Florence, October 2020; or the Consolations of History.
This time three years ago, after a relatively unfettered and glorious summer, Italy was entering a second phase of lockdown. Just the thought of it inspires bone-aching weariness so I shan’t look up what exactly it entailed, but from memory movement between regions was once again halted and museums, cinemas, and galleries were closed. Just before, the whiff of closures in the offing, I rented an apartment on piazza Santo Spirito in Florence for a week, doing my Zoom talks from there instead. I spent the days wandering deserted museums and churches, and took night-time walks through eerily empty streets.
As soon as I got off the train I went to the Uffizi and in the first room I stood, entirely alone, before the Rucellai Madonna, commissioned from Duccio di Buoninsegna in 1285 for the chapel of the Laudesi (a confraternity founded by St Peter Martyr and dedicated to the Virgin) at Santa Maria Novella.
The contract, dated 15 April 1285, is the oldest such document to survive. It establishes that Duccio would be paid 150 lire; that he should use ultramarine for the Virgin’s mantle and gold leaf for the ground; that he must paint the panel entirely by himself, without help from his workshop; and that the Compagnia dei Laudesi had the right to refuse it for any reason if it didn’t meet their approval. Duccio was somewhere between 25 and 30 years old when he accepted the commission. The enormous panel was somehow even more breathtaking on this occasion than on others. For a few moments time stood still and unbidden tears, entirely divorced from sadness, pricked my eyes.
She looked down upon me standing, alone in the room and dutifully masked, in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Blinking, I returned her gaze as countless people have done for over seven hundred years. An all-enveloping and alarming period in our history, a mere blip in that of the painting. Somehow I found that very comforting.
Here are some other photos I took that curious week in October 2020.
Covid certainly had some positives! I was comparing your photos to what we experienced in May, which wasn't even the height of the tourist season.
These photos are magnificent. In the fall of 2021 when things were starting to open up to travel, we went to Rome and some of my photos are this hauntingly empty. Imagine being among less than 30 people in the Sistine Chapel! In the smaller museums we were often the only people there. I hold that time in my memory for so many reasons and in particular because it felt like everything was extra special--almost private, just for us.