Arezzo-Assisi

This past weekend I went on a two-day Early Renaissance class trip in Umbria and The Marches. It was nice to go on one of these when I didn’t need to worry about taking notes! We rode in a chartered bus the entire time, as trains and public buses do not go to some of the places we went.
Our first stop was in the town of Arezzo, for which I was very excited since it’s the sight of the movie La Vita È Bella. I only recognized the main square but I was pretty excited about that nonetheless. We first visited the Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the church of San Francesco. I think I ought to mention at this point that though I was extremely excited to be there and had fun during the entire trip, it was miserably cold! Unfortunately, it was probably the approximate temperature I would be used to at this time of year in Iowa; I’ve just been rather thoroughly spoiled by the environment enjoyed in Tuscany.
The fresco cycle was incredible, as are pretty much all of Piero’s works. We studied him and his relationship with the Duke of Urbino at length in my intro to renaissance art history class at the U of I. He is so detailed. I imagine him doing hundreds and hundreds of studies of the tiniest little details for use in some of his finished works. One thing that’s interesting about the battle scenes in this fresco cycle is that because they are so detailed and life-like, scholars think he may have witnessed the actual Battle of Anghiari, the subject matter for now-lost epic fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, which took place near to where he was living at the time.
We then stopped into the Badia which had a faux dome by Vasari, a native of Arezzo, like the faux domes of the Jesuit churches I saw in Rome. There was also a really large altarpiece Vasari painted to adorn his tomb, though he is now buried somewhere else.
Next was a large Romanesque church, Santa Maria Pieve, where the Early Renaissance class looked at an altarpiece by Pietro Lorenzetti. I listened to a quintet that was practicing for a concert that evening. The church had magnificent acoustics. In fact, when we went behind the church into the main piazza, we could still clearly hear them singing over Helen’s discussion of the Joust of the Saracen, a really strange festival that takes place annually in that square. After seeing a Mary Magdalene fresco by Piero in the Gothic Cathedral and an Italo-Byzantine cross by Cimabue in San Domenico, we then quickly visited Vasari’s house, which was a pretty interesting example of an artist’s home in the mid 1500s.
We boarded the bus for a 1 ½ bus ride to Assisi during which we all ate our picnic lunches and enjoyed the views going past the giant Lake Trasimeno. The lake is the site where Hannibal of Carthage defeated the Romans in a bloody battle but is also home to an island where St. Francis is said to have fasted for 42 days, eating only a loaf of bread the entire time.
In Assisi it began to snow while we climbed our way up to the church of San Francesco. We examined the decorations of the lower church, the one begun shortly after the death of the saint in 1226, before going down into the appropriately bare and austere crypt where Francis is actually buried. Speaking is absolutely forbidden. We then climbed to the upper church with its extensive series of frescoes, many of which illustrate the life of the saint. There is a lot of debate over who did the frescoes, however. The church and Italy in general maintain that they were all done by Giotto, which would make them quite the national treasure. However, it looks much more like someone copying Giotto’s style did them. A lot of the scenes don’t have Giotto’s clarity or simplicity and were done in too many giornata (frescos are done one puzzle piece at a time, each piece representing a day of work since the plaster dries in about 8 hours). Landscape and architectural elements are also a bit off and it looks like several hands had a help. However, there are two frescoes on the entrance wall which look a bit more convincing. Maybe they’re the real thing
After leaving San Francesco, we walked across town to Santa Chiara. The town of Assisi is so romantic and picturesque! All of the buildings I remember seeing were made of stone with adorable, thick wooden doors. The streets were clean and the mountain air was clean. It was really, really cold, though! In the church, service had begun so we were only able to go to the crypt to see the saint’s sarcophagus. It was mildly interesting. Of much greater interest was the incredible sunset over the mountains across the wide valley! The snow clouds made a pretty dramatic contrast with the tropical-coral of the sun.
In the valley was the town of Porziuncola where we visited Santa Maria degli Angeli, a huge church erected over the Porziuncola—the humble little chapel in which St. Francis actually founded the Franciscan order—and the bare-earth spot where St. Francis died. On the way in, I observed a large sign about St. Elizabeth with an illustration that made her look like a Disney princess.
We got back on the bus and headed for the extremely small mountain town of Lamoli where we were to spend the night. I fell asleep and woke up with the bus creeping up the snowy switchbacks of a mountain pass. I had never really pictured this about Italy. We eventually rolled into Lamoli and up to our hotel, Oasi San Benedetto, which was a remodeled monastery. After dropping our suitcases, we headed down to the dinning room and a banquet-style dinner with bread, pasta, lentils, chicken, and a dessert which was like a spongy cake with some green raisin thrown in.
After staying up and talking, I went back to my room, attempted to get warm, and finally fell asleep.