Today I saw frescoes depicting the legend of the true cross by Piero Della Francesca at the church of San Francesco in Arezzo
This is a candid photograph.
The church guards turn pretty nasty if they see anyone taking a picture. I saw a German clearly reduced after attempting a surreptitious snap. I had noted the cctv in the apse, but she had plainly missed it, entranced no doubt, as we all were, by the beautiful work on the walls. As my young son once said, 'I don't really agree with a lot of what the church does, but they have made some cool stuff.' Well it doesn't get much cooler than Piero Della Francesca in Arezzo.
The narrative of the legend of the true cross jumps about around the walls and the Annunciation, which I was particularly keen to see, does not, as far as I can tell, fit the story. However, the design fits the walls....look at the strong vertical, for example just to the left of the hanging crucifix...the Annunciation is on the lower section.
I had only ever seen individual images of this fresco cycle and have always loved the balance of each picture...the abstract structure supporting the colours and breathtaking drawing in each one enthral me...but seeing them in context, every inch of wall used, I wondered at the workman-like nature of the painter....to achieve something like this, you would have to harness your talent and skill, draw, plan and plod on for months and months. Seeing them all together, they were like treasures spilling out of a box.
And then another church...a comparatively restrained interior, protestant even, but with this fantastic image of Christ
and the breast really is slightly swollen..it is not the light. Patterned wallpaper, trinkets, mad metal sunbeams, stigmata, man boob...
And when this kind of maximalist imagery lodges inside your head, you cannot help but see the world around you in an altered state....
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