AREZZO

Cue (NZERS), Issue 35, 15 November 1945, Page 22

AREZZO

r IFT ED above the plain upon a JLj gently rolling hill the ancient town of Arezzo p? safe from the threat of the turbulent Arno, that flows past a mile or two to the -north. Like all the towns of Central Italy, Arezzo has a past as turbulent as the current of that re doubt - able stream, and, in mediaeval days a series of fighting bishops ruled it in vigorous fashion, dragging a not Unwilling townspeople into all manner of. battles with the neighbouring communes.

The Cathedral, on whose altar these lively prelates used to lay their sword’s and helmets, when not employed in cutting down !thc parishioners of other priests, dominates the town frem its splendid and isolated site beside tire wooded Prato. It is as good a spot as any from which to start a round tour of Arezzo.

: The Cathedral itself, started as early as 1278, but not finished till 1510, is a vast pile of stone, impressive in its mass, and also a good example of Italian Gothic.

.The . facade arid campanile are something of an ■achievement, 1 for although both were built within the last hundred years : they blend very

well with the original. The mainportal is consequently quite new. There is, however, an old and also beautiful side portal, with a carving of the ’’Madonna enthroned”, by Nicoio Lamberti in the lunette Within, the cathedral’s three naves* .with their frescoed vaulting give a magnificent effect of colour and light. This can be the better appreciated since a rare generosity in the matter of window—glass letsin the day. Here is none of the dim gloom we are so accustomed tn in Italy. Of the various carvingsand paintings perhaps the altar of S. Donato, a masterpiece: of 14thcentury sculpture, is most worth close inspection. Above and behind the Cathedral the pleasant wooded /Prato is the great place for Rivers’ walks. It boasts a modern monument to Petrarch, the city’s most famous son, a monument incidentally that * has aroused almost as violent criticism in Italy as Epstein’s Rima memorial in London did in its day.

Petrarch is commemorated again in a different way just below the Cathedral, for as one walks down the via dell’ Or to toward the’ town?

on one’s right is the Casa del Petrarcha, where on 20th July, 1304, the poet was born, the son of one of Dante’s co-cxiles from Florence. A plaque on the wall records the facts and a drawing of this pleasant ionise appears below’.

Turning the corner beyond the oasa, where the street slips (more steeply away, past the Museum, closed as most museums are at present, and curiously ornamented, as is the one at Cortona, with many stone coats of arms, one comes to the oldest and quaintest of Arezzo’s churches, the 11th century S. Maria della Pieve. The facade and campanile date from the 13th century, and give the church its unique character. The facade is not particularly beautiful but it is very interesting. .■■lt consists of three rows of reading set in a rather meaningless way against the wall with only a foot or so. between wall and pillars. The pillars, scores of them, are each carved in a different way, apparently entirely according to the fancy of the mason. Beneath the arcades is a series of Romanesque arches in which the three portals offer typical examples of the naif but effective Sculpture of the time. The detail is amusing but the general effect' is rough and ungraceful. This was a ’prentice time in architecture and the builder seems to have been striving for an effect that was beyond him.

The interior is Gothic in feeling and has an odd arrangement cf altars, for in the apse a high altar stands on a platform while under it. in . a presbytery stands another, giving rather the effect of a stage feet of a two-storied house with the front wall missing, such as is sometimes used in pantomine. The church is full of good reliefs and odd pieces of 14th century carving.

For those who like views, the son of the sacristan will gladly show’ the

way up the great five-storied belltower. An athletic leap to some high iron rungs and then a clamber up innumerable rickety wooden .ladders leads cue at last to the. top floor, where . hang the great bells. From here a splendid view of the whole town is to be had, for the top of the tower is higher than the Prato by the Cathedral, and all Arezzo is laid out. beneath cue’s feet. On the way down cue can by a diversion reach the arcades of the facade and crawl along the narrow footway behind the pillars, to examine in detail the various fancies of the mastermasons of those ancient times.

The climb gives one a first glimpse of the old centre of Arezzo, the charming mediaeval Piazza Vasari, immediately behind S. Maria, which is illustrated in the heading cf the article. Here, in almost untouched perfection, is a square that for its general effect can stand comparison with Siena’s Piazzo del Campo. Without any single architectural treasure such as the Palazzo Pulbblico, it yet gives one the instant feeling of at- past age come to life. The arcaded apse of

S. Maria abuts on it, and all around are old Gothic towers and ancient houses with ample wooden balconies. These balconies formed, and form, ideal grandstands for the pageants and festivals that used the sloping red-brick Piazza as their setting. One of these festivals, the Saracen's Joust, has been revived and is now celebrated annually in antique costumes and with a display that recalls iSiena’s Palio. /Possibly it was revived with a remembrance of the old rivalry of the two cities, and a determination to yield nothing to the sister city in point of display.

The most curious of the buildings that surround the square is perhaps the Palazzo della Fraternita, separated from the apse of S. Maria by She white front of the Palace of Justice. It is an elaborately carved stone building, with a Gothic ground-floor, dating from 1363, a Renaissance upper floor, about a hundred years later, and.., a baroque clock tower, -on which the highly

ornamental clock has hands graced by a large sun and moon, an •unusual fancy. There are, as usual, many other churches scattered rcund the town, but the only one of real note is the high and airy church of S. Francesco. whose walls are ornamentedwith some notable frescoes by Pierh della. Franceschi, illustrating the legend of the Holy Cross. Of the other notable buildings the Town Hall Should be mentioned. It is a pleasant solid 12th century pile of no great distinction, opposite; the Ca rat. But though undistinguish it does very well symbolise the spirit of the town, which still retains its mediaeval civic pride. An old town and a proud town what it had it held and force was met with force. The Aretines formed a citizen army that carved themselves . a high place in the medley of city states that made up Central Italy,, and they have not forgotten their former glories. .