Letter: Art-Filled Florence

By
The New York Times
Published: Dec 21, 2008

To the Editor: In “Florence Then and Now” (Nov. 30), Adam Begley offers a splendid alternative by way of E. M. Forster to mostly impersonal guidebooks for experiencing this “hard, forbidding city.”

Nevertheless, what deprivation for the fleeting visitor to have missed standing in the obligatory silence of the magnificently restored frescoes (decades before Forster may have seen them) of Masaccio and Masolino in the Brancacci Chapel of the Santa Maria del Carmine church, and not to have gasped before the wall paintings of Fra Angelico in every cell in the Convento di San Marco.

And what of the up-close jewel of Gozzoli’s “Cavalcade of the Magi” in the tiny chapel in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, bypassed even by frequent visitors to Florence. While Santa Croce is deserving of extensive attention, why not include the copious works in Santa Maria Novella? Without guidebooks, it took me several visits to this art-jammed city to discover the two magical paintings of Pontormo in the church of Santa Felicita.

While I would be quick to encourage personal exploration at the risk of missing certain treasures, at the same time, I might slip a piece of paper in my friends’ traveling gear listing a half dozen or so “must see” masterworks — just in case!

The Rev. John B. Giuliani The Benedictine Grange Redding, Conn.

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