Sensory Garden

Sunflower painting, “Giardino sensoriale” (Sensory garden), Fortezza Nuova (New Fortress).
Girasole dipinto, “Giardino sensoriale”, Fortezza Nuova.

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Post 3,637 of 3,665 - This blog will end on December 31st

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Our farewell / Il nostro saluto

Potemkin

“Potemkin” (1972) by Giangiacomo Spadari, City Museum.
“Potemkin” (1972) di Giangiacomo Spadari, Museo della Città.

Federico da Montefeltro

“Federico da Montefeltro” by Piero della Francesca, according to Blub, Scali del Vescovado.
“Federico da Montefeltro” di Piero della Francesca, secondo Blub, scali del Vescovado.

Frescoes

Frescoes in the dome of Santa Caterina (St. Catherine), Piazza dei Domenicani.
Affreschi all'interno della cupola di Santa Caterina, piazza dei Domenicani.

Pescheria L'Origine

Pescheria (Fish Shop) L'Origine, Corso Amedeo.
Pescheria L'Origine, corso Amedeo.

“Lascio ogni volta il cuore sul suo enorme lungomare, pieno di ragazzi e marinai, liberi e felici.”
(Every time, I leave my heart on her huge seafront, full of boys and sailors, free and happy.)

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Successo, 1959

External links: Pier Paolo Pasolini (Wikipedia)
Link esterni: Pier Paolo Pasolini (Wikipedia)

L'Arca di Noè

“L'Arca di Noè” (Noah's Ark), a pet shop in Via dell'Origine.
“L'Arca di Noè”, un negozio per animali in via dell'Origine.

Coriandolo

Coriandolo (Coriander), Via della Pina d'Oro.
Coriandolo, via della Pina d'Oro

The Park on the Shutter

The rolling shutter of a shop in Piazza Attias.
La saracinesca di un negozio in piazza Attias.

Lorenzo Fratellini

We have already seen the busts and the reliefs of our Council chamber, today we are looking at its only painting. It is a large oil on canvas (cm 165 x 255) titled “Veduta di Livorno dalla parte del Fanale” (View of Livorno from the side of the Lighthouse) dated in the first half of the 18th century and attributed to the Florentine painter Lorenzo Fratellini.

External links: Lorenzo Fratellini (Wikipedia)
See also: Town Hall - Footbridge with a View - City Council - The Busts in the Council - The Reliefs in the Council - The Chandelier

Versione italiana

Santa Caterina's Dome

The 19th-century frescoes by Cesare Maffei on the interior of the dome of the church of Santa Caterina.

See also: Santa Caterina - Inside Santa Caterina - The Window of Santa Caterina - St. Catherine's Bell Tower

Versione italiana

Inside Santa Giulia

The interior of the church of Saint Julia was restored after the devastation of the Second World War, when the wooden ceiling was completely lost along with the religious furniture.

The main altar has a 13th-century altarpiece depicting Saint Julia, the patron saint of Livorno.

See also: Church of Saint Julia - Saint Julia

Versione italiana

Cristofano Allori

The main altar of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri: on the left is visible “Il Martirio di Santo Stefano” (The Martyr of Saint Stephen), painted by Giorgio Vasari in 1571. The painting is actually under restoration.

On a part of the gorgeous panelled ceiling of the church we can see “The Embarkation of Maria de' Medici at Livorno”, painted by Cristofano Allori in 1604. A detail of the painting, showing a bastion of the Fortezza Vecchia, is visible here.

See also: Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri - Marie de' Medici - Fortezza Vecchia - Molo del Soccorso
External links: Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri - Giorgio Vasari - Cristofano Allori (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Homage to Friends from Montparnasse

In 1961 Marie Vorobieff, known as Marevna, painted “Homage to Friends from Montparnasse”, a Cubist recollection of the artists of the Parisian scene of the 1910s. We can see (top left to right) Diego Rivera, Ilya Ehrenburg, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne, Max Jacob, Léopold Zborowski. On the bottom left sits the artist herself with her daughter Marika Rivera, on the right Moïse Kisling with a cat.

External links: Diego Rivera - Ilya Ehrenburg - Chaim Soutine - Amedeo Modigliani - Jeanne Hébuterne - Max Jacob - Léopold Zborowski - Marie Vorobieff - Marika Rivera - Moïse Kisling (Wikipedia)
Search labels: Modigliani

Versione italiana

The Beggar Woman

“The Beggar Woman” is the other painting by Modigliani which was almost certainly painted in Livorno in the summer of 1909. Dedicated to the friend Jean Alexandre, it was shown at the 1910 Salon.

“The Beggar Woman”, 1909
Oil on canvas, 46x38cm
Private collection

“Modigliani may have painted one other picture while he was at home in Livorno. ‘The Beggar Woman’ - the companion to ‘The Beggar’ - before he left for Paris in the autumn of 1909, sadly and hopefully.”

(June Rose, Modigliani - The Pure Bohemian)

“Perhaps the most fully realized of his portraits at this period is ‘The Beggar Woman’, an example of the ‘cool purposefulness’ and economy of means that Modigliani was beginning to display. The lowered eyes, droop of the head, and particular set of the mouth speak volumes about the misery and pride of this anonymous daughter of the people.”

(Meryle Secrest, Modigliani: A Life)

See also: The Beggar of Livorno
External links: Amedeo Modigliani - Jeanne Modigliani - Salon (Wikipedia)
Search labels: Modigliani

Versione italiana

Change

“Change” by Vlado Vesselinov, in a window of “Il Melograno” art gallery in Via Marradi.

External links: Vlado Vesselinov (Saatchi Online) - Il Melograno (Official website, in Italian)

Versione italiana

The Beggar of Livorno

Not much is left of what Amedeo Modigliani painted in Livorno, but “The Beggar of Livorno” is surely one of these works. In the summer of 1909 he was back in his hometown and it may be interesting to know how Jeanne Modigliani, in her biography of her father, tell us the story of this portrait à la Cézanne.

“The Beggar of Livorno”, 1909
Oil on canvas, 66x52.7cm
Private collection

“The diary mentions that they had moved to Via Giuseppe Verdi and that, around 1909, they had received a legacy from someone called Castelnuovo. Moreover, in three letters that are undated but that refer to Castelnuovo's complicated will and speak of the baths at Pancaldi, Eugenia writes to Margherita: ‘Dedo is out of the house all day with a friend who has a studio.’ (This was Romiti.) ‘Caterina comes in by the day. Dedo and Laura are writing articles together, but they are too much up in the clouds for me.’ And at the end: ‘Dedo has seen the pictures, which he says are worthless, and also the famous statue.’ The statue was a late-Renaissance copy of a Greek Hermes, the pictures were a pastoral scene attributed to Salvator Rosa, a seascape by Tempesta, and a seventeenth-century Neapolitan picture of a beggar. In the famous Beggar of Leghorn, the watered-down Cézannesque structure reminds me of the Neapolitan composition; it seems to be a modern interpretation of an old picture and not an authentic portrait done from a model.”

(Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani: Man and Myth)

External links: Amedeo Modigliani - Jeanne Modigliani (Wikipedia)
Search labels: Modigliani

Versione italiana

Rue Cavallotti

One of the most interesting events of “Street Art Meets Modigliani” was the part where street artists were recreating some artworks of the Livornese painter. This reminded me of an interesting place in Paris: rue Cavallotti, a short street in the 18th arrondissement that strangely comes alive when the shops close their heavy shutters, decorated following the style of famous painters.

“Seated Woman with Child” (Motherhood), 1919
d'après Modigliani (1884-1920)

A mix of “Arearea” (Joyousness), 1892
and “Ia Orana Maria” (Hail Mary), 1891
d'après Gauguin (1848-1903)

A mix of “Woman in Blue Reading a Letter”, 1663
and “Mistress and Maid”, 1667
d'après Vermeer (1632-1675)

Sadly it didn't last: these photos were taken in July 2004 and a few years later the paintings had already been ferociously defaced by taggers. In summer 2011 the shutters were repainted with names and logos of famous venues of the Belle Époque.

External links: Que deviennent les rideaux peints de la rue Cavallotti? (Inside Paris, in French)
- Rue Cavallotti : The smallest open-air art museum in Paris! (Les Studios de Paris)

Versione italiana

Cenciaiole Livornesi

Some of our countless “artists” has tried to improve a decorated planter in “Piazza Attias”.

The original painting: “Cenciaiole livornesi” (Livornese rag dealers, 1880) by Eugenio Cecconi.

See also: Piazza Attias - The Big Red A - The New Attias - The Red Tower - Lungomare di Antignano - Steamhip in Port - Six Months

Versione italiana

Most Blessed Sacrament Chapel

The altar of the “Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento” (Most Blessed Sacrament Chapel) in our Cathedral: the altarpiece is “Cristo coronato di spine” (Christ Crowned with Thorns), painted by Fra Angelico around 1440.

See also : Duomo di Livorno - Around the Duomo - Via Cairoli - After the Snow - Fontana del Duomo - Inside the Cathedral

Versione italiana

God Loves You

A “Dio ama te” (God loves you) banner on the façade of the church of Sant'Agostino in piazza Aldo Moro. I can't really say about the message, but the two images on the sides represent the painting “Christ Crowned with Thorns” by Fra Angelico and the “Madonna of Montenero” altarpiece by Jacopo di Michele, called Gera, of the Pisan School. The first is in a chapel of our Cathedral, the second belongs to the Sanctuary of St Mary of Grace in Montenero.

Versione italiana