#cortona

The Etruscan Bronze Chandelier from Cortona

Late 4th century BCE – Bronze – From La Fratta, near Cortona

This monumental bronze chandelier, one of the masterpieces of Etruscan bronze craftsmanship, was discovered in 1840 near Cortona, at the site of La Fratta. Cast using the lost-wax technique and richly decorated with mythological and animal motifs, it exemplifies the artistic and technical sophistication of Etruscan metalworking workshops, likely those of Velzna (modern Orvieto).

The chandelier consists of a central shaft and a broad basin designed to hold combustible oil. Sixteen spouts alternate with protomes of Achelous, while the underside displays intricate scenes of sirens, sileni playing musical instruments, dolphins, and animal combats surrounding a central Gorgoneion.

An inscription invoking the god Tin, the supreme deity of the Etruscan pantheon, was added about a century later, suggesting the chandelier’s reuse in a ritual or sacred context—possibly within a temple in the Camucia area.

Panther mosaic. Roman villa of Ossaia

Mosaic of the apsidal room of area 3, from the Roman villa de la tufa in Ossiaia /Roman Villa of Ossaia. The villa once was owned by Gaius and Lucius Caesar, grandsons of emperor Augustus

2nd century / early 1st century BCE

Museum of the Etruscan Academy, Cortona, Italy

Attribution:

Visitation 1433-34 Tempera on wood Museo D

The Cortona Altarpiece (The Annunciation, 1433-34)

by Fra ANGELICO

iocesano, Cortona

In the predella below the Annunciation, near the two farthest edges, two scenes are painted (23 x 14 cm each). The first represent the Birth of the Virgin, the other The Virgin Consigns the Habit to St Dominic. There are five central scenes of the life of the Virgin, one after the other without interruption (23 x 183 cm), namely (from the left). Marriage of the Virgin, The Visitation, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Death of the Virgin.

This picture shows the scene of the Visitation. The event shown here is described in the Gospel of Luke. Immediately following the Annunciation, Mary 'went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth' (Luke 1, v. 39-40). The Virgin and Elisabeth embrace, the straight folds of their gowns showing a simplicity and reserve alien to the curvilinear trecento influences of some ofAngelico's mentors and contemporaries. Elisabeth, six months pregnant with John the Baptist, is given a wider girth than her cousin. Juda is represented by a series of simple, geometric forms, sharply lit but slightly thin and awkward. A woman makes her way up the hill path which lies in shadow below her. Behind her the sky and earth meet in the haze of a Tuscan summer.

Travel journal from 1998 that I kept while enrolled in the Cortona, Italy program through the Lamar Dodd School of Art at University of Georgia along with collected ephemera and the cigar box that housed them with the clamshell book box constructed later to make Book 2 cohesive with the other journal bindings.

I don’t know if I was still dealing with the time difference or with jet lag but while we stayed in Arezzo, I was typically up and moving very early every day.