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CORTONA
 Cortona
is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is
the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.
Cortona was founded by the Etruscans, who called
it Curtun in their language. The city was also important during Roman
times.
The prevailing character of Cortona’s
architecture is medieval with steep narrow streets situated on a hillside (altitude
600 metres), embracing a view of the whole of the Valdichiana. From the Piazza
Garibaldi (still referred to by the local population by its older name, Piazza
Carbonaia) is a fine prospect of Lago Trasimeno, scene of Hannibal's ambush of
the Roman army in 217 BC (Battle of Lake Trasimeno). Parts of the Etruscan city
wall can still be seen today as the basis of the present wall. The main street,
via Nazionale, is the only street in the town with no gradient, and is still
usually referred to by locals by its older name of Ruga Piana, or "level
street".Inside the Palazzo Casali is the Museo dell'Accademia
Etrusca, displaying items from Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations,
as well as art and artefacts from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. The
distinguished Etruscan Academy Museum had its foundation in 1727 with the
collections and library of Onofrio Baldelli. Among its most famous ancient
artefacts is the bronze lampadario or Etruscan hanging lamp, found at
Fratta near Cortona in 1840 and then acquired by the Academy for the large sum
of 1600 Florentine scudi. Its iconography includes (under the 18 burners)
alternating figures of Silenus playing panpipes or double flutes, and of sirens
or harpies. Within zones representing waves, dolphins and fiercer sea-creatures
is a gorgon-like face with protruding tongue. Between each burner is a modelled
horned head of Achelous. It is supposed that the lampadario derived from some
important north Etruscan religious shrine of around the second half of the
fourth century BC. A later (2nd century BC) inscription shows it was rededicated
for votive purposes (tinscvil) by the Musni family at that time. The
Museum contains several other important Etruscan bronzes.Etruscan chamber-tombs
nearby include the 'Tanella di Pitagora' (halfway up the hill from Camucia), two
at the foot of the hillside at Il Sodo, and a complex in Camucia itself. Il Sodo
I contains pitch-roofed chambers of slab construction with an inscription, and
can be visited. Il Sodo II contained a large stone-stepped altar platform with
carved sphinxes devouring warriors.The town's chief artistic treasures are two
panels by Fra Angelico in the Diocesan Museum, an Annunciation and a Madonna
and Child with Saints. A third surviving work by the same artist is the
fresco above the entrance to the church of San Domenico, likewise painted
during his stay at Cortona in 1436. The Diocesan Museum houses also a
group of work by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, known as Lo Spagnuolo, called Ecstasy
of St. Margaret. The Academy Museum includes the very well-known painting Maternità
of 1916 by the Cortonese artist Gino Severini. There are also examples of the
works of Pietro Berrettini (1596-1669), called Pietro da Cortona, pupil of
Andrea Commodi.
AREZZO
Arezzo is set on a steep hill rising
from the floodplain of the River Arno. In the upper part of the town are
the cathedral, the town hall and the Medici
Fortress (Fortezza Medicea), from which the main streets branch off towards the
ower part as far as the gates. The upper part of the town maintains its medieval
appearance despite the addition of later structures.
History
Described by Livy as one of the Capitae Etruriae (Etruscan capitals), Arezzo is believed
to have been one of the twelve most important Etruscan cities—the so-called
Dodecapolis. Etruscan remains establish that the acropolis of San Cornelio,
a small hill next to that of San Donatus, was occupied and in the Etruscan
period. There is other significant Etruscan evidence: parts of walls, an
Etruscan necropolis on Poggio del Sole (still named "Hill of the
Sun"), and most famously, the two bronzes, the "Chimera of
Arezzo" (5th century BC) and the "Minerva" (4th century BC)
which were discovered in the 16th century and taken to Florence. Increasing
trade connections with Greece also brought some elite goods to the Etruscan
nobles of Arezzo: the krater painted by Euphronios ca 510 BC with a battle
against Amazons (in the Museo Civico, Arezzo 1465) is unsurpassed.
Roman piece of pottery from Arezzo, Latium, found at Arikamedu in India (1st century
CE), an evidence of the role of the city in Roman trade with India through
Persia during the Augustan period. Musée Guimet.Conquered by the Romans in
311 BC, Arretium became a military station on the via Cassia, the road to expansion
by republican Rome into the basin of the Po. Arretium sided with Marius in
the Roman Civil War, and the victorious Sulla planted a colony of his veterans
in the half-demolished city, as Arretium Fidens ("Faithful Arretium"). The
old Etruscan aristocracy was not extinguished: Caius Cilnius Maecenas, whose name
is eponymous with "patron of the arts", was of the noble Aretine
Etruscan stock. The city continued to flourish as Arretium Vetus ("Old
Arretium"), the third largest city in Italy in the Augustan period,
well-known in particular for its widely-exported pottery manufactures, the
characteristic moulded and glazed Arretine ware , bucchero-ware of dark
clay and red-painted vases (the so-called
"coral" vases).
Around 26-261 AD the town council of Arezzo dedicated an inscription to its patron
L. Petronius Taurus Volusianus. See that article for discussion of the
possible political/military significance of Volusianus's association with the city.the
3rd to 4th century, Arezzo became an episcopal seat: it is one of the few
cities whose succession of bishops are known by name without interruption to the present
day, in part because they were the feudal lords of the city in the
Middle Ages. The Roman city was demolished, partly through the Gothic War and the
invasion of the Lombards, partly dismantled, as elsewhere throughout Europe, and
the stones reused for fortifications by the Aretines. Only the amphitheater remained.
The commune of Arezzo threw off the control of its bishop in 1098 and was an independent
city-state until 1384. Generally Ghibelline in tendency, it opposed Guelph
Florence. In 1252 the city founded its university, the Studium. After the rout
of the Battle of Campaldino (1289), which saw the death of Bishop Guglielmino
Ubertini, the fortunes of Ghibelline Arezzo started to ebb, apart from a
brief period under the Tarlati family, chief among them Guido Tarlati, who
became bishop in 1312 and maintained good relations with the Ghibelline party.
The Tarlati sought support in an alliance with Forlì and its overlords, the
Ordelaffi, but failed: Arezzo yielded to Florentine domination in 1384; its individual
history was subsumed by that of Florence and the Medicean Grand Duchy of
Tuscany. During this period Piero della Francesca worked in the church of San Francesco
di Arezzo producing the splendid frescoes, recently restored, which are
Arezzo's most famous works. Afterwards the city began an economical and cultural
decay, which fortunately ensured that its medieval centre was preserved.
In the 18th century the neighbouring marshes of the Val di Chiana, south of Arezzo,
were drained and the region became less malarial. At the end of the
century French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Arezzo, but the city soon
turned into a resistance base against the invaders with the "Viva
Maria" movement, winning the city the role of provincial capital. In
1860 Arezzo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. City buildings suffered
heavy damage during World War II.
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