Mixed reviews for Cesare Borgia
The man has some fans, but equally well some foes.
He was buried beneath the altar in a church in Viana in northern Spain in 1507, only to be 'dug up and dumped in the street outside by an outraged local bishop a few years later "so he could be trampled upon by man and beast"'.
His partisans wanted him back in the church, and all was set fair for this to happen on Sunday to coincide with the quincentenary of his death, but the Archbishop of Pamplona's office has rained on his parade: "Burials inside the Santa Maria Church have not been allowed for some time now", before adding this weaselly comment: it is not "a moral judgement on his place in history".
As a footnote, Dumas pére "states that some pictures of Jesus Christ produced around Borgia's lifetime were based on Cesare Borgia, and that this in turn has influenced images of Jesus produced since that time". I'll never view the Uffizi with the same eyes again.
He was buried beneath the altar in a church in Viana in northern Spain in 1507, only to be 'dug up and dumped in the street outside by an outraged local bishop a few years later "so he could be trampled upon by man and beast"'.
His partisans wanted him back in the church, and all was set fair for this to happen on Sunday to coincide with the quincentenary of his death, but the Archbishop of Pamplona's office has rained on his parade: "Burials inside the Santa Maria Church have not been allowed for some time now", before adding this weaselly comment: it is not "a moral judgement on his place in history".
As a footnote, Dumas pére "states that some pictures of Jesus Christ produced around Borgia's lifetime were based on Cesare Borgia, and that this in turn has influenced images of Jesus produced since that time". I'll never view the Uffizi with the same eyes again.
Labels: Italy, Spain, The arts
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on Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 10:11 am.
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I'll never view the Uffizi with the same eyes again.
No, indeed. You will need at least two lifetimes just to reach the ticket office. And once inside you will be mown down by 'organised groups'.
The queue was not too bad last time - then again I went in the morning, and off season.
Seeing as you are a Florentine, have you been to the rather excellent science museum just down the road from the Uffizi? It has the most helpful and charming staff I have encountered anywhere, ever.
One of the joys of living here is to be able to do just what you did - walk out in the morning and choose what to see today (while on the way to do what you're supposed to be doing). Turn into the Bargello and visit the Donatellos, look at the 'never seen' exhibits just opposite the Uffizi where the 'non-permanent' paintings are shown.
The science museum is part of the university (hence the staff?) and was truly walloped by the flood; their curators and staff were there in the middle of the night desperately carrying everything to the upper floors, pleas for help ignored as the filthy water tore off the baptistry doors, broke into Santa Croce, swept through Santa Maria Novella, and destroyed so many collections in the National Library, not to speak of what was going on in the Uffizi itself. (Last November was the 40th anniversary of the Flood so it was relived in the city which is why I saw it all again).
The science museum now is an education, properly organized and laid out to display Florence's contribution to the history of science; considerable, as ever. Why did they do so much, what magic prevailed?
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