Last Saturday, April 12th, the first one took place mixed tournament reserved for beginner advanced category, organized by 'Padel San Donnino': 16 couples started for a total of 7 hours of play on 3 courts, with fun and lots of laughter that characterized the day together with good technique shots. Under the direction of the organizers Gerardo and Francesco Teoli, the first three teams classified in the two groups were awarded. In the Gold group, the pair composed of Grassi and Zini won, while in the Silver group, Fava and Giorgi prevailed ahead of everyone. The highlight of the entire event, however, was the convivial one at 12,30:XNUMX with a rugby-style 'third half' accompanied by a very rich buffet offered by the organization that allowed all the players to have lunch and discuss a beautiful day of sport that continued even after the actual competition. Via Francigena a facility dedicated to welcoming young people and pilgrims is reopening after being closed during the Covid-19 pandemic Located in the heart of the historic center it is just a few steps from the Cathedral of San Donnino surrounded by numerous services and dining options The facility offers 10 beds in multiple rooms of 2 The overnight stay is priced at €20.00 per bed per night (including bed linen) + €0.50 per night for the tourist tax The supply of shower linen is excluded and costs €2.50 (to be requested at the time of booking) Guests have access to bathrooms with showers The building also has a stairlift for access by people with disabilities and a dedicated bathroom Payment can only be made in cash upon arrival but there are numerous dining options near the facility Fidenza is a place rich in significance for the Via Francigena The town in the province of Parma is located exactly halfway along the Via Francigena route from Canterbury to Rome and represents one of the vital hubs of the path, where various initiatives are organized to celebrate and promote it, such as the Francigena Fidenza Festival the San Donnino Hostel in Fidenza was inaugurated and it has already begun to take reservations This is an important milestone that fills the gap for a pilgrim-friendly facility in the city ➡️ Visit the technical details on our website ⬅️ Share this articleand follow us on social media: 👉🏻 Itinerary 👉🏻 Where to sleep 👉🏻 I ❤️ Francigena 👉🏻 The Via by bicycle 👉🏻 Events Calendar The European Association of the Via Francigena unites municipalities and countries crossed by the Via Francigena We’re always on the lookout for new partners who share our values and who want to help us promote sustainable travel across Europe F.A.Q © Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene | C.F. 91029880340 – P.IVA 02654910344 Powered by ItinerAria Privacy | Cookie Policy  | Legal Notice  © Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene | C.F Powered by ItinerAria The loving devotion of Saint Francis of Asissi toward the humanity of Christ separates him from the gnostic heresy in the Church and even serves as its remedy There is a philosophical problem we’ve faced in the West for some time that can be summarized as follows: “In the movement of post-Kantian thought conceptual knowledge was indeed called into question the human concept was relativized by human feeling the ability of the human mind to grasp reality in concepts remains a central philosophical problem today.” “there is a foundational weakness in Rahner’s system The role of the concept in his epistemology is weak.” Traces of a similar trend can be detected in a recent article penned by John Finnis, Robert P. George, and Peter Ryan, SJ, entitled “More Confusion About Same-Sex Blessings” These authors point out a subtle effect from the “silences and complacencies” of the Holy See in reigning in public blessings that clearly go beyond the conditions laid down for their administration in Fiducia Supplicans They declare that these “silences and complacencies while not denying Catholic doctrine on sexual activity tend to suggest that that doctrine does not matter very much.” The weakening of the concept in knowledge here registers as an overall feeling that in our day Catholic moral teachings previously defined and believed “settled,” are now in some way inadequate is further compounded by the increased presence in the West of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism Gnosticism places greater importance on the seemingly unlimited dimension of “spirit” over the more defined and limiting conditions imposed by “matter.” Today’s gender ideology is a prime example The noumenal content of one’s self-understanding now fully in flux due to the weakening of the formal categorical content of conceptual knowledge There are no determinations resulting from embodiment due to the post-Kantian awakening in the mind that liberates it from the confines of matter in the name of freedom But Gnosticism predates the post-Kantian philosophical problem Saint Irenaeus addressed it in the second century and it surfaced again during the Middle Ages in the form of Joachimism among early recruits of the Franciscan Order Joachimism arose when certain friars began reading the Scripture commentaries of Abbot Joachim of Fiore (ca 1135-1202) who envisioned history as Trinitarian There was the Age of the Father during the Old Testament period and the Age of the Son during the New Testament period was how he foretold the coming close of the Age of the Son and the rise of the Age of the Holy Spirit The Age of the Spirit would be inaugurated by “two new Orders” led by a “monk” and a “hermit” on fire with the love of God The Joachimite movement among the early Franciscans represents a shadow side of Franciscan history. There is no doubt that Francis of Assisi emphasized following the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. He exhorted the friars “that, beyond all, they should desire to possess the Spirit of the Lord and His holy operation” (Regula bullata But Francis never vacated his faith of the visible more institutional dimension of the Catholic Church the way the Joachimite friars did and the Joachimite tendency hasn’t completely gone away It resurfaced during the 1980s in the theology of Leonardo Boff, then a Franciscan. In his book Church: Charism and Power Boff declared that Christ never intended for there to be an institutional Church which “evolved after the resurrection” He asserts that the primitive Church “felt the powerful need to organize” and that hierarchy is a result of this process.” According to Boff the truly Catholic attitude is “fundamentally open to everything without exception” and rids itself of the “dogmatic and doctrinaire” which inevitably lead to the “repression of the freedom of thought within the church…” But there’s an added element to Boff’s Gnosticism that did not saddle the Joachimism of the early Franciscan friars and his variety of Gnosticism was riddled with a Marxist relativization of the human concept by history The magisterium in the Catholic Church is not the end product of an historical process of a sizable group of people needing to organize themselves Jesus calling “the twelve” by name to follow Him gave rise at Nicaea in 325 to a “monument of Tradition” in creedal form that declared the Church “apostolic” by divine design soon after becoming Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) Boff was no longer permitted to teach Catholic theology The loving devotion of Saint Francis toward the humanity of Christ separates him from the gnostic heresy in the Church and even serves as its remedy But we would also do well not to align Francis’s wariness about books and study with a post-Kantian critique of knowledge The post-Kantian dismantling of the human concept often vacates the mind of all that went before in favor of something “new” on the way This trend accounted for the charge of “dead on arrival” leveled against the Catechism of the Catholic Church when it was published in the 1990s Francis of Assisi would have nothing to do with any of these trends He is not a post-Kantian figure in history His concern with books and study came not from the writings of post-Kantian authors He was concerned with a pharisaical knowledge akin to Christ’s warning about the scribes and Pharisees when He taught: observe all things whatsoever they tell you For they preach but they do not practice (Mt 23:2-3) Saint Francis’s wariness about books and study not to a post-Kantian critique of knowledge but an examination of conscience in light of the Gospel If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter Catholic cemeteries on the front line against secular fear of death Everyone knows that Charles Manson inspired thediabolical Tate-LaBianca murders. None of that is being forgotten in reports of his death. But what also shouldn’t be […] Francis of Assisi embracing the Child Jesus at Christmas Mass in Greccio in 1223 the only Franciscan with whom I could ever have an adult conversation… How I miss your down-to-earth wisdom and your goodness towards all whose constrictions raise my blood pressure but are eased again by laughter another god of the illuminati in red hats is Eastern mysticism… And from the “walking-together” GRECH we’re tutored about an obscure “’unity of differences’ rather than ‘uniformity of thought’.” The synodal patterns and plasticity of thought this from the synodally-eclipsed (!) Second Vatican Council: “The Christian dispensation and we now await not further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Lumen Gentium) PAUL: “do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind [!] Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–His good perfect and perfect will” (Romans 12:2) About today’s post-conceptual “silences and complacencies”…we are reminded of the earlier POPE HONORIUS who was anathematized not for what he did (about monothelitism; analogous to today’s anti-binary/homo/monosexuality but for what he did NOT do: “He [Pope Leo II] did not reproach him with heresy but with negligence in the suppression of the error.” but we cannot say different things.” There’s room for debate over today’s collapse of knowledge as to its cause and exact nature whose finer points are better left to philosophers among us was mainly to untangle Saint Francis from certain trends now circulating in the West These trends are too readily supported by an appeal to Saint Francis of Assisi and his apparent distaste for books and study Where faith and reason are both operative within the “monuments of Tradition,” it follows that we’re left with dismantled bits of knowledge when a crisis of faith prevails as it does today Faith is difficult to foster and maintain in a mind riddled with skepticism and the human mind today is being worked over both by the dismantling skepticism of post-Kantian authors and the mind-emptying heresy of Gnosticism Francis was a man of faith whose mind was fully intact with a clearsighted apprehension of truth and reality as it comes from the hands of God His mysticism was not a factor of any ideology but faith whose primary subject was the Logos made flesh in Jesus Christ There is difference only in the isolated use of words Father I fully agree and thank you for your important articulation of the real Francis of Assisi you wrote: “Apprehension of existence beyond self is absolute knowledge knowledge retained by the intellect as first principle of all knowledge” which “doesn’t refer to the content of what we first apprehend rather to that which the intellect infers from it.” At this point we could enter into a discussion about the role of Saint Augustine’s “divine illumination” in human knowledge as represented but I’d like to go another direction the content from which the intellect infers even existence itself is the First Principle of all things This is what has been seriously weakened in our day The notion of “existence beyond self,” which is so refreshing and broadening is what can no longer be understood as evident in human knowing today because it has been obscured is that a revival of faith can help restore a person to “existence beyond self” through the revelation of Christ as “Other-than-me” in fact and in faith faith can help rebuild (heal) reason from the inside by restoring it to the First Principles from which “existence beyond self” can securely be inferred and known Academically we can agree that things like God’s existence can be inferred and known from reason alone unaided by faith but in our day when obscurity is in play as regards First Principles in human reason faith remains a path by which reason itself can be healed even as we gain salvation through it Philosophers are quite correct in finally admitting God of infinity cannot be known by the finite intellect they are ignorant of the only way God can be known via the greatest commandment of loving God in totallity with all that we are and quite apart from Eastern mysticism which lacks that centrality of love This is a failure not only of philosophers but most churchmen who are silent out of ignorance in teaching flocks how to positively experience God and this lack is what is decimating church attendance as seekers come but find no teachers and no answers to that deepest yearning The principal concept of faith is that God is not an idiot and can not be an idiot it is impossible for truths of how we ought to order our lives together to change the idiots in the church who subscribe to process theology notwithstanding The current misconception involves a few slippery steps… The FIRST step is the insight that while conceptual truth is definitive The SECOND step is the harmonized Fiducia Supplicans dropping onto the synodal path–except that any such new vistas still must not be mutant new vistas cannot contradict what has been received from the beginning separating pedestrian practice from formal doctrine As if personal morality can be disconnected from faith in the incarnate person of Jesus Christ A sleight-of-hand that doesn’t formally contradict overlaid by Cardinal Hollerich (cited above) is his epiphany that a truth can walk both sides of the street The non-demonstrable first principle of non-contradiction is sidelined Discernment of real contradictions is a culture-bound hangup Coherent intelligence is trivialized as unwarranted “uniformity of thought.” Instead about the “special case” continents overlooked by synodality black-and-white Emperor Penguins also “walking together!” And their harmonized droppings leave a path verified by the most modern overhead satellites…The Emperor wears no cloths Kant has one of his works on the Index of Prohibited Books He isn’t reliable and his heresy/heresies have been revealed How does the post-Kantian critique of knowledge influence contemporary debates on gender ideology? Visit us IT Telkom All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" From Vatican Information Service: Vatican City, 23 March 2012 (VIS) – Benedict XVI today began his twenty-third apostolic trip abroad, which is taking him to Mexico and Cuba. 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All: Cassani 7 GOALS: 16' Gramellini, 41' Arlotti, 48' Lozza, 88' Onofri the association of Haitians in Italy "Fraternità Haitiana" organized under the high patronage of the host city of Pisa and in collaboration with the Embassy of Haiti in Italy a day to celebrate the life of Queen Marie-Louise Coidavid two commemorative plaques were respectively erected in front of the Chiesa di San Donnino church where the tomb of the queen and her two daughters is located and in front of the queen's last residence on Piazza Francesco Carrara These new signs will thus permanently promote the history of Haiti in one of the most popular Italian cities among international tourists In 1824, Queen Marie-Louise found a home in this warm central Italian city after being in temporary asylum in London. The UK capital, which was o Si vous avez déjà créé un compte, connectez-vous pour lire la suite de cet article. Connectez-vous Pas encore de compte ? Inscrivez-vous © Le Nouvelliste 2025 On Saturday 17 February 2024 the re-enactment of the historic Siege Game returns the same one played by the Florentines on 17 February 1530 while the Carlo V’s troops were besieging Florence the basilica will welcome a delegation made up of players and participants from the Historical Florentine Football The delegation will receive a blessing from the Father Rector of the Basilica of Santa Croce and then will move back to the square to watch the performance of the flag-wavers of the Historical Parade and finally play the match at 3.30 pm The entrance is free but it will be possible to make a free donation for  the people recently affected by the flood in San Donnino During the event the monumental complex will remain open for visits as usual Piazza Santa Croce 1650122 Florence – Italy BOOKING AND VISIT INFORMATION+39 055 2466105booking@santacroceopera.it ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICESVia de’ Benci 1550122 Florence – Italy +39 055 2008789 segreteria@santacroceopera.it The story that I told them was perhaps not what they were expecting to hear It was the perfect ending to a magnificent four days away. The six of us were sitting in Bologna airport, waiting for our flight home when my interview with Paulo Mugnai from ViolaNews was published, telling the story of why our group of people from Stockport had become Fiorentina fans The trip had started on Saturday with us dropping our bags at the accommodation and heading straight to see a football match: the Juniores of C.S Lebowski We sat in the sunshine in the stands at the Stadio San Donnino; which can be found just outside Florence and afterwards sat outside at the stadium bar having drinks with our friends who are involved with the club Talking and laughing until well after dark it was then time to head back into the city for a special dinner that had been arranged between us and a group of friends in Florence They had arranged a special menu of typical Tuscan food and it did not fail to disappoint Tuscan steak and chips and a chestnut cake however was spending time and celebrating our extraordinary friendship with the people from Florence Not all of us speak Italian and not all of them speak English however it is clear that they understand and respect our passion for Fiorentina We were presented with T-shirts with the symbol of the Bianchi the Calcio Storico team from Santo Spirito and we collected our tickets for the sold out Curva Fiesole from Sonia a friend from ATF (Associazione Tifosi Fiorentini) who had been so kind in organising them for us Sonia had news for me - that ViolaNews wanted to interview me about why we come to see Fiorentina We arranged that I would go to the ATF headquarters before the game to meet with the journalist I didn't quite know what to expect but Paulo was as warm and friendly as everyone else that we have encountered in Florence His article said that I was "Conversando in un italiano inframezzato da parole inglesi" (Conversing in Italian interspersed with English words) which was exactly how it happened Having been learning Italian for less than 18 months I was pretty happy with that and proud of myself that apart from the odd word in English I could freely converse and make myself understood When I explained the story of my great-grandfather to Paulo and also seemed surprised when told him about writing for this website After concluding the interview and heading for the stadium Our flag was taped to the glass in front of the curva by friends and is clearly visible on TV footage and photographs After sitting to one side of the curva on previous occasions we managed to find a place in the centre this time This not only provided a good view of the game but meant that we were right in the thick of the adrenaline fuelled noise The result was a shame and the referee was awful but it didn't seem to matter when the players walked off the pitch to rapturous applause but being in the stadium created memories that will stay around forever You can see my article on ViolaNews here and you can also read the original ViolaNation article that I wrote back in January about my great grandfather here Below is a rough translation of the article for the benefit of those that do not speak Italian: the English guys head towards the Franchi with an original flag white with a purple cross and the lily of Florence the Union Jack and the badge of Stockport County The girl with the red hair recounts their story but now due to economic problems they hav fallen down the leagues We also have a reasonably big stadium.Conversing in Italian interspersed with a few English words the girl called Chloe tells us that this particular group of Fiorentina fans were formed in 2013 and at the moment have about 20 members and are hoping to create an official viola club The Florence stadium was called "Berta" on 13th May 1934 when Fiorentina hosted Manchester City in a friendly that finished 3-3 One goal for the English was scored from the right by Peter Percival who 80 years later would become a viola fan in memory of this match "My father Paul Ward, grandson of this footballer grandfather has been to Florence more times, for me it's only three - but now I have the intention of coming here often. I have seen the friendly with Chelsea, the Europa League game with Tottenham and the Coppa Italia final with Napoli (note: this was lost in translation it is my Dad and his friends that went to the final) I love the fans and we now have friends in Florence There were six watching the match with Roma But when they are in Stockport they also come together to watch the matches of Sousa's squad they can go to violanation.com - a community that speaks in English about Fiorentina If the hotel receptionist thought it was strange that six English people wanted to call a taxi to the Campo Sportivo San Donnino on the outskirts of Florence it was nothing compared to the reaction of the taxi driver who arrived for the pickup On the way to the home of Centro Storico Lebowski in the Comune di Campi Bisenzio recounting this bizarre event to his friends Perhaps the strangest part was the fact that the first team weren’t even playing that day Lebowski Juniores team were hosting their equivalents from A.S.D Maliseti Tobbianese there was no such incredulity as there had been forewarning of the arriving English party with the Tuscan hills providing a scenic backdrop it was an apt setting to watch the beautiful game and football is never more beautiful when it is being watched in its purest form it became clear that this was no ordinary provincial team Their ground-breaking project has been taking place since the club was established in its current form in 2010 Their model is based on autogestione (self-management) but this barely scratches the surface of club’s ethos The Ultras Lebowski were unsatisfied with modern football and the distance placed between fans and club Some (but not all) had been Fiorentina ultras in the past C.S Lebowski evolved from a club called A.C Lebowski In one season they conceded 99 goals and were frequently bottom of the league The idea of a new club was dreamed up by three friends sitting on a bench and in 2010 these ultras set about realising the dream of a club owned by the fans This model is completely unique in Italy; anyone who has a €20 season ticket has a say in the running of the club and the decision making process is democratic A recent documentary on Italian TV channel perfectly illustrates the passion and principles of those involved with the club The programme shows fans cooking dinner and eating together before every match and tells of an overall budget of €70,000 – 70% of which is raised internally through fundraising events Team photos are always taken with the fans behind them in the Curva Moana Pozzi because the “fans are the players and the players are the fans” Lebowski fans provide a passionate and colourful backdrop at their home of San Donnino The problems with modern football are what unite them the “battle over who is master of the game” They say that this pushing and pulling is between the club presidents The ones that lose out to this constant wrangling are always the fans; who according to those at Lebowski have become ‘resigned to passivity’ The very nature of their own model means that the fans are absolutely essential and at the heart of everything they do to make the club function but the remarkable thing about the Grigionero is that they have translated these ideals into success Starting in the very bottom tier of Italian football the first team have achieved two promotions in five years having established three teams in addition to the first team: a women’s team Those involved attribute success to their model: the idea that the team plays for each other and plays for the people No one is passive; everyone takes an active part in the running and administration of the club The point being that the team plays for each other and plays for the people hard work and dedication alone does not make a football club Lebowski are proud of their self-dependency not having to rely on funds from individuals who may want to change the way that the club is run Even the generation of income feeds into the wider objectives of the club as money is mainly raised through social events and local sponsorship Their band of Ultras support the team by creating an electric atmosphere at every game colourful flares and constant noise reflect the absolute dedication to the cause An exclusive range of merchandise has also been created of which even many larger teams would be envious The big stumbling block for Lebowski is that they have been unable to find a suitable home Their current stadium at San Donnino is their third in five years and they have previously been charged as much as €10,000 per year for basic facilities finding a permanent home is key to their project as a whole They see the stadium as a “bridge between the streets and the team” they have plans to extend their resources into the local community in order for people to feel part of the club they hope to extend the use of the field adjacent to the stadium so that children in the local area have a safe place to play football in the evenings Despite having a strong self-financing business model their work in the community and their plans for further projects this club are facing the prospect of losing their home They are in competition with another local team for the use of the stadium after five years of rebuffing media interest in their unique setup In the past they have fought hard to protect their sanctuary from modern football Their tune has changed however and they feel that it is time to promote their unique club Any public backing created as a result would serve to enhance their cause Their aim is simple: to drum up ‘likes’ on their Facebook page to enhance their social media presence; and to obtain as many new members as possible with an ultimate target of 500 (they are currently just under halfway to achieving this) they hope to appeal internationally to those who have also become weary of the negative aspects of modern football and for this price they will have an equal say into the club’s decision making process hard work and community spirit within the club it would be a huge shame for them to lose their home yet again especially before they’ve been able to implement the rest of their innovative vision To join C.S Lebowski or like them on Facebook To view the documentary on RaiTV click here: Chloe is a TGU Columnist and the Serie A Correspondent for @TheSportsman. She also writes for @footballitalia and has been featured in @MundialMag and on @guardian_sport Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id" "a54561ee01044cc50acfac562380e195" );document.getElementById("bfea0afb7f").setAttribute( "id" and website in this browser for the next time I comment Carlo Bertelli was convinced that Masolino da Panicale’s voice had begun to take on an “already entirely personal” timbre in Empoli’s works The scholar had in mind especially Christ in Pity the monumental fresco that a then already 40-year-old Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini painted for the Baptistery of San Giovanni Battista in that turn of years and in the Tuscan land there has perhaps been no artist who has modulated his tone of voice in as sophisticated perhaps there was never a time when Masolino was not an artist marked by an attitude all his own since on the first forty years of his career we have to sail through the documentary void: Masolino is an artist who emerges from the records when he is by now a done painter and when his fame has already crossed the borders of his native land the Valdarno of Panicale near Castel San Giovanni (where and not the Umbria of Panicale overlooking Trasimeno Masolino is an artist who emerges from the mists of history in the year 1423 the time to which the first document about him dates as a member of the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali the guild that brought together not only physicians but also artists and the time to which his first dated work painting in the church of Santo Stefano.Precisely 1424 is for Empoli a kind of annus mirabilis a year in which some happy convergences add up: Bicci di Lorenzo is hired to paint a triptych in the parish church of Sant’Andrea while Masolino is summoned to the church of Santo Stefano to paint first the decoration of the sacristy door and then the chapel of the Compagnia della Croce Masolino’s story revolves around what happened in Empoli that year and the critical reconstruction of his profile from there had to start and on the exact six-hundredth anniversary of Saint Stephen’s exploits to host the exhibition so far able to gather the largest number of works by the Valdarno artist and divided between the city’s two most “Masolini-esque” venues namely the Museo della Collegiata di Sant’Andrea and the church of Santo Stefano itself transformed for the occasion aims first and foremost to investigate thecontribution of Empoli in the elaboration of that “third way to the Renaissance,” as De Marchi calls it that Masolino had in fact opened and on which he had routed his own production especially after his encounter with Masaccio an inescapable subject for any reconnaissance on the artist it is an opportunity to take stock of the developments in Masolino’s own art and to formulate new hypotheses on the roads taken by the artists active in the city during that dense juncture also intersect those of the Renaissance: Masolino obtained the commission to the Brancacci Chapel because he was advocated to Felice Brancacci by Carlo Federighi commissioner of the sacristy of Santo Stefano and friend of Brancacci with whom he had also left on a diplomatic mission in 1422 thus shortly before the Florentine commissioned Masolino and Masaccio to carry out the celebrated decoration according to a hypothesis by Silvia De Luca formulated precisely on the occasion of the exhibition And it is precisely from Lorenzo Monaco that Masolino’s path can be said to start It must be premised that organizing an exhibition on Masolino is not an easy business: there are few of his known works and therefore it is not easy to see an exhibition that manages to gather all that can be gathered The Empoli exhibition lacks a few pieces that would have been more than pertinent: yet it is surprising to observe offer a rather complete overview of the evolution of a complex artist like Masolino da Panicale because the exhibition begins with the context where the first two sections are set up (those who want to start instead from the church of Santo Stefano will count on immersing themselves in a kind of cinematic flashback ) fragments of a polyptych by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini framing an early 14th-century wooden crucifix by a follower of Giovanni Pisano and a Madonna of the Girdle by Lorenzo di Bicci the central compartment of a polyptych that was in the chapel of theAssumption in Santo Stefano have above all the function of introducing the public to the lively context of Empoli in the early 15th century to a city that grew thanks to trade and the good management of a rich bourgeoisie that knew how to administer it intelligently: normal that it became a pole of attraction for artists especially for artists who were linked to Florence we are talking about a center in the province where artists typically worked who “could no longer find space on the Florentine market which was much more up-to-date and competitive,” as Silvia De Luca points out: yet “there was no lack of events of notable importance for the caliber of the artists involved and for the size of the places invested by these operations That of the various Niccolò di Pietro Gerini and Lorenzo di Bicci (to whom one could add other artists present in the permanent collection of the Museo della Collegiata: the exhibition has in fact been set up in the middle of the rooms with the works included in the itinerary recognizable because they are marked by captions with different graphics) is an essentially fourteenth-century setting linked to the Giottesque modes of theOrcagna and the artists who looked to him and which would be somewhat modernized in 1404 with the arrival in Empoli of Lorenzo Monaco who introduced into the city a ”breeze," as the exhibition curators call it of international Gothic: this breeze arrives with the triptych that the friar painter painted for the church of San Donnino which is now housed in the Museo della Collegiata di Sant’Andrea and which also makes Empoli a decidedly up-to-date center since Lorenzo Monaco’s work for San Donnino is among the earliest attestations of late Gothic in Tuscany The second section of the exhibition shows how the Empolese area had to react to the arrival of Lorenzo Monaco along a span of time that is indeed rather long since we move from the polyptych compartments of Scolaio di Giovanni the remains of a dismembered triptych executed also for la Collegiata to the panels of a Rossello by Jacopo Franchi who shortly before the middle of the century is still an artist extremely true to himself and a good forty years later Lorenzo Monaco’s triptych is still caught up in calligraphic flourishes nostalgic sighs exhaled while the author was evidently thinking of some dukesque model with whom he must perhaps have felt a certain affinity (look at the Madonna and Child loaned by the Museo di Santa Verdiana in Castelfiorentino to find easy confirmation) was a response to the finesse that Gherardo Starnina had brought back from Spain (in which the aforementioned Scolaio di Giovanni shows an enduring interest: he is among the artists most receptive to Starnina’s suggestions in the Empolese territory) and to the innovations that Lorenzo Ghiberti was elaborating from 1401 onward in the north door of the Baptistery of Florence: this is also the context on which Masolino’s art sprouts The protagonist of the exhibition enters the scene in the church of Santo Stefano revolutionized for the occasion with a temporary set-up that is not exactly exciting (it follows the course of the nave thus closing the view of the side chapels) and also a little tortuous because the various sections of the exhibition intertwine often forcing one to retrace one’s steps (the positive element is that the path thus constructed induces the public to make continuous comparisons and to question with some insistence what they are looking at) Masolino arrives almost immediately: he is first appropriately introduced by the Master of the Strauss Madonna and the Master of 1419 inserted at the start of routes as early colleagues with whom Masolino shares the desire to reform late Gothic painting by seeking a more natural and more substantial rendering of the figures abandoning the scheme laid out primarily by Gherardo Starnina This can be seen most clearly in the Madonna and Child by the Master of the Strauss Madonna a panel in which the refinement of an essentially late Gothic design yields to a massive dose of Giottesque robustness: Doubt will remain as to the degree to which the operation conducted by the master is accurate whether it is the actual and sought-after desire to set up a new and alternative language or whether the master in question was motivated above all by the intent to mediate turning his gaze sideways toward Stranina and backward toward the neo-Giottesque in order to project his painting toward an elegant solidity that does not seem to touch much on the early Masolino that of the highly sophisticated Madonna dell’Umiltà that arrived on loan from the Uffizi executed by a Masolino probably in his thirties or at any rate several years before the Empoli works that already mark a substantial change given by Alfred Scharf to Masolino as early as 1932 evidently originated as a precious panel for private devotion and is perhaps the clearest evidence of Masolino’s alumnuship at the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti a circumstance also mentioned by Vasari in Lives: for the Aretine historiographer Masolino would have trained as a sculptor (he was “the best rinettatore Lorenzo had,” “in the cloths of the figures he was very right and skilful and in rinettare he had very good maniera et ingelligenza; for which in chiseling he made with more dexterity some dents softly as well in the human limbs as in the cloths”) Poses and drapery speak the same language as Ghiberti’s North Door: the knee of the Madonna protruding amid the iridescence of the robe struck by the light and the course of the drapery falling to the floor giving rise to that sinuous train enlivened by the glow of the light source are to be found in the Saint Ambrose of Ghiberti’s enterprise a mere rehash of the master’s solutions: that delicate and diaphanous grace which is substantiated in the very tender flesh tones and which makes this Madonna look like a most elegant phantom capable of identifying him already at these heights as an original artist already capable of departing as much from the master as from his neighbors Lorenzo Monaco and Gherardo Starnina the former more marked by a kind of abstractionism that would have remained alien to Masolino and the latter instead attracted by flourishes and preciosity that would also leave the young Valdarno artist indifferent It is Masolino’s most Masaccesque work “the painter’s late Gothic temperament is relegated to the wholly decorative conduct of the cymatium and the careful rendering of details such as the veins of the cross or the traces of blood at the nails.” Masolino looks ahead: the tomb is foreshortened in perspective the body of Christ is set in volumes that try to approach those of Masaccio the composition itself tries to be credible tries to draw the attention of the relative to the pain of the Virgin and the Magdalene Little to do with the neighboring lunette where the artist “even seems to be invested by a stroke of the tail of early 20th-century neo-Giottism,” as De Luca writes is an artist of reference for understanding what was happening in Empoli at the beginning of the new century and in the wake of his presence in the city an event that resonates in the works of a number of artists active in the city in the same years as Masolino This is the theme of the fourth section of the exhibition (which actually begins on the wall opposite the one on which Masolino’s works have been arranged) opened by Lorenzo Monaco’s other triptych from the Museo della Collegiata with a slightly later chronology than the one for San Donnino and hypotheses about its provenance from the same church of Santo Stefano The first artist one encounters is Francesco d’Antonio di Bartolomeo a collaborator on a few occasions with Masolino and the author of some works in which the language of his colleague is interpreted in a more rubicund and light-hearted key as can be seen in the Madonna della cintola di Loppiano a work capable of bypassing without too much fuss the lesson of Lorenzo Monaco in which Francesco d’Antonio was trained who moreover also worked as a fresco painter in the church of Santo Stefano: the Madonna and Child Enthroned and Simone Guiducci da Spicchio accompanied by a compartment that was part of the same polyptych painted for the collegiate church of Empoli for a large part of the critics we witness here the pinnacle of his entire career) and while lingering on late Gothic veins it shows that he already knew how to look to the Masaccesque spatiality of the Triptych of San Giovenale a masterpiece in regard to which he should not have remained insensitive And if a painter such as Giovanni Toscani remains proudly late Gothic albeit within the limits of their entirely vernacular lexicon shows himself to be an artist capable of some elegance mindful of Masolino’s lesson while more daring and coarse is the eloquence of Borghese di Pietro who was nevertheless fascinated by Masolino and especially by Masaccio of the Carmine polyptych in Pisa Returning to the work around which much of the exhibition revolves on the occasion of the exhibition it was decided to advance its chronology a little from the traditional 1424: not by much enough to shift its execution to the last months of that year when Masolino and Masaccio had already begun to organize the work at the Brancacci Chapel which might suggest that Masolino returned to Empoli when Cappella Brancacci was started is motivated by the substantial novelty of the Christ in Pieta (admittedly little compared to what Masaccio was painting and had painted but it all has to be weighed against what Masolino had produced up to that time) especially when one considers the fresco of the Baptistery with the Madonna that Masolino painted in the sacristy of the church of Santo Stefano: the comparison in the same location thus allows us to appreciate the forward momentum of the Pietà justifiable perhaps by a more delayed execution The last two sections of the exhibition are devoted precisely to two fresco enterprises: the earlier one by Gherardo Starnina in the chapel of the Annunziata a few fragments of which remain (some of the saints in the access sub-arch: Moreover it is thanks to these fragments that it has been possible to give a name to Gherardo Starnina otherwise known earlier as the “Master of the Vispo Child,” because of his initial somewhat exuberant attitude later diluted after his return from his trip to Spain) enriched with some works dating from the same turn of ’years and Masolino’s in the chapel of the Cross (where the altarpiece that stood here in ancient times was returned from the Museo della Collegiata) very little remains: they are mostly sinopites and a few fragments if they cannot give us an idea of what the completed work must have looked like nevertheless manage to suggest the originality of some solutions of the false loggia under which the artist had arranged the figures the presence of which can be guessed today just from some remnants of the architecture reveal how Masolino had imagined a complex marked by a certain degree of illusionism just as unusual in these parts was the idea of setting the scenes continuously Masolino had to look to examples from northern Italy especially Padua (from Altichiero to Giusto de’ Menabuoi via Guariento): the Empolese cycle is made up of paintings executed "at a time of full inventive freedom and rethinking of works seen as much in Tuscany as outside the region; that freedom which will happily return in the decorative campaigns of Castiglione Olona and which in Empoli is so passionate as to persuade Bicci di Lorenzo [in the frescoes of the right transept of Santo Stefano ed.] to ignore for once the coherence between fake and real space and invent marble crustae that continue like wallpaper from one wall to another." which concerns the fragment of fresco in the right transept located not far from the lunette decorating the access to the sacristy The fragment has always been identified with a St but on the occasion of the exhibition Suppa proposes a different hypothesis: St a symbol of the causes upheld in defense of the weak and with at his right side a small gathering of widows and the poor The saint depicted by Masolino holds what Suppa says appears to be a candle rather than a scroll while to his right appears a group of young girls might be the identification with the scene of the miracle of the Candlemas narrated by Jacopo da Varazze: the young girls would thus be the bidders who would have witnessed the appearance of Christ on the feast day and here depicted waiting to receive the candle from the figure in the center Suppa does not explain why the church would have accommodated a depiction of Candlemas a feast nevertheless quite popular in Tuscany at the time but the hypothesis is certainly interesting and adds to the many identifications that have been provided for this scene: Saint Julian has been mentioned the name of Saint Sigismund has been advanced and given the elements perhaps a Saint Ursula could also be thought of The martyr typically wears a cloak lined with vaio and if one assumes that that white flap above the archway above the young women is what remains of a banner then one might think that what she holds in her hand is her typical banner also worth seeing is the panel with Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Protecting Empoli from the Plague an in situ work by Bicci di Lorenzo from 1445 thus far removed from the period on which the exhibition focuses and yet illustrative ofa phase of retreat to traditional modes that is among the trends occurring after Masolino’s arrival in Empoli and which therefore perhaps deserved perhaps not inclusion in the visiting itinerary despite the lack of a few pieces (essentially the Bremen Madonna and the St and despite a visiting itinerary challenged by a revisable layout the public will find itself visiting an excellent exhibition Masolino and the Dawn of the Renaissance is a quality exhibition that returns Masolino to his context and unties him from the cumbersome name of Masaccio An exhibition that draws extraordinary strength from the fact that it was organized in Empoli a center of no secondary importance in the geography of early fifteenth-century art and that stands as a solid project of in-depth study of an artist largely ignored by the “exhibition world,” if we want to call it that on the round anniversary of the most important year of his career deserved a dense in-depth study that would reconstruct the first part of his career in an accomplished manner (it should be specified that it is on Masolino di Empoli that the review focuses: everything after the Brancacci Chapel was not made the subject of the exhibition) is perhaps the city that more than any other lends itself to a vertical investigation of this significant protagonist of the early fifteenth century of the fundamental years in which the gradual transition from late Gothic to Renaissance painting was accomplished at least in the present state of our knowledge holds so many traces of the reflections Masolino must have made in those crucial months And surely no other has a church where it is possible to see a Madonna of late Gothic sweetness and a fresco cycle the “primly dressed” South African champion but I must play better in it,” Pericoli admitted."},"children":[]}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"name":"text","attributes":{"value":"Pericoli brought fashion and freedom to the tennis court at a time when most women players dressed soberly despite being restricted in their ability to move She was nicknamed “the Lollobrigida of Italian tennis” a reference to the glamorous Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida The TimesLea Pericoli at the 1965 Wimbledon Championships She was the leading Italian female tennis player of her generationHARRY DEMPSTER/DAILY EXPRESS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGESThe TimesSaturday October 26 2024 The TimesLea Pericoli was only 20 when in the mid-1950s she revealed three inches of midriff during the Kent tennis championships at Beckenham while also wearing what was described as “the shortest skirt ever seen in England” but I must play better in it,” Pericoli admitted Pericoli brought fashion and freedom to the tennis court at a time when most women players dressed soberly Others described her as a worthy successor to “gorgeous” Gussie CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE SINCE 1980 More... How many times in Italy have we heard of a neglected cultural heritage left to the neglect of time despite its inestimable identity The deconsecrated church of San Carlo and San Donnino in the heart of the historic center of Cremona is further evidence of a history of abandonment and decay After being owned by the parish of Sant’Ilario the seventeenth-century church passed into the hands of the Moreni Foundation only to end up on sale on the eBay platform Purchased by a private individual and restored within the constraints imposed by the Superintendency last September 15 it reopened its doors to visitors to host the new SAN CARLO project created to promote contemporary art in the Cremona area a solo show dedicated to the French artist Servane Mary (Dijon 1972) and created in collaboration with APALAZZOGALLERY (Brescia) thus inaugurates the new exhibition season specifically designed for a place that is a symbol of the memory of the city and its community The contamination between past and present is real and not trivial; the three monumental paintings each placed at the three internal perimeter ends of the church their surfaces seem not to be distinguished from the walls visibly marked by the passing of the centuries If the plaster is irregular and damaged by humidity the perforated sheets have a pictorial randomness that refers to the same unevenness of the space that welcomes them refers to the defects and formal errors that the artist wanted to voluntarily impress on the laminar support is no longer flat and free of imperfections creating a clear parallelism with the evocative atmosphere of the place and merging with it an industrial material very widespread in the USA such as the silver background or the pop drips that recall a certain gesture typical of American Expressionism detach themselves from the historical events of the church to approach to a more contemporary artistic language The repeated grid perforations of the panels cause an optical distortion typical of abstractionism while the subtractive synthesis color model (CMYK yellow and black) recalls the usual printing processes Servane Mary thus succeeds in conceiving an unpublished corpus of three works (5 meters x 5 meters) that fit perfectly into the space of the church of San Carlo the artist has always used different media mixing multiple artistic techniques to investigate social and political issues her research line is not so far from the aims of the exhibition project that she makes use of artists already established on the national and international scene to imprint an active dialogue with the local community promoting comparison and exchange of visions The aim of bringing the widest possible audience closer to contemporary art now unites many institutions but SAN CARLO could prove to be up to the challenge acrylic and silkscreen ink on laminated pegboard panel Graduated in art history at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan during her specialization she works for the Pistoletto Foundation where she works alongside the artist Nico Angiuli in the production and artistic direction of The Human Tools She concludes her studies at IULM with an experimental thesis in collaboration with the Vincenzo Agnetti archive she carries out her project within the archive and writes for various art magazines ASSOCIAZIONE JULIET – via Battisti 19/a – 34015 Muggia (TS) Juliet art magazine è pubblicata a cura dell’Associazione Juliet - direttore responsabile Alessio Curto autorizzazione del Tribunale di Trieste registro informatico C.F./P.IVA 00699740320 | c/c postale 12103347 | SWIFT UNCRIT M10MC | IBAN IT75C0200802242000005111867 | UNICREDIT Banca Trieste By 2024-01-16T14:23:00+00:00 ITALY: The city of Firenze has awarded a consortium of CMB, Alstom, Hitachi Rail and ComNet a contract to supply and install the track substations and lighting for the tram Line 4 project The €50m contract covers Section 4.2 of the line the outermost 5·3 km from Le Piagge railway station to San Donnino and the centre of Campi Bisenzio with 11 stops There is a €49m option for a second lot covering the 6·3 km Section 4.1 from Le Piagge to Leopolda and Porta al Prato with 13 stops This will connect Section 4.2 with the existing Line 1 enabling Line 4 services to run through to the city centre The Line 4 project is being financed through the National Recovery & Resilience Plan ‘We are delighted to be able to contribute to intensifying Firenze’s transport system with the construction of more than 11 km of tramway in addition to what has already been achieved for Line 2’ ITALY: Hitachi Rail has been awarded a contract to supply 46 trams equipped with batteries to avoid the need for overhead wires in the historic city of Firenze The order announced on July 30 includes the supply of digital signalling ITALY: Kuba has rolled out an open-loop fare payment system covering the Firenze tramway and bus services in Toscana saying it is the largest deployment of its kind in Europe covering 273 cities and towns The system which went live on March 28 is an extension .. ITALY: Urban rail investments in various cities have been allocated funding from national or European sources Site powered by Webvision Cloud When a group of disgruntled Fiorentina fans were thoroughly fed up by the monied world of Serie A, they decided to establish their own, self-financed football club and pay homage to the Coen brothers’ greatest character By Chloe Beresford for The Gentleman Ultra, part of the Guardian Sport Network By Chloe Beresford for The Gentleman Ultra, part of the Guardian Sport Network If the hotel receptionist thought it was strange that six English people wanted to call a taxi to the Campo Sportivo San Donnino on the outskirts of Florence, that was nothing compared to the reaction from the driver who picked us up. On the way to the home of Centro Storico Lebowski an amateur football club in the Campi Bisenzio area the driver made several phone calls to his friends to tell them about this bizarre pickup Perhaps the strangest part was that the first team weren’t even playing that day The only match was between CS Lebowski Juniores and the youth side from ASD Maliseti Tobbianese The club had been forewarned about the arriving English party and football is never more beautiful than when it is being played in its purest form Speaking to those involved after the game it became clear that this was no ordinary provincial club Their groundbreaking project has been taking place since CS Lebowski was established in its current form in 2010 but this barely scratches the surface of their ethos The Ultras Lebowski were unsatisfied with modern football and the distance placed between fans and club. Some, but not all, had been Fiorentina ultras in the past. CS Lebowski evolved from a club called AC Lebowski, who were infamous for being unsuccessful. In one season they conceded 99 goals and were frequently bottom of the league. The idea of a new club was dreamed up by three friends sitting on a bench and This model is unique in Italy; anyone who has a €20 season ticket has a say in the running of the club and the decision-making process is democratic A recent documentary on Italian TV perfectly illustrated the passion and principles of those involved with the club Una cena di prima categoria. pic.twitter.com/9VB9QbsjO0 The fans are united against the excesses of the modern football and say they are in a “battle over who is master of the game” They see the pushing and pulling between club presidents media and law enforcement and believe that the fans are always the ones who lose out The supporters at Lebowski think many of their fellow football followers have become “resigned to passivity” The very nature of their own model means fans are absolutely essential and at the heart of everything they do to make the club function Tutti a Castello! http://t.co/Dqo7XEQeZJ AVANTI CSL AVANTI URL pic.twitter.com/GH5Oyjbyxk Those involved attribute the success to their model: the idea that the team plays for each other and plays for the people hard work and dedication alone do not make a football club Lebowski are proud of their self-dependency and the fact they do not have to rely on funds from individuals who may want to change the way the club is run I* Categoria gir.C-8a giornata CS LEBOWSKI - Novoli 2-3 (Migliorini, Coppini) Curva spettacolare. AVANTI CSL pic.twitter.com/R3wx34vBBK Their band of ultras support the team by creating a thrilling atmosphere at every game which even many larger teams would be envious Photograph: Ilaria FestaFinding a permanent home is key to their project they have plans to extend their resources into the local community so people feel closer of the club they hope to extend the use of the field adjacent to the stadium so children in the local area have a safe place to play football in the evenings the club face the prospect of losing their home Il calcio minore resta sempre il migliore. http://t.co/L8O0N90XrN pic.twitter.com/4iGQwR3ZY8 This article appeared first on The Gentleman Ultra Follow Chloe Beresford and The Gentleman Ultra on Twitter The birth certificate of Renaissance painting is not to be sought in the shadow of Brunelleschi’s dome Florence was not the first recipient of a panel capable of speaking the new language among the Valdarno countryside dotted with woods and olive trees: the Renaissance in painting was born in the parish of San Giovenale a tiny rural village just below the hills separating the Upper Valdarno from the Casentino In the village church stood an altar whose patronage belonged to the Castellani family a dynasty of merchants and bankers who were among the most prominent in Florence even though they came from Cascia di Reggello the hamlet just beyond San Giovenale: it was probably a member of the family who commissioned Masaccio to paint the altarpiece for the high altar destined to become the first cornerstone of the new painting according to the date written on the lower border in humanistic capitals instead of Gothic letters the painting was made in Florence and then sent to the Valdarno and we are not even certain that it reached San Giovenale immediately: there are those who think that it remained for a few years in Florence where the artists working in the city could see it and assimilate the powerful overwhelming force of novelty that that painter in his early twenties had unleashed on his three panels But the suggestion remains to think of a painter at the beginning of his career who sanctioned one of the most profound ruptures in the history of painting by painting for a small country church the first exhibition built around this fundamental triptych opened in Cascia di Reggello: Masaccio and the Renaissance masters in comparison is the very high tribute that the Masaccio Museum of Sacred Art is dedicating to his main work as part of the Florentine museum’s Uffizi Diffusi and the Fondazione CR Firenze’s Piccoli Grandi Musei projects.The Triptych of St Juvenal therefore had to wait until its birthday to have an in-depth study dedicated to it round anniversaries can lead to outcomes of the opposite sign since they can bring exhibitions set up more for duty of date than to open up real opportunities for study and understanding or on the contrary they can offer the opportunity to build up exceedingly relevant focuses The Reggello exhibition certainly belongs to the second case in point: between the rooms of the Masaccio Museum Lucia Bencistà and Nicoletta Matteuzzi have created an extremely dense exhibition on the origins of Renaissance painting all in the meager space of only twelve works is proof that if the scientific project is solid and well planted on its foundations there is no need for long carrels of loans to leave a trace on the public A project that has been made possible by widening the traditional mesh of the Uffizi Diffusi since in Cascia di Reggello not only works from the great Florentine museum are arriving: to compose this exhibition important pieces from private collections as well as from churches and museums in the area have been gathered together The result is an exhibition that has managed to combine to bring works back to their territories of origin by offering small museums in the Tuscan province the possibility of reknitting the threads of contexts that have been unraveling over the centuries It may seem strange that a work so central not only to the vicissitudes of its time but also to those of twentieth-century criticism which has been the focus of long and impassioned discussion around the Triptych of San Giovenale has never been the main protagonist of an exhibition event dedicated to it be mitigated by the long exhibition fortune of the work well reconstructed in the catalog by Nicoletta Matteuzzi: after having survived unscathed the looting of the Nazis during World War II (also in the catalog Maria Italia Lanzarini publishes the testimony of Aurelio Bettini Renato’s nephew who was sacristan of the church in 1944: according to Aurelio’s account his father allegedly hid the Triptych of St Juvenal first behind the headboard of his bedroom requisitioned by a German officer who therefore unknowingly slept under Masaccio’s masterpiece taking advantage of a moment of the Nazi’s absence) Juvenal was rediscovered in 1961 by Luciano Berti the first to formulate Masaccio’s name for the work The proposal is said to have met with some resistance (above all that of Roberto Longhi on the grounds that the quality of the work does not reach the same degree of excellence as other products certain to be by Masaccio’s hand: arguments that Tartuferi rejects rightly pointing out that “some uncertainty is perfectly understandable even in a rookie genius and at the same time it seems unlikely that the scurvy 20-year-old from Valdarno was already endowed with an overcrowded array of helpers.” In the year of Luciano Berti’s recognition the work was immediately taken to Florence for a lengthy restoration that would keep it away from Reggello and even from the eyes of the public until 1988 except for a few sporadic exhibition moments such as the 1972 exhibition Firenze restaurata and the comparison with Beato Angelico’sAnnunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno staged in 1984 in Fiesole to exhibit it in the parish church of San Pietro in Cascia when it was brought to the Masaccio Museum Since 1988 there have been further technical and scientific investigations and participation in five other exhibitions undergone a long and continuous work of valorization that has employed the most varied languages (even a theatrical performance) and that this year culminates with the dedicated exhibition An exhibition that begins by transporting the public to early fifteenth-century Florence a time when peace and economic stability ensured prosperity for a city where public works were bustling and where private patrons also competed to secure the services of the best artists on the market: it is a Florence where the elegant late Gothic culture of a Lorenzo Monaco or a Gherardo Starnina is rooted but where naturalist impulses are already manifesting themselves which at the beginning of the century translate into a neo-Giottism capable of smoothing out the sharper points of late Gothic abstruseness and extravagance The first room of the exhibition thus presents the visitor with the different languages that characterize Florentine figurative culture at the beginning of the 15th century: one thus puts oneself in the shoes of a young Masaccio who left his native San Giovanni Valdarno to move to Florence at the age of seventeen going to live in the neighborhood of San Niccolò Oltrarno to complete his training in a local workshop as the Reggello exhibition intends to demonstrate Masaccio reveals some points in common at the start of his career one can admire what Masaccio could see at the time of his move to Florence: we begin with the earliest work in the exhibition Lorenzo Monaco’s triptych with Our Lady of Humility and Saints Donnino on loan from the Museo della Collegiata in Empoli a manifesto of the late Gothic finesse that became established in the city in the latter part of the 14th cent and to which refer the elongated proportions of the saints (but also those of Saint Donnino’s dog) the sinuous and unnatural lines of the draperies certain preciousnesses such as those of the cushion on which the Virgin sits and the almost metallic iridescence of the saints’ robes the Empoli triptych is considered the first fully Gothic work by a painter who had been trained in the wake of Giotto’s idiom: the beginning of work on the North Door of the Baptistery of Florence the undertaking that Lorenzo Ghiberti had begun just the year before may well have contributed to orienting him toward the new international Gothic style but perhaps more decisive was the return from Spain in 1402 of Gherardo Starnina about fifteen years older than Lorenzo Monaco a point of reference not only for Lorenzo but for all the younger artists and the first innovator of Florentine culture at the end of the 14th century Demonstrating the wealth of experience Gherardo brought back with him from the Iberian peninsula is a highly refined Madonna and Child between Saints Anthony Abbot on loan from the Oriana and Aldo Ricciarelli collection in Pistoia: it is a work characterized by elegant and decorative motifs that themselves demonstrate a Spanishate taste (the carpet on which the two saints sit at the feet of the Virgin giving an account of the opposite pole is a Madonna and Child by Giovanni Toscani of about 1420 from the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta in Montemignaio: a work that stands out for its tender rendering of the affections it is an interesting example of neo-Giottesque painting capable of bringing back the language of the early fourteenth century without reproposing it slavishly but updating it with some of the finesse typical of late Gothic taste beginning with the course of the borders of the Virgin’s wide sleeves are not the masters with whom the young Masaccio was confronted on his arrival in Florence (Starnina himself died when the Valdarno artist was only twelve years old): they were other artists with whom he probably came into contact and the second part of the room has side by side a couple of works fully participating in the artistic temperament dominated by the flamboyant painters of the International Gothic and the devotees of tradition and who perhaps provided Masaccio with the first test beds on which to measure himself From the church of San Niccolò Oltrarno comes an important loan the left-hand compartment of Bicci di Lorenzo’s triptych admitting an early date and assuming that the Florentine painter began working on it in 1421) in all likelihood knew very well and perhaps kept in mind when he began work on the Triptych of Saint Juvenal (one will note the strong resemblance of Bicci’s Saint Bartholomew to the counterpart saint that Masaccio painted for his triptych in 1422) Masaccio will surely have admired the Crucifix in the church of San Niccolò Oltrarno another work that can be dated to the early 1420s: restored in 2021 (it is being exhibited in Reggello for the first time after the intervention) it now presents itself to our view with all the suffering it has endured over the centuries prevent us from framing this work in a context of great renewal since the anonymous author of this wooden sculpture gives us back a Christ whose face is pervaded by an expressive motion of pain and which even in its still fourteenth-century setting shows that it was already sensitive to the innovations that a decade earlier were being introduced by the crucifixes of Donatello and Brunelleschi inescapable models for anyone who set about sculpting Christs on the cross from then on The Crucifix of San Niccolò Oltrarno is therefore a work that “already belongs to Masaccio’s world.” By contrast Giovanni dal Ponte’s Madonna and Child with Saints Nicholas and Julian a painting that looks to the Iberianisms of Gherardo Starnina (especially in the way the faces are illuminated and brightened) of “elements that foreshadow an interest in the protagonists of late Gothic humanism such as Masaccio” (the plastic relief of chiaroscuro contrasts which will improve precisely through contact with Masaccio) The Triptych of Saint Juvenal is at the center of the second room in an unprecedented comparison with Beato Angelico’s Triptych of Saint Peter Martyr that Masaccio’s first master was Brunelleschi then this alumnus at a distance is evident from the Valdarno artist’s first known work: the young artist on his debut immediately makes central perspective his own firm and rigorous manner as can be seen by looking at the foreshortening of the ivory throne of the Virgin and the lines of the floor (which is shared by all three compartments: Masaccio imagines a unitary space) that converge toward the ideal where the artist places the focal point of the composition thus assuming a bottom-up view (the real reason why the Madonna appears to us a little elongated) The figures are firm and their volumes full truly inserted in space: the plasticism learned from observing the works of Brunelleschi and Donatello enjoys an accomplished rendering of perspective The discoverer of the Triptych of San Giovenale spoke of a “continuous insistence on three-dimensionality,” mastered with great mastery by Masaccio evident also from certain details such as the feet of the Child “which flow [...] into the frontal view without falling on point,” or the hands of the Virgin “caught in a double situation of profile horizontal and vertical,” and again the angels from behind with their arms stretched forward And one could then mention at least the book of Saint Juvenal in whose writings Masaccio’s handwriting has been recognized through a comparison with an autograph document already alien to the flexuosity of the International Gothic are investigated in their frowning expressions with great psychological acuity hark back to Donatello: look at the Saint Juvenal who brings to mind the princess of the predella of the San Giorgio or the Saint Blaise who recalls the bronze Saint Ludovico executed for Orsanmichele and now in the Museo di Santa Croce how to “grasp from the very first Florentine steps through individual elaboration and rethinking the perspective and plastic novelties of the new art of Brunelleschi and Donatello the moral and cultural value that flowed powerfully from such novelties.” the first painter to fully grasp the scope of the Masaccio revolution The friar painter’s machine shares some innovative solutions with the Triptych of St although we do not know whether Angelico arrives at his conclusions independently or after measuring himself against Masaccio’s works This is a question that has long been debated by art historians that certain cues are common to the two artists: above all the idea of linking the three compartments so that the figures share a unified space while preserving the traditional tripartition and the same spatiality that appears in the two scenes of the Preaching and Martyrdom of St which are so original that in the 1950s they were considered late additions by Benozzo Gozzoli It is actually the product of the hand of a Beato Angelico who “is already capable of exhibiting a control of spatiality (in the perspective placement of the pulpit and the buildings in the background) and an absolute mastery in the restitution of the plastic masses (the female figures crouched on the ground wrapped in large cloaks) which accredit him precisely as an independent sodal of Masaccio at the beginning of the 1520s.” The Triptych of St Peter Martyr marks a turning point in the career of Guido di Pietro who from being a “man of the fourteenth century” (so Tartuferi in his essay in the catalog all dedicated to the comparison between Masaccio and Beato Angelico) trained in the more traditional Gothic language is transformed into one of the main innovators of his time: or rather should be placed alongside Masaccio in the renewal of painting although the two were divided by a different conception of their naturalism (modern and decidedly more worldly that of Masaccio universal and mystical that of Angelico: two visions of reality that “from the point of view of stylistic outcomes turn out instead to be practically identical,” Tartuferi points out) Accompanying the comparison between Masaccio and Beato Angelico are works by two other greats of the time The former is present with the Madonna of Humility from the Uffizi still obviously unaware of what was to come: An elegant gentle and rare product of Masolino’s early activity the Madonna of Humility represents one of the pinnacles of late Gothic Florentine art the extreme delicacy of the chiaroscuro and the luminosity of the color range.” Masolino would shortly thereafter be fascinated by Masaccio’s innovations and as is well known he would also have the opportunity to measure himself directly against him in the Saint Anna Metterza and especially in the undertaking of the Brancacci Chapel the most Masaccio-esque of the painters of early 15th-century Florence whose presence in the exhibition is determined precisely to illustrate the earliest ways in which Masaccio’s language spread: an early work it shows clear references to Masaccio not only in the full and solid volumes of the figures but even in the niche on which the Madonna stands a reference to the Trinity painted by Masaccio in Santa Maria Novella in Florence a Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and James the Greater by Francesco d’Antonio di Bartolomeo and a Madonna and Child Enthroned and Two Angels by Andrea di Giusto tending to show how the Florentine painters’ attention to Masaccio had not waned even after the precocious death of the Valdarno artist Francesco d’Antonio di Bartolomeo is according to Tartuferi one of the most original interpreters of Masaccio (but also of Beato Angelico and Masolino): the Virgin and the Herculean figure of the Child could denounce a direct dependence on the Triptych of San Giovenale despite the presence of the two much slimmer saints which demonstrate instead the breadth of the cultural horizons of this curious and singular painter Less original and more schematic is the interpretation of Andrea di Giusto moreover Masaccio’s collaborator in the Pisa polyptych in 1426: the mixture of new elements (the measured plasticism of the Virgin mindful above all of Beato Angelico’s Madonnas the foreshortened perspective) and traditional ones (the course of the gilded border of the Virgin’s mantle the fineness of the gilding) give us back the traits of an artist who “seems to have achieved a balance between the adherence to the traditional Gothic conception and the attention to the formal modules of the masters of the early Florentine Renaissance.” an appendix to the exhibition inside the parish church of Cascia since the fragment of fresco with theAnnunciation by Mariotto di Cristofano a neo-Giottesque work executed around 1420 was considered an integral part of the itinerary of the exhibition given its role as a living witness to the events that affected Valdarno in the first decades of the 15th century Matteuzzi recalls how certain the contacts between Mariotto and Masaccio are (the former had married the daughter of Masaccio’s stepfather in 1421) plus the two painters were both from San Giovanni Valdarno and separated by only eight years of age although the older Mariotto does not appear in any way close to Masaccio’s innovations “preferring rather,” Matteuzzi writes “to remain faithful to the fourteenth-century tradition or to update himself on texts by other painters such as Lorenzo Monaco and Beato Angelico.” The Cascia fresco is another figurative text that Masaccio may have seen during the period when he was waiting for the Triptych of San Giovenale It is therefore difficult to think of an exhibition more connected to the territory than the one that was set up for the 600th anniversary of Masaccio’s first masterpiece Masaccio and the masters of the Renaissance in comparison is a choral exhibition to whose excellent result a heterogeneous group of scholars of various backgrounds They have been able to develop a harmonious and balanced itinerary and to recount it in a catalog of considerable scientific and cultural depth literally translated into popular terms in the impeccable apparatus of the rooms also stand out in terms of sustainability: there are no invasive panels that in the cramped spaces of the Masaccio Museum would have produced nothing but visual pollution been replaced by nimble QR Codes that refer to texts published on the web and a pleasant free audio guide that accompanies the public almost work by work This is a solution that even the major exhibitions of the most famous museums should seriously consider to lighten their tour routes Masaccio and the Renaissance masters in comparison is then an exhibition with a two-faced nature: it tells a story that was born in the deepest province but from which the foundations of Renaissance painting sprouted and it is set up in the rooms of a small museum hidden in the Valdarno hills but it speaks with the tools of the most up-to-date museography and the Reggello exhibition can be counted among the most remarkable outcomes of the Uffizi Diffusi project which marks another step in raising its already high standards of quality Masaccio and the Renaissance masters in comparison is therefore an exhibition that points the way to a future that will be increasingly under the banner of occasions such as the one in Reggello: exhibitions of limited size aimed at the valorization of the works and the history of the territory capable of speaking to scholars as well as to the general public with identical ease For the new signing from Forlì, the first contact with his new team is scheduled for the next resumption of training of the group under Mauro Antonioli set for Wednesday 27 December. During the Christmas break, a friendly match against the Cesena Primavera is likely while the championship will resume on Sunday 7 January at home with Progresso. This year's Forlì boasts the ability to score with different players. In addition to Merlonghi's 10 goals, the 32 total are distributed among twelve other players: Greselin (5), Babbi (4), Persichini (3), Bonandi (2) and, with one goal each, Calì, Casadio, Gaiola, Maggoli, Pecci, Prestianni, Rossi and Rosso. A goal cooperative that is certainly important, but to get back to chasing the league leaders Ravenna, it needs to find the goals of its bomber Mario Marlonghi. The level of gastronomic sophistication in Macau and Hong Kong is among the highest across Asia according to several Italian wine and vinegar producers who visited Macau last month to showcase their products the premium food and beverage producers brought a slice of Italian fine dining to a wine-pairing event at the Mandarin Oriental Macau organized by regional distributer Cottage Vineyards A consequence of the centuries-old Portuguese community in Macau the wine market in this special administrative region is dominated by producers from the Atlantic-facing European country But that is not a hindrance for the Italian producers who approaching food and beverage operators in Macau only recently say that they have discovered a mature and curious public Sicilian wine producer Loredana Vivera who after a prior visit to the Macau SAR last year is becoming increasingly familiar with local gastronomy says that the popularity of her wines is the reason she keeps making the 7,500-kilometer trip from the Vivera Etna Winery in volcanic Catania to the Pearl River Delta compatriot Giovanni Bertani of the Tenuta Santa Maria vineyard in Verona which can trace its history back almost 500 years said the local wine consumption market is ripe for more international brands “I don’t think the presence of Portuguese wine in Macau is a problem for [Italian] producers as it matures the market,” said Bertani Macau and Hong Kong are probably the most sophisticated markets in the greater China region and I see a big change from people buying labels – meaning regions – to buying producers and looking for specific styles and philosophies,” he told the Times “That’s really rewarding for boutique producers like us.” It is quite the commendation when prestigious Italian wine producers describe Macau’s gastronomy scene as sophisticated But it is not just Italian wines that are finding their way into Macau gastronomy Traditional balsamic vinegar producer Acetaia Villa San Donnino based just outside the historic town of Modena also sent a representative to last month’s event the producer makes premium vinegar up to a quarter-century old although a rotational barrel cycle means that a part of their pr oduct is in fact far older “We have noticed that people in Macau really appreciate our balsamic vinegar,” said Francesca Ori a vinegar sommelier from Acetaia Villa San Donnino there are very good customers who are able to appreciate our products That’s why we want to promote out product in places like this and we feel proud when we see them [in restaurants].” You must be logged in to post a comment and a key player in that was Arturo Lupoli Lupoli joined Derby in August 2006 on loan for the season from Arsenal and scored seven times in 35 appearances as the Rams won the playoffs then 19-year-old Lupoli had generated interest from his homeland with his performances at Pride Park with AC Milan and Inter Milan both said to be interested He then went on to join Fiorentina on a pre-contract agreement but his positive displays maintained for Derby scoring a goal and an assist in his first game after signing the agreement to move to Florence in the summer in what was a brilliant season for him and the team “Derby County was a good place to play football, the fans treated me very well and I felt at home there,” Lupoli told World Football Index “I scored goals and made many assists while learning a lot from playing in a successful team “Winning promotion for the fans meant so much to me and I learned so much and improved as a footballer due to my time at Derby “The Championship is a tough division to play in but I loved the test of each game at that level.” Lupoli never managed to play for Fiorentina spending time back on loan in England with Norwich and Sheffield United This is the Terre formation: Baraldi, Montoro (Masha), Lenzi, Celentano (Fusco), Gheduzzi, Bonini, Nardi, La Manna (Lecini), Opoku, Guidotti, Vessella. Available: Lenzi, Hayford, Bektesi, Ben Driss, Tuffour, Ed Darraj. Coach: Panini.