It rained, yesterday. It's raining, today. Hopefully, it won't rain tomorrow. In the meantime, it's cold. And dreary. Too uncomfortable to go outside, and the light is useless, anyway. Doesn't make for cheery photos. So, I decided to hunt through my files,...More......
...and found this "little" beauty: a recently restored river goddess, on the Porta Garibaldi gate in Milan.
The gate was commissioned from G. Moraglia, and erected in 1826 at the expense of local citizens (aka, "collective kissing up") in honor of the 1825 visit of Emperor Francesco I, at a time when the Hapsburg family of Austria still was in possession of a great portion of northern Italy. It was rededicated to Garibaldi after the final breaking away of these areas from the empire in the late 19th century.
The inspiration for the figure and its companion on the other side of the gate obviously was to be found in the figures by Michelangelo for the de' Medici tomb in Florence.
The gate was under scaffolding for years, and only recently has been revealed, lovely and white and clean (for how long?).
I took this shot on the 19th of September at about 2:15 P.M.
To see the needlepoint diagram of the goddess, go to my needlepoint blog, Ars acupicturae Stellae - Star's Needlepoint Art: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/11/milan-monday-13-river-goddess.html, thanks!
2 comments:
Sorry, it is still raining. Anyway, it's November...I try to cheer you up: I hard yesterday on the TV that an Exhibition has been opened at the Castello Sforzesco, with 200 photos showing Milan, as it was around the half of the 19° century. In particular, some pictures show Piazza del Duomo and the Galleria under construction.
Thank you so much for this info! I will try to go, for sure!
Post a Comment