The Vasari Phenomenon November 23, 2010
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
Monsoon season in Italy continues and Beachcombing finds himself trapped far from home while providing three lectures for a sister institution. It is 6.00 in the morning, no one is stirring. As the library is closed and Beachcombing’s cognitive functions seem impaired he thought that he would offer up a cookie-dough post: a hopefully interesting […]
San Miniato: Renaissance Vandalism September 28, 2010
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
Beachcombing has loved the extraordinary monastery of San Miniato (Florence), his favourite continental church, since he first saw it fifteen years ago. Started in a largely undocumented generation in the eleventh century it showed from the beginning an ambition that, though wholly medieval in form, anticipated the Florentine renaissance in terms of its self-confident eccentricity. However, there […]
The God Mars and Florence June 24, 2010
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
Beachcombing has a special place in his heart for Florence and today, in celebration of the Arno’s flower, on the day of St John no less, he sets out a Florentine mystery: the fate and idenity of Mars on Horseback. We hear of this particular statue […]
