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ONLY BE FLORENTINE
Only-Be Florentine
Rossini
Rossini is one of the most visited restaurants in Florence because it stands out for presenting both traditional dishes as well as the most innovative ones.
Slow Food: Learn to live with pleasure
We live in an increasingly frantic and obsessed society by the lack of time, where finding some free time to read a book or engaging in leisure activities or those activities to relax, such as preparing a meal and taking care of ourselves become progressively more difficult. Fortunately, there are movements dedicated to counter the modern trend of the optimization of the hours, the time investment in “production.” However, there is a project that is gaining increasing strength in the world, also because it is closely related to the food, which is one of the moments of the day that is more affected by the lack of time and it is a movement called Slow Food (www.slowfoodfirenze.it). Not surprisingly, this movement was born in Italy, a country where the food culture has always been the center of the scene, along with the artistic heritage and opera. Slow Food was founded in 1986 with the initial name “ArciGola” in the town of Bra (located in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont) by Carlo Petrini, a sociologist and gourmet with a history of political activism. To date, the Slow Food movement is found in more than 50 countries around the world and counts more than 80,000 members. It strongly rejects the standardization of taste and its aim is to promote the dissemination of a culture of taste in the pleasure of eating also generates knowledge. Clearly, for a practice like this slowness is the key, and indeed the symbol of the association is the snail. Slow Food works to safeguard the regional culinary traditions in the sustainable farming methods and typical...
Emerging talent in the Strozzina, Florence
On February 19 the CCC Strozzina in Florence welcomes a select group of young artists during the award of the “Emerging Talents”. Chosen to participate by a committee of 4 Italian commissioners of high reputation such as Luca Massimo, the Director of MACRO in Rome, Chiara Bertola, director of HangarBicocca in Milan, nominees artists will present their work in the halls of CCC Strozzina. Perfect opportunity to catch up in contemporary art in Italy. On February 18, the name of the winning artist will be announced in what will be, at the same time, the opening of this fantastic exhibition. No better chance to present some of the young talents, competing for the prestigious award Giorgio Andreotta Calo: The first exhibition of the artist, held just a year ago, was ambitious and inspiring. With his video installations captivates the audience, enveloping him in his idiosyncratic narrative about the contemporary artist as a character who is always looking for the metaphysical and physical limits, such as those of his own body. Thus, in numerous projections we see the artist himself, in utter loneliness against the vast landscape. Margherita Moscardini: At the early age of 29, this Italian artist is without doubt one of the most promising talents of her generation. Her work is contemplative and complex, almost labyrinthine. And the thing is that through his work, Moscardini tries to highlight the intersections between the image, the vision, architecture and landscape. Alberto Tadiello: The young Italian, who has exhibited his work in London and New York, is a fictional narrative between materials at first sight opposed and from various disciplines and...
The Gates to Paradise
There are moments where we all feel like we are in hell and in these moments we wish to escape to paradise. In terms of religion, however, this is not that easy when we think about the idea of paradise as border to the divine gardens. According to some the term resembles the Garden of Eden, a place that existed before time where man was one with nature, before he know about culture, language, individualization, symbols and analogies. For others it is a subtle but essential reminder of the place where we can find the individual but also the collective. An irrational but profound memory of pleasant moments in the womb of the mother or in a higher state of mind with visions that other populations achieved by eating certain mushrooms. It’s no secret that we can escape to paradise in Florence where we find the most celebrated gates. At the Piazza del Duomo to be exact, on the east side of the baptistery, most likely the oldest building in town, west of the beautiful cathedral of Santa Maria dei Fiore. In such an ambiance under the sky of Florence looking at the 10 liberations at the gates of paradise (telling episodes of the Old Testament from the creation of Adam and Eve to the wonderful encounter between Salomon and the queen of Saba) it is difficult to overlook the ambiguity that the gates bare that were created that they won’t ever be forgotten. This wonder by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1381 – 1455) was created in a public competition for the giving away of a work of Brunelleschi...
Villa Romana in Florence – one of the oldest artistic sites in Italy
Even though its name is Villa Romana it is located in Florence, in the Via Senese 68 to be exact. Its founders are German. It is one of the oldest artistic sites for modern art in Italy founded with the intention to create an independent center directly financed by the artists where all sorts of artistic expression where accepted and appreciated. In relation to this the Premio Villa Romana was created which represents a critical alternative to prizes handed out by state academies which are known to be more conservative and less interested in promoting new ideas. The project was launched in 1905 when the German painter Max Klinger invested stocks of a group of rich friends in the construction of a house in Florence which was meant to be an art workshop. The house has 40 rooms and about 15 000m² space. One of the main investors was Eduard Arnhold from Berlin, who shortly before purchased the Villa Böckling in Fiesole (province of Florence) who 5 years later founded the Academy of German Artists at the Villa Massimo in Rome. Other sponsors were Adolph vom Rath (president of the Deutsche Bank) and Erich Schulz-Schomburgk (who managed the branch in Lipsia). Although the Villa Romana represents itself as an independent, self-managed project to protest against the artistic academicism in Italy and the slow bureaucracy that often times hinders modern developments, it is obvious that it wouldn’t have been possible without the donations of the German elite and the support of the big German banks. However, it should be mentioned that the history of the Villa Romana is related to...
Masaccio´s Trinity in Florence
By all accounts, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was built in the exact spot where the cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified stood. According to tradition this is where Adam was buried. There is a fresco in Florence whose iconography shows the unusual combination of a Trinity, with which all of its death and decay, could well be a transposition of the sacred shrine. In it, God the Father solemnly oversees the martyrdom of his son from behind the cross, at the foot of which, flanking it, are Mary, whose eyes seem lost in the empty space, and Saint John. The three, Christ, Mary and Saint John, form a triangle whose base is widened by the figures beneath, the principals who commissioned the painting. A skeleton lying on a sarcophagus, inscribed with the memento mori ” I once was what you are and what I am you also will be” occupies the bottom of the fresco. This is the fresco of the Trinity, and was painted around 1425-28 by Masaccio, who died prematurely, poisoned before the age of 30 years. It occupies a space in one of the side walls of the church of Santa Maria Novella, famous above all for the unique polychrome marble facade by Leon Battista Alberti. Santa Maria Novella seems to offer a perfect example of the principles outlined by Alberti´s treatise on architecture exhibiting harmonic drive, and forming a whole in which all parties bear a relationship to each other as is the best music, so balanced that any alteration of any of the aspects would ruin the whole....
