LUCCA AND NORTHERN TUSCANY MEDIEVAL AND EARLY

L U C C A AND N O R T H E R N T U S C A N Y
M E D I E V A L AND E A R L Y R E N A I S S A N C E A R T AND A R C H I T E C T U R E
AN U L E M H A S S T U D Y T O U R
14-21 A P R I L 2013
In the last few years ULEMHAS has joined forces with Real Holidays in order to offer study
tours to continental Europe. It is a relationship we wish to develop, and next year intend taking
ULEMHAS to Italy in the hope of gaining an insight into regional approaches to architecture,
sculpture and painting in northern Tuscany, or more specifically in the cities of Lucca, Pisa,
Prato and Pistoia along with a handful of the smaller rural centres in the Garfagnana.
Northern Tuscany boasts one of the richest and most diverse collections of medieval and early
Renaissance monuments in Italy. It also occupies a position of capital importance for the fabric
of medieval Europe - famed both for its regionally distinctive Romanesque architecture, and as
the cradle from which humanist modes of thought and more naturalistic approaches to the
depiction of the human figure emerged in the course of the 15th century. The major Romanesque
buildings are late 11th and 12th century, and the quality and quantity of work which survives
from this period remains considerable. The crucial step towards a mature, fully articulated,
Romanesque architecture was probably first taken at Pisa, but the response in Lucca and Pistoia
was almost immediate, and at Lucca cathedral and San Giovanni Fuorcivitas one might see two
of the most impressive essays on the interaction of sculpture and architecture 12th-century
Europe has produced.
Full dress Gothic arrived late and in dramatic fashion, with its finest representatives the jewellike reliquary church o f Sta Maria della Spina in Pisa and Giovanni Pisano's spectacular Pistoia
pulpit. But it is not so much for its north French inspired Gothic that northern Tuscany
impresses. It is the extraordinarily inventive painting of the later middle ages and Renaissance
that catches the eye - something to savour in the great Francesco Traini cycle of frescoes in Pisa,
or Filippo Lippi's dazzling life of John of Baptist in the choir of Prato Cathedral.
Practical Details and Booking Arrangements
Once in the region we will travel by continental touring coach, and stay at the Hotel Ilaria in
Lucca for all 7 nights.
There is a choice of travel options
1 Travel to and from Pisa on scheduled British Airways flights, or
2 Travel by Train to Pisa and meet the main party at the airport
3 Make your own arrangements and meet the main party at the airport or hotel
The Hotel Ilaria is within the historic centre of Lucca, no more than a few hundred metres
from the cathedral, and a coach will meet the party at the airport to transport all those
travelling by air to the hotel in Lucca. For those travelling by train or by means other than
with the main party, you might either join the coach at the airport by 2.00 pm, or simply
make your own way to the hotel in time to assemble for dinner at 8.00 pm.
The total cost including air travel will be £1325 per person (£1,125 i f making your own travel
arrangements), which includes flights, airport taxes, coach travel within Italy, hotel
accommodation, breakfasts, admission charges, dinner on five evenings, along with wine,
water and coffee, tips for drivers and restaurant staff, and the services of the lecturer. It is
calculated on the basis of shared twin rooms, and does not include lunches or dinner on two
evenings. There are, however, a few single rooms available, though the net additional prices
quoted by the hotels give rise to a supplement of £280. To make the tour work successfully,
we have decided to limit the numbers to a maximum of 24 participants.
The above costs also include the services of a travel agent - Real Holidays -who provide
professional booking services and ATOL/ABTA cover. A l l travel and accommodation
(flights, coach and hotels) have been arranged by Real Holidays, who will accordingly handle
the financial side of the trip.
If you wish Real Holidays to make arrangements for you to travel by Train, please state this
at the time of booking on the booking form. Real Holidays will then contact you and book
train tickets for you to suit your circumstances. It is unlikely that this will be cheaper than
travelling by air.
Bookings and any initial enquiries will be dealt with by Michael Pearson, the ULEMHAS
Study Tour Organiser - so, i f you are interested in making a booking please contact:
Michael Pearson, Primrose Cottage, Catmere End, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 4 X G
Bookings can only be accepted i f accompanied by a deposit of £325 per person, made
payable to Real Holidays.
Booking forms are also included with this posting, so i f you do intend joining us, please
complete the form and send it, along with a cheque made payable to Real Holidays, to
Michael Pearson at the above address. A l l applicants and friends who travel with them must
be current ULEMHAS members at the time of the trip.
The tour leader, John McNeill, lectures on medieval art and architecture for Oxford
University's Department of Continuing Education and is a Vice-President of ULEMHAS. He
has taken a number of tours for ULEMHAS previously, and has long experience of
accompanying groups around Tuscany.
Your attention is drawn to the booking conditions which accompany the booking form.
PROVISIONAL ITINERARY
SUNDAY A P R I L 14: 11.00 British Airways flight from London Gatwick to Pisa airport,
where we will be met by coach and driven to the stunning 11th-century painted basilica at
San Piero a Grado before continuing to our hotel in Lucca in good time to settle in before
dinner. Overnight Lucca.
MONDAY A P R I L 15: A day given over to Prato, beginning with Santa Maria delle Carceri,
one of a tiny handful of centrally-planned Marian sanctuaries built to either side of 1500 - as
with the Madonna di San Biagio at Montepulciano or Sta Maria della Consolazione at Todi and an excellent introduction to the architecture of early Renaissance Tuscany - the architects
at Prato being Giuliano da Maiano and Sangallo. This I felt we should follow with the
Palazzo Datini, sometime residence of the famous 'merchant of Prato', and, as a wonderfully
well-preserved example of a late 14th-century town house, the perfect foil for Santa Maria.
Nonetheless, Prato's great glories are its wall paintings - and we shall round out the morning
in the rather lovely 15th-century cloister of the Dominican church, now home to the Museo di
Pitture Murale and a collection that runs to works by Bernardo Daddi, Lorenzo Monaco and
Paolo Ucello. The afternoon is thus free for a gentle introduction to the niceties of Prato's
superb late Romanesque cathedral - Donatello, Filippo Lippi and all. Overnight Lucca.
T U E S D A Y A P R I L 16: A day devoted to Lucca, a significant medieval city that was
extensively reconstructed during the 11th and 12th centuries and magnificently refortified
between c.1504 and 1645. Lucca's walls survive intact, but I thought we should begin intra¬
murally, at the Palazzo Guinigi, the strikingly spacious residence begun in 1418 for Paolo
Guinigi and which now houses an important collection of medieval painting and sculpture.
Moreover, from here it is simplicity itself to climb up onto Lucca's walls, and walk above the
north-eastern quarters of the city to San Frediano. San Frediano introduces the day's major
theme - indeed one of the tour's great themes - the development of a regionally distinctive
style of Romanesque architecture whose elaborate exterior arcading, lavish sculpture and
extensive use of coloured and polished marbles spread throughout Tuscany, but whose
origins are to be found here in the north. A s it happens, San Frediano is unusual i n
employing a figurative mosaic on its west front instead o f the usual miniature arcades
- though its exquisite classicising capitals sit squarely within the broader Romanesque
traditions of the area. The masterpieces of arcaded Tuscan Romanesque lie elsewhere in the
city, and suitably punctuated by coffee and lunch, the rest of the day will unfold among those
very same masterpieces at San Reparata, the Cathedral, San Michele in Foro and Sta Maria
Forisportam, Overnight Lucca.
W E D N E S D A Y A P R I L 17: The perfect opportunity for a day in Pistoia - a city that quite
astonishingly boasts three of the more important pulpits to survive from medieval Italy. Our
first stop should therefore be to the sumptuously decorated, impeccably late Romanesque San
Giovanni Fuorcivitas, its interior enlivened by the deeply-cut relief carving of Fra Guglielmo
da Pisa's late 13th-century pulpit. Once into the town proper, however, we will head straight
for the Piazza del Duomo - its various facets adumbrated by the ascending accents of the
Baptistery, Palazzo Pretorio, Cathedral and Bishop's Palace. Best known for Coppo di
Marcovaldo's late 13th-century Crucifixion and the extraordinary late medieval silver
altarpiece dedicated to St James, Pistoia Cathedral rather beautifully illustrates the extent to
which Tuscany's Romanesque architecture could influence that of the Renaissance - its early
15th-century loggia beautifully complementing the 11th-century superstructure above. Lunch
should follow, after which we will explore the quarters to the north and east of the cathedral,
pausing to assess the considerable merits of the Ospedale del Ceppo and San Bartolomeo in
Pantano before surveying Giovanni Pisano's stupendous pulpit of 1301 in Sant'Andrea.
Overnight Lucca.
T H U R S D A Y A P R I L 18: As no examination of northern Tuscany would be complete
without a visit to Pisa, I thought we might use this day to devote what time we can to one of
the most important cities of medieval Italy. Given the quality and quantity of medieval work
to survive in Pisa the question of choice is very real, but as the city conveniently divides into
two, I propose we use the afternoon to examine the buildings around the cathedral - the
Campo dei Miracoli - with the morning in the city proper. The obvious place to start is the
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, a collection of late medieval and Renaissance sculpture,
painting and ceramics that includes significant quantities of 11th and 12th-century Islamic
tableware, as well as Simone Martini's Sta Caterina polyptych, Gentile da Fabriano's
Madonna dell'Umiltà and Donatello's bust of San Rossore. From here we might advance on
that masterpiece of Italian late Rayonnant architecture, Sta Maria della Spina, before moving
towards San Stefano dei Cavalieri and lunch. The afternoon should then unfold around the
Campo dei Miracoli, beginning perhaps with the cathedral, and building via the campanile,
baptistery and Camposanto to conclude with the marvellous little museum built to house the
sinopie (under-paintings) o f Francesco Traini's peerless Triumph of Death. Overnight Lucca.
F R I D A Y A P R I L 19: A time to pause and take stock - by way of a free day in Lucca. The
rationale for offering a whole, rather than the usual half, day, is that Lucca is within easy
striking distance of Florence. For those so inclined, there is an hourly train service, the
journey to Florence Sta Maria Novella taking around 80 minutes. Overnight Lucca.
S A T U R D A Y A P R I L 20: A day of changing horizons, and a chance to examine some of the
smaller settlements in the hills to the north of Lucca. The idea is to spend the morning in the
Valley of the Serchio, slowly climbing via a stunning pair of Romanesque parish churches at
Brancoli and Diècimo to Barga. As befits the principal town of the Serchio valley, Barga was
endowed with a modest 12th-century cathedral and tiny late medieval palazzo communale,
though the cathedral authorities were clearly conscious of the importance attached to the
Church's didactic role in the 12th century and accordingly commissioned a pulpit from Guido
Bigarelli. And that is not all, for the apse also houses one of the splendid of all medieval
wooden images of St Christopher. Lunch will be taken in Barga, after which the themes will
diversify, and as it would be churlish not to call in on one of a great cluster of post-medieval
gardens that take advantage of the well-watered hills immediately north of Lucca, I thought
we might break the return journey at the grandest of them all at the former Villa Reale near
Marlia. Overnight Lucca.
SUNDAY A P R I L 21: A little free time in Lucca, after which we will load up the coach so as
to head back to Pisa airport for the return flight to London. We are booked on the scheduled
14.50 British Airways Pisa-London flight currently scheduled to arrive at Gatwick at 16.00.