*Susanna and the Elders* is not simply a painting; it is more of an omen. Artemisia Gentileschi painted it for the first time in 1610, without knowing that shortly thereafter, at just 17 years old, she would be raped. On May 6, 1611, she was, in fact...
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There was a visual contrast of great scenic and narrative impact that greeted anyone who, in the final years of the 17th century, crossed the threshold of the main hall of Villa Rondinelli-Vitelli in Fiesole: Awaiting visitors inside the hilltop resi...
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There is no trace of the composed reassurance found in much Renaissance art in the gaunt face of the Penitent Mary Magdalene that once stoodin the hermitage of Santa Maria Maddalena in Cascio, in Garfagnana. In this glazed terracotta sculpture, the s...
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An extraordinary and rare drawing on paper by Perin del Vaga ( Piero di Giovanni Bonaccorsi; Florence, 1501 – Rome, 1547) has resurfaced on the market, brought to the Florence International Antiques Biennale by the Genoa-based gallery Goldfi...
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The changing of the seasons exists because Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, wanted a woman to love. But what young woman would agree to leave Earth to live in the Underworld forever? The solution was abduction, a recurring plot device in mythologi...
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When, in 1832, the Polish prince Stanisław Poniatowski, grandson of the last king of Poland, published the second volume of the catalog raisonné of his vast collection of engraved stones in Florence, he included in the introductory pages a sta...
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Since August, the churches in Pozzuoli that were declared uninhabitable followingthe bradyseismic emergency have been undergoing safety measures to protect the works of art housed within them. This was announced by the Superintendence of Archaeology,...
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In the center of Lucca and many other cities in Tuscany, as summer gives way to fall and the days begin to cool and the sun sets early, a scent rises from the small braziers placed at street intersections—a scent that everyone by now recognizes, a mi...
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