Giotto in Rome: Father of Renaissance Giotto's Works on Display in Rome

San Francesco expels the devils from Arezzo by Giotto

Rome, February 20 - Rome is gearing up for one of the artistic highlights of its year, a major exhibition paying tribute to the father of the Renaissance, Giotto.

Opening March 6, 50 works of art, including 20 panels, exploring the life and times of Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337) will be on display.

Speaking at the presentation of the event, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said the exhibit would be unique.

''It will just not be a great cultural event but will also have enormous civil, political and democratic value,'' he said. ''Giotto was one of the fathers of European art and just looking at his masterpieces makes us all better people''.

The exhibition will feature wooden sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and goldwork. The highlight of the show will be the fragile, 14th-century panels on loan from major museums around the world, several of which have been restored for the show.

''This event will not simply commemorate Giotto's work, it aims to approach the master from a fresh point of view,'' said Architectural Heritage Superintendent Roberto Cecchi. ''There are so many aspects to Giotto that we still know little about, such as his interest in architecture, and the exhibition will contain some appealing ideas for future studies''.

Although renowned for his skill at life drawings at a time when stylized Byzantine art dominated, much of Giotto's life, travels and training remains shrouded in mystery. He was born in Tuscany of a father named Bondone, studied with Cimabue, one of the greatest painters of his day, and completed his greatest masterpiece, the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, in around 1305.

However, the year and precise place of his birth and his family's background remain subjects of dispute, as does the order in which he completed his works and even their attribution. The exhibition sets out to address these uncertainties among others, looking at conflicting views and tracing his voyages around Italy through the impact of his art. ''The exhibition will analyze the master's presence in Italy's greatest cities, from Rome to Florence, and from Naples to Milan,'' said the event's curator Alessandro Tomei.

''First-hand evidence has disappeared but historians have reconstructed his trail through documentation and the influence his work had on his contemporaries. ''Where Giotto appeared, artistic expression changed for good,'' he concluded. Entitled Giotto e Le Trecento (Giotto And The 14th Century), the exhibition runs in Rome's Vittoriano from March 6 until June 29.

One of WebVisionItaly's favorite Italian towns is Assisi, which we find so peaceful and beautiful. Inside the Basilica di San Francesco does Giotto's art cover the walls depicting the life of San Francesco? One of our favorite's is the panel that depicts San Francesco expelling the devil and phantoms who had taken over the souls of the people from Arezzo. Giotto was long credited with the frescoes in the Upper Church of S Francesco in Assisi, painted between 1297 and about 1305, but of course there is always controversy and these Giotto paintings in the Basilica of San Francesco Assisi are subject of one big controversy: are the paintings by the hands of Giotto or by students who copied his style.

If you plan to travel to Rome this Spring stop by the Vittorino to see Giotto's work, a wonderful base from which to jump into European Art and the Renaissance.

For more video about travel in Italy click WebVisionItaly.com.

Italy Travel: Palladio 500th Anniversary Celebrations in Vicenza

Does your Italy travel bring you to Venice? If so, consider a visit to Vicenza, in the region of Veneto, 45 miles west of Venice, to see
La Grande Mostre, the big show, a permanent exhibition of Andrea Palladio's finest buildings.

Andrea Palladio (November 30, 1508 – August 19, 1580), was an Italian architect, widely considered the most influential person in the history of Western architecture. Born in Padua, the 500th anniversary is being celebrated in Vicenza with the launch of the permanent exhibition, Palladio - La Grande Mostra, because so many of his buildings are there.

Palladio architectural style drew on the buildings of ancient Rome as models. The major theme of both his rural and urban building was temple architecture, with a strong pointed pediment supported by columns and approached by wide steps.

Palladio's influence was far-reaching, although his buildings are all in a relatively small part of Italy. One factor in the spread of his influence was the publication in 1570 of his architectural treatise I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), which set out rules others could follow. Before this landmark publication, architectural drawings by Palladio had appeared in print as illustrations to Daniele Barbaro's "Commentary" on Vitruvius.

Interest in his style was renewed in later generations and became fashionable all over Europe, for example in parts of the Loire Valley of France. In Britain, Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren embraced the Palladian style. Another admirer was the architect Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork, also known as Lord Burlington, who, with William Kent, designed Chiswick House. Exponents of Palladianism include the 18th century Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni who published an authoritative four-volume work on Palladio and his architectural concepts.

Palladio's architectural influence spread to St. Petersburg and to Charlottesville in Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson commissioned a Palladian villa he called Monticello.

In 1994 UNESCO inscribed "Vicenza, City of Palladio" on its list of World Heritage Sites. In 1996 the site was expanded to include the Palladian villas outside the core area, and accordingly renamed "City of Palladio and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".

Palladio's works in Vicenza is home to twenty-three buildings designed by Palladio.

The famous Palladio buildings in Vicenza are:

The three-dimensional stage at the The Teatro Olimpico, designed for the Accademia degli Olimpici. Construction had started on this project when Palladio died in 1580. ;

The Villa Capra (also known as "La Rotonda"), located just outside the downtown area;

The Basilica Palladiana, centrally located in Vicenza's Piazza dei Signori, of which Palladio himself said that it might stand comparison with any similar work of antiquity;

Palazzo Chiericati; (home of Vicenza's museum)

Palazzo Barbaran Da Porto; (Site of the permanent exhibition - full of original drawings)

Palazzo Da Porto Breganze;

Palazzo Porto in Piazza Castello;

Palazzo Thiene;

Click here for more video of Vicenza and video of Palladio's buildings.

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