A Closer Look: Episode 35 - An Early View Of Florence
Inside the small Gothic Loggia del Bigallo in Florence – directly across from the far better-known baptistery and cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore – lies one of the earliest representations of the city in art. It’s part of a much larger fresco known as The Madonna of Mercy, showing a monumental Virgin Mary venerated by men and women who gather around her.
These people could almost be stand-ins for members of a lay confraternity that met in the Loggia del Bigallo, praying, listening to sermons and planning their charitable activities in the medieval city we see beneath them.
In this episode of A Closer Look, historian Dr Nick Eckstein joins Limelight’s Dr Nick Gordon to take us inside the loggia, and also inside the city and the mentality of its inhabitants.
You can view a high resolution image of the Madonna of Mercy here.
Dr Nick Eckstein
Nick Eckstein is a historian with an international reputation for his innovative research into the society and culture of Renaissance Florence.
Dr Nick Gordon
Nick is a historian of Italy and of Western Europe in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. He has led tours to Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia, East Asia and Australasia for more than fifteen years. Nick is a director of Limelight Arts Travel.