Gustave Dore
One feels like you are descending down into Hades on Geryon's back talking about Dante next to Settignano but I am sure Settignano would have felt the same about the heaven and hell equation on the streets. There would have been the stench of sulphur from burning fires with copper pots for hot water to do the washing for private houses. The women would have gathered in churchyard squares not realizing they were sacred places and the fumes would not have effected them but would have caused something like sulphuric acid or acid rain from over polluted cities. This would have caused the plague in London because of the deterioration of white blood cells or your immune system and would have affected the French rather than the Italian bloodlines and still would be the same in Rome as it has too many cars and is very polluted. So, I could imagine some people would still not like Florence because it is dirty on the streets and the national treasures are not cared for. There would have been far less dirt on the streets and better cleanliness with washing having been done here rather than on the riverbank. A river that would be a torrent in winter and a stagnant pool for the rest of the year. The family homes would have been quite close to the city or central business district and would have been very spacious new homes so, perhaps there are still some of this age in the CBD but very few would have survived the damp conditions caused by the river. And many of the inhabitants would have tended to wander down to the river for a late afternoon stroll, mainly the middle classes or those doing business trading for the evening. People would have thought that Settignano would have been something close to heaven. His work is from a heavenly domain and does speak about Saint John. However, this would not necessarily have been welcome in his time as those closest to God seem those hardest to bring down to earth. He did however, provide one of the most secular productions on earth for the people of Florence and did communicate the cities patron Saint with as much feeling and sensitivity as any artist could. This has been acknowledged by his contribution to some of the biggest museums but still little is known about his life. There seems to have been almost a confusion about Christianity and the underworld gods of ancient Rome, coming from ancient Greece originally so maybe something of a combination of the Greek Orthodox Church with Holy Roman Empire Catholicism. So, something of a combination with the earth gods and God, with the Virgin Mary and Daphne, the graces with the Holy Spirit and Mars with Saint John. Almost as if Mars and Saint John were both nomads or shepherds. The city does not feel like a place for anything else other than trade these days but perhaps in the time of Augustus there were many wars carried out on the plains. There were many wars in the vicinity for many centuries, each country losing its borders for another country or kingdom. The royal gardens of the Renaissance are an indication of the kind of wealth in the city and are still well looked after to this day.
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Gustave Dore
