The Grand Tour: Recent Episodes
Lynda Mulvin and Michael Collins
https://www.rct.uk/collection/406983/the-tribuna-of-the-uffizi
Johan Joseph Zoffany's Tribune of the Uffizi 1771 depicts the Florentine Tribuna is the hexagonal domed room created in 1585-9 by Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608) at the Uffizi palace for the display of the masterpieces in the Medici collection.
https://duomo.firenze.it/en/discover/dome
the largest masonry vault in the world built between 1420 and 1436 by Filippo Brunelleschi.
**Rome, founded in 753 BC, became one of the greatest empires that ever existed, Caput Mundi.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/91/
https://www.pantheonroma.com/home-eng/
Pantheon
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grtr/hd_grtr.htm**
Giovanni Paolo Panini 1691-1765 was the most celebrated and popular view painter in eighteenth-century Rome.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1766.html
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pira/hd_pira.htm
For details of Siena a world heritage site : https://www.unesco.it/it/PatrimonioMondiale/Detail/109
For details of the Palio di Siena
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/consorzio-per-la-tutela-del-palio-di-siena
For details of Siena cathedral
https://www.discovertuscany.com/siena/siena-churches/duomo.html
San Gimignano UNESCO world heritage monument
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/550/
further details of collections of works by Benozzo Gozzoli (1421-1497) https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/gozzoli-benozzo
Intrepid explorers Milordi ventured forth from Venice to Ravenna pausing to wonderful sights and monuments in this spectacular and unique walled early christian city of Ravenna:
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia :
https://www.turismo.ra.it/en/culture-and-history/unesco-world-heritage/mausoleum-of-galla-placidia/
Neon baptistery https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/neonian-baptistery/
Sant Apollinare in Nuovo, https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/apollinare-nuovo
San Vitale: https://www.turismo.ra.it/en/culture-and-history/religious-buildings/basilica-san-vitale/
This episode sees the Grand Tourists travelling across the lagoon to see some of the islands. the magnificent Basilica di Santa Maria Assunt was a must see on for the feast of the Assumption on Torcello
https://www.venetoinside.com/attraction-tickets-in-veneto/tickets/torcello-basilica/
How did the Grand Tourists get around Venice? The flat bottomed gondolier was the main means of transport. Rencently, in 2010 the first female gondolier, Giorgia Boscolo was given a licence !
Palladio and Palladian churches loomed large on the Grand Tour with a visit to Il Redentore Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on the island of the Giudecca, during the feast of the Redeemer in July, the festa captured in a painting "La Chiesa del Redentore e il ponte votivo" - Antonio Canal detto il Canaletto
Venice conjured up myths and legend and tales of the unexpected as imagination is full of images of the carnivale and the luminous lagoon framed by the Istrian sandstone churches of Palladio. Viewpoints of the city. Venice continues to attract the ideology of the grand tour to the city and myth of Venice itself. Venice for so long is the home of the Biennale with sights and situations created.
https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022
Turin is known for its Baroque Rococo and neoclassical architecture elegant palazzi such a Palazzo Madama were built during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The first stage on the grand tour James Caulfeild , Lord Charlemont (1728-1799), spent a year in Turin in 1746.
This episode takes the grand Tourist over the Alps to Piedmont and the first great City on the Grand Tour : Turin
Some useful information is to be found below in the websites:
For the architecture of Guerino Guarini: see https://divisare.com/projects/400021-guarino-guarini-chapel-of-the-holy-shroud
Palazzo Carignano is a fantastic visit: http://polomusealepiemonte.beniculturali.it/
For the wonderful Egyptian Museum in Turin visit their website:
https://museoegizio.it/en/explore
The Grand Tour was an essential part of education during the period especially the 17th and 18th centuries when young men and women from Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Europe travelled southwards to Rome, home of the empire to which it gave its name, the Caput Mundi. The “coming of age” journey introduced the young voyagers to new languages, food and customs as well as bringing them face to face with the glorious remnants of the Classical world. Dr Johnson once said ‘The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean’.
Join Michael Collins and Lynda Mulvin in their new podcast, The Grand Tourists, as they explore the old routes and search the cities through which the young visitors passed. Paris, Lyons, Zurich, Turin, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Loretto, Ravenna and Venice are just a few of the main cities through which the early tourists passed. The fortnightly podcast, lasting approximately 15 minutes, brings the listener behind the scenes to find hidden gems and artistic treasures. Join us on your favourite podcast platform and imagine in your mind’s eye the glories of Golden Age.
See the Wallace Collection for the Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) Dance to the Music of Time https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMP/eMuseumPlusservice=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=65042&viewType=detailView
Muiris Moynihan @muirismoynihan took the splendid photographs in Rome from Santa Sabina and the Capitoline Hill and we have been happily granted permission by him to use them as our profile. Thank you Muiris!