Ricardo at the Uffizi

We had the very special gift of having Ricardo as our guide for the HUGE museum originally built by the Medici family as office space. Uffize means office. It now holds the largest collection of Renaissance art in the world. Ricardo was as focused and passionate as yesterday. He focused on six artists by which one may trace a coherent picture of the Renaissance: from Fra Lippo's "The Madonna" (1406) to Bottecelli's "Allegory of Spring" (1477) and "Venus Rising From The Sea", to Leonardo's "The Annunciation" (1472) and the unfinished "The Adoration of the Kings" (1475), which has no Joseph. (Ricardo believes that this has an "obvious" reference to Leonardo" father's refusal to recognize him as his son, though he did provide for him.) This masterpiece contains a young Leonardo like face turning away from the Mary and Jesus, and "obvious" reference to Leonardo's sceptical turn of mind, in contrast with Michelangelo's piety, according to Ricardo.

We were also privileged to see the only painting (frescos aside) done by Michelangelo. It is the round "The Tondo Doni of the Holy Family at Baptism" (1504) in which figures look skulpted compared to Raphael's Madonna. We then saw Raphael's "Madonna" and a portrait of Pope Leo X. Raphael died in 1520, the climax and end, says Ricardo, of the true Renaissance. To illustrate this, he focused on two paintings whose names I failed to note, whose work displays a restlessness, the absence of confidence, the doubt, and the instability we associate with Mannerism. This fundamental shift of vision and attitude reflects the new geography: (America), the new religion (Luther), the new politics (French invasion of Italy), and the plague, which brought death to 1000s. Art, insists Ricardo, must be more than beauty. It must reflect the philosophy of life and the Renaissance philosophy of life is summed up in the word "Rationality".

For Ricardo, this shift also resonates with the cultural shift that began in 1960 when the stable and confident post war period gave way to the restless and self indulgent 1960s and 70s and to the present when we "cannot even bring a bottle of water into the Uffizi". I suppose this is a vast simplification, but it was heart felt and deeply considered by Ricardo and we are grateful for it.