Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-07-29
AN ANCIENT COLOR SPOT.
The Hill City of San Miniato At Monte
Is Crested by Cathedral.

If it is at all warm the pleasantest way
of getting to San Miniato is by tram.
As we must start well before sunset II is
probably hot and dusty on the southern
bank of the river. and the hills we have
to climb are both steep and high
Passing the town gate and the old
walls where we are sure to see a group
of contadini with their teams of lang
ling mules or oxen, we begin the ascent
of a wide modern road sentineled nv
expresses. that conducts US to the Piaz-
yale Michael Angelo. where we leave our
tram and stroll across to the balustrade
from which we look down on our Flor
ence spread Immediately beneath our feet.
The red dome of the cathedral and
Giotto's pure white tower stand up
above everything. then we see the brown
shaft of the PaIazzo Vecchio and the
Arno winding like pale ribbon beyond
the golden town. beyond the faint green
trees of the Cascine gardens on into the
misty dazzle of the plain, and far-off
Pisa. In the center of this terrace stands
a cast of Michael Angeles possibly over
rated David" and it certainly looks it's
best out here in the sun and free air.
Beside the ubiquitous restaurant is a lit
tie road and footpath that leads past
Michael Angeles yellow church up to
the forbidding gateway which we have
to pass From here, ON turning. We get
a beautiful peep of the river above Flor
ence it's banks tremulous with the young
poplar leaves that make the Arno side
such cool and delightful walk, once
the town is passed
Having duly fung the bell and given
or withheld, the unnecessary gratuity
we are admitted to spacious terrace
above olive orchards upon which the lit
tie church of San Miniato stands. It's
marble is so dazzlingly white in the after
soon sun that it is difficult to believe it
has stood so many centuries of changing
conditions with so little apparent result.
Like all Tuscan churches of this period
IT is decorated with formal bands and
patterns of dark green marble that are
apt to offend the northern eye at first
used as it is to greater freedom and
less meticuous verisimilitude and remind
il of the toy cupboard
The interior is cool and dim, its noble
simplicity forming a perfect setting for
the rich mosaics and fragments of Giot-
tesdue fresco that gradually emerge from
the obscurity. In the little side chapel
where is Angelieo's beautiful fresco, the
light filters through thin sheets of veined
marble, and the resulting golden radiance
might well be utilized by our modern
architects in the case of silence rooms
and halls where strong light is not re-
quired.
At first the place seems to have rather
a deserted air. but as our eyes become
accustomed to the gloom we see that the
great bare floor is scattered with the
floral remains of a fiesta. Roses and pan
sizes sprigs of box and myrtle make gar
lands of linked sweetness on the smooth
marble. reminding us wildly perhaps OF
some picture or description that had be
fore seemed only half real and to lie out
side the focus of actual experience.
These delicate petals strewn idly about
the floor seem to give a human touch 10
the place and supply something lacking
before as we admired the fower-like
delicacy of the inlaid and pierced marble
ambons
There is food for thought in this work
which is so beautiful that We have no
use for it today. We see that this is nv
ing art and we know that all living art
is popular when produced. 1t seems
strange. at first, that with five or six
hundred years of progress only rev
people today see any of the beauty that
every one saw then.-Christian Science
Monitor.