The main area of the surviving relief is in a pentagonal frame, like a door lintel. There are simple columns in low relief at each side. In the center, the deceased man stands under an arch flanked by birds. There are smaller animals at his side and outside the arch on the right. Below this pentagonal section, there is pair of birds facing each other in low relief.

Fragmentary Roman relief from the upper part of a funerary stele, end of 1st century BC
Caught my eye for its vague similarity to #Romanesque church tympana in rural churches.
Museo Civico/Foro Romano, Assisi, #Umbria
#ReliefWednesday #Archaeology #museitaliani

March 25: the Annunciation
Here's a detail of Mary, the dove of the Holy Spirit, rich detailing of fabrics and more from Neri di Bicci's panel of 1464, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence
#museitaliani #painting

March 25: Feast of the #Annunciation
Here's a panel from the bronze doors (Porta di San Ranieri) of the transept of Pisa Cathedral, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
Bonanno Pisano made them in the 1180s. He also did bronze doors for Monreale Cathedral in Sicily.
#MedievalArt #museitaliani

Some beauty...
First thing you see in the Pisa Cathedral museum (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo) are Bonanno of Pisa's bronze doors from the transept (1180s).
A museum shows a lot of justified confidence to make that the opening act.
Here's the Visitation. Title refers only to Elizabeth.
#museitaliani

St Martin is enthroned and flanked by angels in a tall panel in the form of a pointed arch. Below, the single predella panel shows him cut his cloak to clothe a poor man.

2/Lorenzo di Bicci painted the panel of St Martin in the early 1380s for the vintner’s guild. It was placed in Orsanmichele on a pier or pilaster, hence the tall, narrow format. The 21 guilds or trade corporations had altars there for their patron saints.
#museitaliani

A zebra-striped arch, sunken panels, and a capital (detail in next photo)

A simplified version of a Corinthian capital: two alternating rows of spiky acanthus, deeply drilled for a black-and-white effect. The upper leaves are also outlined by an arching curve on the basket. Above, the convex abacus has a rough egg and dart motif, and there is a row of simple framed palmettes on the small impost.

Among the many attractions of a visit to the Museo dell'antico Palazzo dei Vescovi in Pistoia (highly recommended!), is the opportunity for a closer look at masonry and capitals above the west porch.
#museitaliani #StoneworkSunday #MedievalArt

Two square panels, side-by-side, have groups of four or five dancing cherubs, carved in high relief, highlighted by a background of dark green tiles

For #SundaySermons, a pair of panels from the exterior pulpit of the Cathedral of Prato. Done by Michelozzo and Donatello (1434-1438), they are now preserved and displayed (very well!) in the Museo del Duomo.
#Renaissance #sculpture #ArtHistory
#museitaliani

View down an arched passageway to a highly decorated Christmas tree framed by columns in a courtyard.

Getting ready for Christmas at the Palazzo Medici Ricciardi.
What an absolute delight to visit the palace last week and have major rooms like the Chapel almost all to myself.
#museitaliani

Mitred bishop with ornate cape (orange fleur-de-lis over blue, jeweled clasp, and highly detailed border and collar) over brown Franciscan robe. Crozier has a spiraling tip representing a sprig of foliage

St Louis of Toulouse, 1480-82, magnificently colored and patterned work by Andrea della Robbia
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Prato.
Highly recommended (ticket includes access to cathedral chancel with Lippi frescoes) for the collection and interesting spaces (cloisters etc) #museitaliani

Faces of grief from a 16th century lamentation scene painted by a #Renaissance nun, Sor Plautilla (Polissena de' Nelli)
Museo San Marco, Florence
#museitaliani #nuntastic #ArtHistory

Bronze griffon on a tall pedestal, profiled in open doorway

Leaning Tower of Pisa almost fully visible beyond low courtyard wall.

Pisa, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, great place. Inside and out.
#Museitaliani

St Michael, against a bright background, dominates the upper half of the panel as he strides forward, wings out, sword up, feet on a cloud. To each side, other flying angels wield swords as the rebel angels fall and are transformed into grotesque non-human forms and dissolved into dark abstractions. A strange figure of God the father is seen obliquely in the framing arch of the panel, arms extended, looking down, and directing the action.

An abstraction of monstrous creatures and body parts in the lower part of the painting as the rebel angels lose their human forms.

For #Michaelmas, St Michael leads the charge in the fall of the rebel #angels who dissolve into eerie abstraction.
Magnificent painting by Beccafumi in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena (one of your rewards if you ever make it past the first couple of dozen rooms)
#painting #ArtHistory #museitaliani

Detail of one of the thuribles that the figures hold. It is designed as a tower with three stories and a spire. The figure holds its long strap with both hands

Two damaged figures holding thuribles. Both are now headless. Their robes flutter and fold around their feet and at their waist.

Two fluttery figures by sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio and his workshop (late 13th century)
Cathedral Museum, Orvieto
#ThuribleThursday #museitaliani #sculpture

«Solo in pochi riconosceranno da questo particolare l'opera che #museitaliani ha scelto per il #quizadarte!»

Certosa di San Lorenzo, due giorni di aperture straordinarie — Vallo Più Per due giorni, il Sistema Museale di Padula apre al pubblico spazi normalmente inaccessibili, regalando un’opportunità unica per scoprire i tesori nascosti del complesso monastico. Sabato 9 agosto da...

Sabato e Domenica prossimi si potranno ammirare gli affreschi della Foresteria Nobile, le raffinate decorazioni della Cappella di Sant’Anna, la suggestiva Biblioteca del Monastero
.
#museitaliani #UNESCO #unescoworldheritage #patrimonioculturale #PatrimonioUNESCO

The decoration is in black and deep brownish-red on a pale tan-colored ground. The belly of the pot has two principle zones: a row of large four-legged animals in the lower and slightly narrower band; on this side, chariots and a combat between two warriors in the wider, curving surface of the upper band.

A detail showing a siren (or a bird with a woman's head) and two smaller flying birds just below the handle. Above the handle the circular rim of the krater extends outward creating a square panel, here decorated with another siren.

Three groups, each of three women. Two groups face each other. In each group, the three women appear to share one large dark mantle in a dull red color.

1/Items excavated in recent decades are an exciting reminder of how much awaits discovery and interpretation.
Here, a Corinthian krater, found in a tomb at Monte Sannace in 2002
Now at the archaeological museum 👍 in nearby Gioia del Colle, #Puglia
#FindsFriday #AncientBlueSky #Pottery #museitaliani

In the central figure group, Dionysus reclines on a banqueting couch and embraces Ariadne who approaches him from the right.

The wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne on an Apulian red-figure situla from Rutigliano, #Puglia
Now, Bari, Museo Archeologico di Santa Scolastica
#MythologyMonday #AncientBlueSky #Pottery #museitaliani

The censer is richly decorated with stylized patterns of interlacing foliage in gilded silver and different colors of enamels. The lower part is ringed by columns on tall pedestals. They separate a series of arches that frame decorated panels. The columns support the upper part fashioned like a dome.

Architectural censer, gilded silver with enamels, work of Parisian goldsmiths, 1575
Cathedral Museum, Orvieto
Things pop up in unexpected places!
Note: the tiny urn at the top, and the pair of enamel flowers in that rectangular panel of the base in the foreground.
#ThuribleThursday #museitaliani

St Dominic, from the polyptych for San Domenico, Orvieto, by Simone Martini and his workshop (1320-21)
Now, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
Look at the fine #painting of individual strands of hair!
#Trecento #museitaliani #MedievalSky #FacesOnFriday #FridayFaces

Four views of a portrait of a Roman woman from the 160s, probably a funerary statue.
Museo Nazionale Romano (Baths of Diocletian), from Berretta di Prete, via Appia Nuova
#museitaliani #AncientBlueSky #RomanEmpire #sculpture

Detail of a stack of five booklets in St Paul's hand, the top one titled, "AD ROMANOS"

On gold ground, St Paul holds a sword and a stack of five booklets.

St Paul isn't satisfied with one measly scroll or open book with a short phrase. He's showing off a stack of Epistles.
Panel of a polyptych by Simone Martini, Museo del Opera del Duomo di Orvieto, 1320-21
#MedievalArt #Trecento #museitaliani #SaintsInArt #iconography

In the Museo della Città e del Territorio in Narni, two details of the altar #painting of the Coronation of the Virgin by Ghirlandaio and his workshop. Cardinal and jurist Berardo Eroli commissioned it for the Franciscan church of San Girolamo, Narni, #Umbria.
#museitaliani #ArtHistory #Renaissance

Taking a dive into the deep past at the wonderful Museo Civico di Paleontologia e Paletnologia in Maglie, #Puglia.
Informative displays on geology, #fossils, animal life, and the earliest human settlements. Very well done.
#museitaliani

Alternating standing figures of men and women with hands clasped, some raised, some at their sides.

Detail of the faces and raised, clasped hands of three figures.

Row of men and women with clasped hands

The "capital of the dance", a splendid #Romanesque piece from the onetime abbey of Sant'Andrea dell'Isola at Brindisi, now in the Museo Archeologico, Brindisi
#romanico #museitaliani

Capital with row of acanthus leaves in the lower zone and a large head in the center of each face.

Detail of a woman's head: she is veiled and wears earrings. The sculptor has drilled the pupils of her eyes. She is framed by acanthus leaves.

Detail of a bearded man's head. He wears a rounded, conical cap and is framed by acanthus leaves

A second capital with a lower row of acanthus leaves, corner volutes, and a large head (a woman and a man) on each face.

A pair of Roman capitals decorated with large heads on each face at the Museo Archeologico, Brindisi.
They were found in excavations at the site itself, a handy thing for a museum.
#AncientBlueSky #museitaliani #Puglia

Cabinet behind glass with five shelves of red-figure pottery in different shapes

The rhyton is decorated with a sphinx with a white body, clay-colored hair, and black and white striped wings

Rhyton decorated with a monkey's face

At the Museo Jatta in Ruvo di Puglia (top places!), you'll find a rhyton for every taste in every shape.
#Museitaliani #AncientBlueSky #Pottery #Puglia

Helmet and armor of the late 4th century BC from a tomb excavated in Conversano, now in the archaeological museum in Gioia del Colle, #Puglia.
#museitaliani #AncientBlueSky #Archaeology