Scoppio del Carro Pasqua 2013

Again this year many people attended the Explosion of the Cart in Piazza Duomo. The "colombina" a dove powered by a rocket goes to the altar and go back. Today, the dove stops before and for some this is a sign of bad luck but in fact the dove has also set fire to the cart said "Brindellone".
I share a video from youtube because today we saved the little Tetsuo this event which usually frightens him.

Tetsuo in the bag at the Scoppio del Carro 2011

Panel paintings and frescoes in a art Saturday

diptych attributed to the painter from Lucca Bonaventura
Berlinghieri, half of the thirteenth century
Photo Wikimedia Commons

Croce 432 anonymous painter of Pisa,
last quarter of the twelfth centuryPhoto Wikimedia Commons

Croce 434 anonymous Florentine painter,
middle of the thirteenth centuryPhoto Wikimedia Commons

Having finally free time after weeks of intense work, I took a walk in the historic center. At the end of the morning I visited the exhibition of the three oldest paintings in the Uffizi just restored and on display in the church of San Pier Scheraggio until March 29 (the entrance is free and in the first portal to the left in the loggia of the Uffizi). I share photos of the paintings before restoration but here you can see a gallery of photos after the restoration.

In the afternoon, passing through the narrow streets of the city near the Casa di Dante I visited the Oratory of San Martino seat of the Company of Buonomini, a benefit company founded in 1441. The interior is richly decorated with frescoes in the lunettes, attributed by some to the workshop of Ghirlandaio but for others to Francesco d'Antonio del Chierico. On the altar a wooden sculpture painted of St. Anthony attributed to Verrocchio. To the right of the door the hole for alms unfortunately with a "graffito".

Photo Wikimedia Commons

Illumination from the Bible of Borso d'Este

Illumination from the Bible of Borso d'Este.

Egg tempera, pure pigments, genuine lapislazzuli, gold leaf 23 3/4 on parchment cm. 4,5x4,5.

Below you can see the working in progress.

design on parchment

preparation of gilding with gum ammoniacum

painting with egg tempera

Fontaine de Vaucluse

This past weekend I was in Mallemort in Provence for some business meetings. In the little free time we took a walk in Fontaine de Vaucluse small village not far from Avignon and famous for having resided Petrarca. I share some photos taken during the ascent to the source, that Tetsuo has faced in his stroller red. I had never been here this season and the color of the water was an amazing blue green.

Illumination from Piccolomini Library

Illumination on parchment, egg tempera with pure pigments, genuine lapislazzuli and gold leaf 23 3/4 on pastiglia cm.6,5x4

This is the first of a new series of illuminations copied from the manuscripts conserved in the Piccolomini Library in the Duomo di Siena. 

At end of August I visited the Duomo of Siena for the annual exposition of the marble decorated floor (see my post with images and videos) and I took this pictures of illuminations exposed, illuminated by Liberale da Verona and Girolamo da Cremona. 

During the visit I tried to fix in my mind the colors of the original illuminations.

I share other photos of the frescoes by Pinturicchio that cover all the surface of the ceiling and the walls in the Library.

 The last photo is a detail of the floor with decorated tiles.

Illumination, little detail

A detail of an illumination copy from Domenico Morone.

Gold leaf 23 3/4 on pastiglia, egg tempera on parchment.

Here more images of the work in progress