, an older, dialectical version of its name). On the way "the pack horse had lain down in a little stream that we crossed at a ford, all my things, and particularly my books, were ruined and it took much time to dry them". On the neighbouring hill they could see Montepulciano. From San Quirico, they visited the nearby spa at Bagno Vignoni, where the original pool visited by our friend Silvio Piccolomini Pius II, not to mention Lorenzo il Magnifico dei Medici, are still to be seen in very attractive surroundings. They were unfortunately in a sad state of neglect when Montaigne visited.

Bagno Vignoni in the Val d'Orcia

Montaigne's second stay in Rome and passage through Tuscany on his way home to France and Château de Montaigne

Continuing south, Montaigne's party crossed over the Tuscan border and visited Viterbo and Monterosso before arriving in Rome on 1 October for a final two week stay.

The return journey took the route through Ronciglione and once more into Tuscany passing through San Quirico, Sienna, Ponte a Elsa (known for being uniquely divided between two different municipalities: Empoli (FI) and San Miniato (PI)), Lucca, Massa di Carrara, Pontremoli and over the Tuscan border to continue via Piacenza, Pavia, Milan, Novara, Livorno, Turin and so into France.

Montaigne arrived home at Château de Montaigne on 30 November 1581. He had been away on his excursion to Rome for a total of seventeen months and eight days. He lived another eleven years, polishing and adding to his Essays. He died aged 59 years.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2026. All rights reserved.

The Fra Angelico exhibition in Florence - last days

It's only a couple of days ago that I was able to visit the marvellous Fra Angelico exhibition currently on show at the San Marco Museum and the Strozzi Palace in Florence. The exhibition is in its final days and will end on 25 January 2026, so if you are in Florence now or have the possibility to be here before then, don't hesitate - this is an amazing display of the works of Fra Angelico of Fiesole (ca. 1395 - 1455) and other artists associated with him and his times. Fra Angelico was born around 1395, named Guido di Pietro, in the Tuscan area of Mugello near Fiesole, not far from Florence. He was one of the greatest painters of the late Gothic and early Renaissance during the 15C, his only competitor, and perhaps superior, in painting during the first part of his life being Masaccio who died at age 26, and Fra Filippo Lippi later. For this exhibition the organisers have gathered over 140 works from Florence and around the world. The exhibition catalogue follows the layout of the exhibition closely and contains illustrations of many of the works on display. Despite its expense (€80), the catalogue is indispensable. (I suspect it will show up on Amazon at a substantial discount after the exhibition closes.) I recommend that you book a time slot first for San Marco since the museum is open only in the morning, and then go on to Palazzo Strozzi after lunch, if you plan to see the entire exhibition in one day.

 

 

In this review, I'll emphasize some aspects of Fra Angelico's artistic output and other items on display that especially interested me and which might be less familiar to my faithful readers.

 

San Marco Museum

 

All of Fra Angelico's admirers as well as huge numbers of other art enthusiasts will already be familiar with the frescoes he painted in the monks' cells in the Monastery of San Marco by commission of his first and greatest patron, Cosimo de Medici, the Elder. These frescoes form the major part of the exhibition at San Marco. 

 

Fra Angelico: fresco in cell 7, The Mocking of Christ
 

In addition, there is a small but absorbing exhibition of items associated with the fanatical monk, Savonarola (1452 - 1498) who occupied Fra Angelico's former cell some thirty years after Fra Angelico had left the monastery. The famous portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo can be viewed close up alongside an extremely expressive terracotta bust of Savonarola attributed to Marco della Robbia, later Fra Mattia (1468-1534). The display also includes a manuscript written by Savonarola in exquisite and minute script - BE SURE TO BRING A LARGE MAGNIFYING GLASS WITH YOU (see the next paragraph).

Terracotta bust of Savonarola attributed to Marco della Robbia 

 

The San Marco Monastery Library

 

The San Marco Library during the Fra Angelico Exhibition.

 

Not everyone realises that Fra Angelico was a skilled miniaturist and illustrator of illuminated manuscripts and this aspect of his artistic output should definitely not be thought of as being somehow a secondary activity, as indeed the exquisite examples of his illuminations on display in the library of San Marco Monastery demonstrate. Looking into the library from the main door, on the left are manuscripts and other sheets containing work by Fra Angelico while on the right are manuscripts that originally belonged to the library but which have been dispersed around the world following the depredations of Napoleon. Many of the manuscripts are humanistic works, some of them collected by the Medici family and donated to the library. The miniatures deserve to be examined under a magnifying glass in many cases. One example, which I can't find in the exhibition catalogue, is the only significant surviving page, the frontispiece, from Silius Italicus: De bello punico, 1450, a manuscript poem in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, illuminated by most likely by Zanobi Strozzi, who was strongly influenced by Fra Angelico. (Click the image to study the details, especially the birds.)

 

Another example, Saint Thomas Aquinas lecturing, from an Antiphonary for the Proper of Time, by Fra Angelico and collaborators, dating from about 1440-42.

 

 

 

The Strozzi Palace

The major part of the exhibition is located at the Palazzo Strozzi where almost all of the surviving major works by Fra Angelico are displayed. This part of the exhibition provides excellent insight into Fra Angelico’s artistic development and influence, and his relationship to painters such as Lorenzo Monaco, Masaccio, and Filippo Lippi, as well as sculptors like Lorenzo Ghiberti, Michelozzo, and Luca della Robbia.

Fra Angelico: the Coronation of the Virgin painted for the Church of Santa Maria Novella

 

When we first see the Coronation of the Virgin painted for the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and the other works displayed around it, all the elements that a very expensive altarpiece of the 14 C was expected to provide leap out - a precisely tooled gold background, much azure, and much vermilion, the gilded haloes and gold-edged robes. What we are seeing at first seems all very Gothic but what makes this a Renaissance painting is the three dimensional depth and naturalism of the figures and the realism of their garments. The exhibition allows the viewer to follow Fra Angelico from Late Gothic to Early Renaissance - compare the images directly above and directly below.

 

Fra Angelico: Naming of St John the Baptist

 

I want to mention three other works from the period of Fra Angelico displayed here. The first is one of Luca della Robbia's masterpieces, the Virgin of the Apple ca. 1440-1445. Aside from the great beauty of this piece, where the only colour used is for the eyes of the Madonna and of the Child, a curiosity of the work is that the terracotta figures are placed against an apparently brocade design but which in fact includes two hidden paintings of the Madonna and Child, one painted overlaying the other. The more recent and visible painting is by Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio or his workshop, while the underlying work, viewed using infrared reflectography, is attributed to Domenico di Michelino (1417-1491).

 

Luca della Robbia the Virgin of the Apple

My faithful and intelligent readers will undoubtedly recall my obsession with the Medici family. I was delighted to be able to view up close an extremely evocative marble relief (but look at it from the left side - it's almost a sculpture in the round) of Cosimo de' Medici, the elder, by Antonio Rossellino  dating from ca. 1460-64. Cosimo was the first patron of Fra Angelico.

 

Antonio Rossellino: Cosimo de' Medici

 

Cosimo's son and the father of Lorenzo il Magnifico, was Piero (1416-1469), known as "the gouty" due to his sufferings from this disorder later in his short life. Not only is the bust of Piero on display a fine sculpture, it is one of the first objects of this kind where the provenance is clear. The various inscriptions under its base identify the artist as Mino da Fiesole, state that the subject is Piero de' Medici and that Piero was 37 years old at the time (1453-54).

 

 Mino da Fiesole: Piero di Cosimo de' Medici

 

As I staggered through this splendid exhibition (believe me, after three hours the legs grow weary), I was reminded again and again how Fra Angelico's originality, based on the foundations laid almost a century previously by Cimabue and then his pupil Giotto, finds expression in Fra Angelico's pupil Benozzo Gozzoli's portraiture and technical expertise in the art of fresco. Gozzoli links to Domenico Ghirlandaio and so to the latter's pupil Michelangelo and hence to the High Renaissance.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2026. All rights reserved.

The Medici. Masters of Florence. Use of digital backgrounds to re-create Renaissance Florence.

The TV series "I Medici" premiered on Italian television in 2016. I haven't had a chance to watch the whole series but I was greatly entertained to see in some clips how they re-created Renaissance scenes using digital composites. I'll show one or two here and add some more in due course.

Here's a scene which represents one of the gates of Florence during Renaissance times.

A scene of Florence from the TV series on the Medici family

Observant readers (all of my readers are observant) will notice, first, that the Duomo sports the decorative facade that was added in the 19 C. The original facade was the raw brickwork that we still see on some other Florentine churches. So that was a blooper that they hoped no one would see - or perhaps they didn't know? It would have been easy to photoshop the facade for the digital background of this scene. The dome is depicted as completed, but that might be correct, depending on the period represented. Elsewhere in the series they make a big deal of the uncompleted dome.

 

The original facade of the Duomo of Florence

Now let's look at the gate where live action is taking place in the film. That's the Etruscan gate at Volterra with the fake Florence in the background.

The Etruscan gate at Volterra in Tuscany

Now what about the Ponte Vecchio? Here it is in the series with its four arches - whoops, how many?

The digital Ponte Vecchio in Florence

The Ponte Vecchio has three arches (see below) and, furthermore, the Vasari Corridor, which is depicted on the bridge in the digitalised background of the TV series, was not built until 1565 (by the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici).

The Ponte Vecchio as it looks today in Florence

Now here's a Tuscan countryside backdrop from the scene leading up to the death of  Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici (who died during February when the grape vines have no leaves and it's way too cold to be munching grapes outside). Oh, and he was not poisoned or murdered in any other way.

Vineyards in Renaissance Tuscany according to I Medici

Vineyards like this didn't exist much before 1950. These are post-war grape vines. We call them "Fiat vineyards" because the rows of vines are planted just wide enough apart for a Fiat caterpillar tractor to plough between them. Prior to that, Tuscan farms used the method known as "cultura promiscua" where vegetables, wheat, olive trees, vines etc were planted in close proximity. In Renaissance times, grape vines were grown more or less wild through trees. Children used to climb up for the bunches of grapes which they threw down to the adults below. Furthermore, most of the Tuscan countryside was planted with wheat, with far fewer olive trees on cultivatable ground and even fewer grape vines. 'F' for that one, I'm afraid.

Next time you want to film a TV series on location in Tuscany, maybe hire me as an advisor!

More about Volterra.

More about the history of the Medici family in Tuscany.

More about the history of the Medici.

More about films shot in Tuscany.

Don't forget to visit my Tuscany Travel Guide! Up-to-date news on what to see and where to stay in Chianti and all of Tuscany. Tuscany Travel Guide

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

All content copyright © ammonet Italian Web Site Promotion 2022. All rights reserved.

I've been to Tuscany before. What should I see this time?

Today I want to try to provide some hints on the amazing diversity of Tuscany. More than once, readers have written to me to say "I've been to Tuscany before. What should I see this time?" To research your next trip to Tuscany, you basically need to list the aspects that you've already experienced and then to expand your options. Here are some ideas.

Art, yes, done that - then what about architecture as such? Renaissance architecture, yes, done that - then what about vernacular architecture? Head out into the Tuscan countryside and follow some of those quiet, narrow roads - they all lead somewhere, as often as not to farmhouses and hamlets that have grown over the centuries from mediaeval watch towers. It's this almost random agglomeration that gives much of Tuscan vernacular architecture its charm. Tuscany is also dotted with ancient monasteries and parish churches created in the same spontaneous manner. Because they are all invariably built of stone, you'll have no trouble finding inhabited structures documented as dating back to before the year 1000. Settle down in an ancient courtyard for a picnic and enjoy the atmosphere as well as the architecture!

Vernacular architecture in Tuscany

Wine tasting at a winery, yes, done that. But was it at some industrial scale place with several minibuses (or touring buses) parked about the place? From about April onwards, the grape vines begin to sprout and the Tuscan countryside takes on a deep green colour. Right up until the vendemmia in September, it becomes a real pleasure to stroll along the strade bianche that traverse the vineyards and visit one of the many small, traditional wineries of Chianti and elsewhere in Tuscany. You don't need to book in advance - if someone is available, you'll be able to look around and taste the two or three wines that they make. Look for the roses planted at the ends of the rows of grape vines - like canaries in a mine, they warn of imminent danger, in this case mildew. Some wineries still grow crops between the rows of vines, among them irises (giaggioli), the roots of which are harvested for extraction of a stabiliser used in perfumery. Mixed cultivation like this is a reflection of the old coltura promiscua common even in the early 20 C.

Irises planted between rows of grape vines in Tuscany

Walking tour, yes, done that. A walking tour of Florence, maybe, but what about the numerous walking paths from one village to another. Some are hilly, that's true, but there are others that are no more than a bucolic stroll. These are popular among Tuscans too, especially if there's a chance to dress up in ancient costumes like the group of pilgrims below on their way to Monteriggioni. There are several excellent guide books describing the most popular routes plus the villages and wineries that you will encounter along them. This is really a great way to get to know the real Tuscany and real Tuscans!

A country stroll under the walls of Monteriggioni.

Go to the seaside, yes, done that. To Forte dei Marmi? Many people, including a very large number of Italians, enjoy nothing better than lying in a deck chair under a sun umbrella in neat rows with hundreds of other like-minded sun worshippers at Tuscan beaches. But Tuscany has numerous stretches of truly beautiful coastline and charming fishing villages, especially in its off-the-beaten-track southwest, around Monte Argentario and Talamone. Here you can swim, go boating or diving around interesting rocky promontories and dine in excellent fish restaurants. Also see my post of the delightful beaches and old town of Castiglione della Pescaia.

Talomone port on the Tuscan coastline

In future posts, I will have more suggestions on how to refresh yourselves with new and interesting sights in Tuscany. For now, don't forget: one of the objects of a vacation is to relax, and there is no place that offers a greater variety of tranquil locations combined with wonderful weather and views than Tuscany. See you here soon!

Relax in Tuscany.

Sights, activities, events and places to stay in Tuscany.

Vernacular art of Tuscany.

www.bella-toscana.com

My list of recommended holiday accommodation in Tuscany.

Author: Anna Maria Baldini

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