Chapter13.Una Passione Perfetta: Creating Dynamic Precision

Chapter 13. Una Passione Perfetta: Creating Dynamic Precision

Una Passione Perfetta

© 2004 Daniel Giordan

This image began with the extensive, multifaceted detail of the Florentine Church of Santa Maria Del Fiore, better known as the Duomo. It's an amazing structure, inlaid with all manner of green and coral marble, granite, and other cut stone, and dotted with perhaps more statuary than the eye can consciously consider. It's an overwhelming sight whose beauty and intricate details are almost unimaginable.

This detailed grid is contrasted with a scene from the ruins at San Galgano, whose details have been blunted and stripped away by time (along with the roof I might add), leaving a shell of the former building. And yet this shell still reflects the core spirit and passionate aesthetic of Tuscan art and architecture. With the ornate, man-made details worn smooth, San Galgano seems organic and natural. It's not about what some really talented guy did, it's more about how this structure reflects universal truths about geometry, art, and the human spirit.

And so the left side of the image bows inward, pressing emotionally and emphatically in on the viewers as they try to make their way through the passage. The experience is passionate, dynamic, perhaps even romantic. On the right, the image shows the technique and precision of Renaissance craftsmen, as the pattern comes through, providing structure and a framework. The name of this piece means "A Perfect Passion," and so it is that the best of these artiststhe ones like Raphael and Michaelangelowere able to walk that razor's edge between expression and precision, articulating a detailed vision of passionate specificity.