Thursday, November 11, 2010 hours 12:00
The rediscovery of color and the triumph of light in the religious Baroque of the Valdarno

Scuole Fiorentine Arte e Restauro
Training Area - Thursday November 11- from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The Renaissance considered the religious architecture as the reign of the so called “bianco di calce”, and it worked on plaster surfaces with precious and elegant stone mouldings. There was a new light in the buildings and the severe medieval stone architectural was definitely abandoned. In the same way the Baroque introduced a new sense of colour in the decorative wall motifs. The use of the stucco in the mouldings created an innovative chromatic contrast with the elegant decorative elements in false marble and the brightness gilt frames.
In the last decades the culture of restoration and the various experiences of the restoration sites is considering again as a great value the rediscovery of light and colours as a pregnant factor for a new architectural approach: light and colours acquire so a very important role for a correct interpretation of the Baroque era.
The interventions of restoration carried out by the Florentine Superintendence contain a new approach to the 17th and 18th chromatic attitudes: near the elegant Florentine churches (San Marco, San Paolino, San Frediano in Cestello…) emerges a very interesting series of examples coming from the territory of the Valdarno. From the mural paintings and decorations of the church of the Vivaio at Incisa, the Abbazia di Vallombrosa and the church of San Michele a Caselli in the territory of Reggello, the religious Baroque architecture of the Valdarno, emerges with its colourful and bright polychrome expressions which create a new harmony between the genius of the artists and the religious faith.

Speaker: Enzo Cacioli.

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