619 N. 35th Street, Ste 100 (alley between 34th and 35th)
Seattle, WA
545-6974
fslgallery@gmail.com
Opening and Holiday Party
Saturday, December 22, 6-10pm
I'll be there!
Original model of Brunelleschi's unsupported dome at the Museo dell'Opera, Florence
I just spent an hour or so at Form-Space-Light Gallery in Fremont with owner, John Parkinson, and sculptor and writer, Joseph Keppler.
Joe is a terrific metal artist in the vein of Calder, each piece an inventive and beautifully executed idea. The gallery is a warm and inviting space, and the work on display is well curated and affordable, too. Check it out if you're in the neighborhood - the parties are fun and there's one this Saturday, I'll be strolling down the hill to meet the artists and drink a glass of wine.
Well, we got to talking about the Duomo in Florence and the fascinating story of how it was built. I mentioned I had taken some pictures and promised to post them, so here you go, John!
I saw the Duomo daily during my time in Florence - it's like a magnet at the center of town, you can't stray far before it pulls you back - and my memories of the striped stone exterior and massive presence of the church are still vivid. A couple of these shots are from the museum, which has an engrossing display of the tools and machines and special scaffolding used to build the dome, the likes of which had never been constructed before. The logistics required considerable ingenuity, and the story of how it eventually got built is one of the page-turners in art history.
The tale is entertainingly told in Ross King's bestseller, "Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture" (Penguin Books, NY, 2000).
