Li Cornici

This is what a frame shop looks like in Florence, and I see one every two or three blocks. This makes me think there must be MILLIONS of unused frames in this city, all large, wooden, and mostly gilded.Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance. The cathedrals, churches and palazzos are filled with art. There are statues in the piazzas, the occasional painting on the walls along the street. We are surrounded by art as frescos, paintings, sculpture, mosaics.

These frame shops are a reminder of all the paintings that are damaged, destroyed, discarded or ignored. Were they all poor quality? the work of beginners or would-be artists lacking in talent? We will never know because they are gone.

But I think about the bronze statue of Pope Julius II, created by Michelangelo, 3 times lifesize, 10,000 pounds of bronze. While Michelangelo was painting the frescoes in the Sistine chapel, the status was pulled down from its pediment in Bologna by angry citizens, then melted down, and forged into a cannon. We know what happened to the statue, but what did these frames hold? And think about it: the frame survived, but the art did not.