United States or Netherlands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Without Luca I doubt if the "Madonna della Sedia" could be the idyll of protective solicitude and loving pride that it is. The Sala di Giove brings us to Venetian painting indeed, and glorious painting too, for next the door is Titian's "Bella," No. 18, the lady in the peacock-blue dress with purple sleeves, all richly embroidered in gold, whom to see once is to remember for ever.
And then, if we compare it with the Madonna della Sedia , which is said to have been painted on the lid of a wine cask, we shall find, I think, that however many new secrets he may learn Raphael never forgot a lesson. It is Perugino who has taught him to compose so perfectly, that the space, small or large, of the picture itself becomes a means of beauty.
The other notable pictures are Raphael's Fornarina, No. 245, which is far more Venetian than the "Madonna della Sedia," and has been given to Sebastian del Piombo; and the Venetian group on the right of the door, which is not only interesting for its own charm but as being a foretaste of the superb and glorious Giorgione in the Sala di Marte, which we now enter.
Luca Pitti's pride Preliminary caution A terrace view A collection but not a gallery The personally-conducted Giorgione the superb Sustermans The "Madonna del Granduca" The "Madonna della Sedia" From Cimabue to Raphael Andrea del Sarto Two Popes and a bastard The ill-fated Ippolito The National Gallery Royal apartments "Pallas Subduing the Centaur" The Boboli Gardens.
Descriptive, Palm-sunday lights used at mass etc. vestments ubbidienza, blessing of the palms, benedictions, holy water, incense distribution of the palms order in which the prelates and others receive them solemn procession with palms, sedia gestatoria ceremonies peculiar to this procession its antiquity High mass, its peculiar ceremonies on palm-sunday Passio Cardinal great Penitentiary at S. John Lateran's.
All then move in procession towards the high-altar in the order observed in the procession of the palms, as described below: the Pope descends from His sedia gestatoria to adore the Holy Sacrament with the Cardinals etc.
And, above all, he watched, still with that steady set face that made Father Jervis look at him once or twice, the central figure of all, now on his throne, with his assistants beside him, now passing up to the altar to incense it, and finally passing out again on the sedia gestatoria to the palace where at last he ruled indeed.
The bearers of the Sedia gestatoria* shone bravely in red tunics broidered with gold. Above the one and only Sovereign Pontiff of the world the flabelli waved those huge fans of feathers which formerly were waved before the idols of pagan Rome. And around the seat of triumph what a dazzling, glorious court there was!
Alighting from the sedia gestatoria before the altar of the Confession, his Holiness slowly celebrated a low mass, assisted by four prelates and the pro-prefect of the ceremonies.
In the coachhouses behind the Vatican, the old state coaches are mouldering; and the Pope, in his great sedia gestatoria, the bearers, the fan-men, the princes, the cardinals, the guards and the people will not in our time be again seen together under the Roman sky. Old-fashioned persons sigh for the pageantry of those days when they go up the steps into the church.
Word Of The Day