A Florence Easter & Michelangelo’s Crucifix

Easter week in Florence and Tuscany brings time-honored traditions: Grassina’s Passion Play on Good Friday (April 14) and the Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Cart) in piazza Duomo on Easter Sunday (April 16).

This year, the commemorations and festivities also offer a special opportunity to admire Michelangelo’s work in Florence – beyond his iconic David – at the church of Santo Spirito and Casa Buonarroti.

RITUAL, MUSEUM & CHURCH OPENINGS

An evening Good Friday pageant, accompanied by color, sound and lights, provides a dramatic beginning of the Easter weekend where the hills of Tuscany become a stage for Golgotha. Tickets can be purchased at Piazza Umberto, Grassina. For more info, visit www.rievstoricagrassina.it.

Reflecting mysticism with a touch of magic, every year Florence celebrates Easter with a pyrotechnic spectacle during which a dove flies out of the Duomo and ignites fireworks attached to a huge, gilded cart, called the Brindellone.

White, flower-garlanded oxen pull the Brindellone from the Porta al Prato to the Piazza del Duomo. A procession of city officials, Roman soldiers, townspeople and musicians in medieval clothing leads the way starting at 9 am.

An Easter candle, illuminated by one of the three flints from the Holy Sepulchre awarded to Pazzino de’ Pazzi during the 11th century Crusade, is used to light the mechanical dove. If the bird’s flight down a wire reaches destination, the explosion is thought to bring good luck to the city and assure a successful harvest.

City churches will be celebrating Easter rites, including the basilica of Santo Spirito, which has recently unveiled a restored Michelangelo crucifix in a new location.

The Augustinian community of Santo Spirito agreed to place the crucifix in the middle of the octagonal sacristy begun by Giuliano da Sangallo in 1489. Visitors can now admire the beauty of the sculpture from all sides while contemplating the artist’s message – the victory of life over death. Santo Spirito is accessible daily from 10 am – 12:30 pm, 4 – 6 pm with free admission (closed Wednesday).

As an adolescent Michelangelo managed to overcome his father’s opposition to be apprenticed to Ghirlandaio, who, responding to Lorenzo the Magnificent’s request, sent the young talent to the Medici sculpture school in the garden of San Marco.  When Lorenzo died in 1492, a 17-year-old Michelangelo sought refuge in the friendship of the prior of Santo Spirito, later carving a wooden crucifix to express heartfelt thanks.

The Friends of Florence financed the restoration of the crucifix, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the city’s cultural and historical integrity.

Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, president of Friends of Florence, says the foundation is “happy to contribute to the enhancement” of Santo Spirito, especially with this “sublime work of a young Michelangelo,” a project that attracted the interest of many of their donors around the world.

Christ is completely nude, in keeping with the artist’s belief that the physical is but a manifestation of divine spirit.  The body is little more than adolescent, Michelangelo’s age when he carved it.  The bowed head is slightly older, and vaguely resembles portraits of the Renaissance genius himself. Reflecting his dissections in the Santo Spirito morgue, the hips and legs of an anatomically perfect Christ turn sideways, as they would naturally in death.

Michelangelo’s Christ on the Crucifix is unequivocally serene and gives an inside look into the mind of this precocious artistic genius.

In addition to Santo Spirito, the Uffizi and the Accademia are open on Easter from 8:15 am – 6:50 pm; the Boboli Gardens, the Palatine and Modern Art Galleries from 8:15 am – 6:50 pm; the Bargello and the Medici Chapels 8:15 am – 2 pm; Santa Maria Novella 1 – 5:30 pm; Palazzo Vecchio from 9 am – 11 pm in addition to Arnolfo’s Tower 9 am – 9 pm.

Pratolino Park is reopening on Easter Day for the season and can be toured on weekends and holidays including Pasquetta from 10 am to 8 pm (free admission).

The Bill Viola exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi can be seen between 10 am and 8 pm. (rita kungel & tessa lucia debole)