Florence, Pisa and Siena [antikvár]

Between Florence, Pisa and Siena there is without doubt aconnecting thread, a relationship which creates a close link betweenthese three cities whose cultures have such a profoundly differentmeaning, but which are essentially so remarkably alike.If, by some sort of miracle, all three were to appear togetherbefore our eyes, we would immediately have a clear idea of theirdistinguishing features, that is to say of the special effect each cityhas on the observer, each evoking intense but very different feelings.Florence: surrounded by its pleasant hills, tranquil and sure ofitself sometimes even overbearing in the culture it has createdover the centuries, in the truths which it has discovered and whichno one would dare to debate.Pisa: built between the sea and the plain, suspended in a fairylandatmosphere, with its architecture so graceful and delicate it is almostunreal. Oriental, one is tempted to say, for the very fact that it ishalf-way between dream and reality.And finally Siena: uncompromisingly closed in its own world,jealous guardian and energetic defender of its past, of a historicheritage which can no longer die because it has become part of thevery stones of the city.All three cities responded with equal enthusiasm to the greatmoments in the history of Italian art, but each one translated theartistic movements into its own language. creating something ex-tremely personal from the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissancestyles in turn.The Romanesque style, for example: in Siena it is remarkablyascetic, as if to testify to an immovable faith, whereas in Pisa itbecomes, as it were, filled with doubts and thus open to all sorts ofvariations, so that into the originally solid Romanesque structure areintroduced those graceful stylistic deformations brought here fromthe distant East by the ships of the powerful Pisan maritimerepublic.Or the Renaissance style: in Florence it is rational, studied,almost lived: but in Siena it suddenly changes key, being adaptedto the city's somewhat harsher and less intellectual climate, andat the same time taking on that tone of subtle mysticism typicalof all Sienese art.But to return to the relationship, the invisible link between thethree cities. One is forced to admit that it exists. It exists aboveall in the stubborn way in which each one, with the means at itsdisposal, defends its own past.Florence, with its unshakeable certainty of acquired truths, Pisa,with its unreal atmosphere which seems almost a retreat fromreality, Siena, with its mysticism and contemplative asceticism.Each one carries on the fight, despite the overbearing demandsof the modern epoch, to keep alive its ancient spirit and the formsof expression inherited from the past. And it is this which willprevent Florence, Pisa and Siena from losing their vital impulsesand becoming bleak, if splendid, museums.