Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 14: Palatial Chiaroscuro | Palazzo Vecchio (AD 1322; various additions since), Tuscany, Italy
Taken from a particularly narrow stretch of Via Vacchereccia. Facing east-southeastward toward the front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The copy of Michelangelo's David in the Piazza della Signoria is partially visible at lower right.
It goes without saying that it took years of photographic experimentation and intense self-evaluation to craft this masterpiece of color, form, and composition. And if you believe that one . . .
Actually, this photo was probably one of those touristic "I think it will look really great from this angle!" shots that one later regrets wasting film on. But now, so many years later, no matter. Every image conveys some information.
Having already shown the Palazzo Vecchio as it's seen from the Santa Maria del Fiore lantern, I here offer a modest and murky slice of its facade as well as its famous bell tower. The exterior is rock-faced ashlar of the Pietraforte Sandstone.
While you can't discern it on this grainy transfer of an aged slide, the lower portions of the mixed-use buildings in the foreground are fronted with the Pietraforte, too. That fact does become apparent, however, if you take a look on Google Earth Street View.
I wish I had acquired a hand specimen of this ruggedly beautiful and tremendously historic rock type when I was in Tuscany. On the Palazzo exterior it presents a irregular-checkerboard pattern of buff and medium-brown blocks. That fact is dimly perceptible here.
Whatever its coloration, all of the Pietraforte originated as turbidites—submarine-avalanche sand deposits laid down late in the Cretaceous period, about 150 Ma ago.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.
Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 14: Palatial Chiaroscuro | Palazzo Vecchio (AD 1322; various additions since), Tuscany, Italy
Taken from a particularly narrow stretch of Via Vacchereccia. Facing east-southeastward toward the front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The copy of Michelangelo's David in the Piazza della Signoria is partially visible at lower right.
It goes without saying that it took years of photographic experimentation and intense self-evaluation to craft this masterpiece of color, form, and composition. And if you believe that one . . .
Actually, this photo was probably one of those touristic "I think it will look really great from this angle!" shots that one later regrets wasting film on. But now, so many years later, no matter. Every image conveys some information.
Having already shown the Palazzo Vecchio as it's seen from the Santa Maria del Fiore lantern, I here offer a modest and murky slice of its facade as well as its famous bell tower. The exterior is rock-faced ashlar of the Pietraforte Sandstone.
While you can't discern it on this grainy transfer of an aged slide, the lower portions of the mixed-use buildings in the foreground are fronted with the Pietraforte, too. That fact does become apparent, however, if you take a look on Google Earth Street View.
I wish I had acquired a hand specimen of this ruggedly beautiful and tremendously historic rock type when I was in Tuscany. On the Palazzo exterior it presents a irregular-checkerboard pattern of buff and medium-brown blocks. That fact is dimly perceptible here.
Whatever its coloration, all of the Pietraforte originated as turbidites—submarine-avalanche sand deposits laid down late in the Cretaceous period, about 150 Ma ago.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.