The Stones of Florence by Mary McCarthy

The Stones of Florence Reviews

• 
  Susan

  I loved reading this book. It is not meant to be a travel guide at all, but I would highly recommend it for anyone planning to see Florence. It is a long and very well-written essay about every aspect of Florentine life. As you read through the leisurely chapters you get a wonderful mixture of history (Medicis), literature (Dante) , art (Botticelli), architecture (Brunelleschi) and social commentary from someone who lived there and truly appreciated this amazing city.This book has inspired me to learn more about Florence.
• 
  Lobstergirl

  
  A rollicking, highly informative biography of Florence. McCarthy touches upon everything: current day (she's writing in 1956) Florentines, tourists, architecture, art, politics, wars, rulers, religions. There's so much packed into 230 pages that one reading isn't enough, unless you are already an expert.
  
  This excerpt where she talks about the Mannerists (a subset of Florentine artists) gives you a taste of her learned snark:
  
  Iridescent or opaline colour, used by Andrea [del Sarto] for religiose effects of light and shade, became the specialty of the Mannerists, who loved the two-tone effects now found chiefly in sleazy taffetas popular with home-dressmakers for an ungainly girl's first 'formal' - orange turning yellow, flame turning red, lavender turning rose. Il Rosso's [Rosso Fiorentino] colour is more garish than Pontormo's. In his 'Madonna, Saints, and Two Angels' in the Uffizi, the principal personages are all dressed in 'shot' textiles. The Madonna is wearing a two-toned pinky purple dress with peach-coloured sleeves; Saint John the Baptist has a Nile-green shoulder-throw and a mauve toga; Saint Jerome's bare ancient shoulders, shrunken neck, and ferret-like head are emerging from what is best described as an evening stole, in dark grey iridescent taffeta. The mauves, peaches, and purples are reflected, like a stormy sunset, on the flesh of the holy group; clawlike hands have red transparent fingers as if they were being held up to the sun or to an infernal fire. A simpering, rouged, idiot Child sits on the Madonna's lap. The eyeholes of the Child, the Madonna, and the red-winged Angels are circled by blackness, like melting mascara; their reddened, purpled features are smudged and blurred; and the whole party appears intensely dissipated or lunatic - a band of late roisterers found at dawn under a street lamp. Other sacred paintings of Il Rosso, like the 'Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro', also in the Uffizi, suggest, again, the half-carnival atmosphere of an insane asylum or of a brothel during a police raid.
  
  
• 
  Renee

  Very useful for thinking about the 14th century and its role in shaping the Renaissance and Florence more generally. This has a lot of good insight into Florence's history and character (for want of a better term) and the ambivalences and frequent turn-arounds which mark its cultural evolution. It also runs on a little long on a number of the frescoes, which gets to be tedious reading. Glad to have read it, but got bogged down in spots.
• 
  Diane C.

  
  I read this book at the same time as The Food of France, by Waverly Root, and came to the same conclusion about both of them.............essential reading about the places, best digested in small bits here and there, not read cover to cover. Both from the library, so I'll buy both and enjoy them for years.
  
  Both written in the late 50's, rich with Floretine and French history, art and food, sprinkled with tidbits many of us don't know about the history/culture/food/art of both places.
• 
  Colin Flanigan

  This book is tells us almost as much about the author’s sometimes acerbic views as it does about Renaissance Florence. The art layout is great and the style of writing informative with witty asides on politics, personal details and pleasurable in its erudition.
  
  The writer was a friend of Hannah Arendt, an unapologetic intellectual and a fighter for the truth.
• 
  Doris Raines

  What. A. Fabulous. Book. And. Story.
• 
  Poiema

  I was surprised that when I began reading this book, the first chapter portrayed Florence as repugnant and ugly. It was almost as if the author was intent on stripping away any romantic notions one might be holding about this city of art and history.
  
  "Florence is a manly town, and the cities of art that appeal to the current sensibility are feminine, like Venice and Siena." pg.9
  
  The author takes us through the checkered history of the city, the family feuds and political intrigues and the foibles of artists, popes, and politicians. She sprinkles in lots of quirky anecdotes, such as this one:
  
  "...hell had been advertised, to take place at the Carraia bridge, in a theatre that was set up on boats in the river; there were flames, naked souls shrieking for mercy, master demons, devils with pitchforks. Overloaded with spectators who had crowded to see the performance, the bridge collapsed, and all, supposedly, were drowned, so that it was said afterward in Florence that those who had gone to see hell got what they were looking for." pg. 95
  
  I wish I had read this in tandem with _The Agony and the Ecstasy _, because the panoply of characters could have been reinforced in my mind. I find the array of Italian names tends to get confusing! I did often stop and look up YouTube videos about the artistic works mentioned, which was supportive. It would have taken me a year to get through the book had I looked up every one!
  
  After reading the tortured history of Florence, I had the same question I asked after reading the aforementioned _Agony and the Ecstasy _. Did the hardships and the trouble actually enhance the creation of art? How would the timeless masterpieces have been different if the artists hadn't had to contend with tensions of body and soul? Would they even have been created at all?
  
  "Science, magic, art, ‘inspiration’ were curiously bound together in the Florentine Renaissance. A ‘break-through’ occurred here, on all fronts simultaneously, which did not have a parallel for five centuries. . ." pg. 100
  
  This book was not an easy read. It covered so much ground, and so many disciplines, and such a pantheon of characters that it was dizzying. I probably only retain a small percentage of its content, but I am glad I plowed through. It's brilliant.
• 
  John

  Intellectual history of Florence and its arts for the traveler up through 16th Century. Written with a panache that is usually missing from the "History" section of your typical Guidebook. I don't know if there is a "coffee table" edition of this book; reproductions of the paintings mentioned would have helped. If I ever spend any serious time in Tuscany (i.e. weeks/months) I would definitely consult this book again.
• 
  Shelley

  Travelogues written in the 1950s are not my usual cup of tea but this book was among those given to me by my well-read Tante Shirley whose eclectic literary tastes usually opened my eyes to books I would have otherwise overlooked. So thanks again, Tante S, for exposing me to a brilliant literary travelogue about a place I once visited briefly in my youth, primarily to see Michelangelo's David and the Slaves. I wish I had known then what I now know about Florence - its history, the important parts that art, architecture, and politics played in that history, and the way a skillful, erudite writer can weave these facts together to make a city come alive.
  
  I have a feeling that what McCarthy wrote in 1959 was a snapshot in time of her experience with Florence. Yet I also feel that this book will arm any present or future traveler with a depth and breadth of knowledge that will enhance their experience of this fascinating city.
  
  
• 
  Rebecca Russavage

  Book 3 read while trying to finish Moby Dick
• 
  Dana Ingram

  McCarthy's essays wind with acerbic style through Florentine history, bringing to fore the city's renaissance past against the background of her writing's present (1959). The opening essay offers ample reason to hate contemporary Florence, to want never to go there; while 2016 Florence seems much more comfortable than 1959 Florence, McCarthy's criticisms of the city make the place somehow more magical, and by essay's end one wants to spend as much time in the noisy, tumultuous city as possible. And this is a great magic trick permitted by McCarthy's style, swift and elegant, and her great cultivation--she handles excellently every topic, from the art to the most peripheral questions of Tuscan politics, that churns out of her broad, smartly tangential essays. For the visitor, there's no need to pick up a Baedeker, though one will want a map of the city. For the dreamer, though, McCarthy's book is without flaw, and this lover of the city can think of no better way to revisit his favorite Italian town without suffering those long-distance flights.
• 
  Sue Pit

  Mary McCarthy's book first published in 1956 regards Florence, Italy. The first chapter seemingly disparages Florence and asks in essence, why would one want to visit Florence while only providing discouragement to do so. However, remarkably, by the end of the book I found myself quite excited and looking forward to my upcoming visit to Florence, Italy. The way that Mary McCarthy talks about Florence is rather like having coffee with her and hearing her go a and on about this and that covering the various ages, artists , architect, the Medicis and etc.…with a lot of interesting insight and stories but all the while she is assuming I know more than I do about Florence. I did not have a foundation for a lot of which she spoke and that made me do some independent research so to get a bit more up to speed. Once one has some knowledge foundation, there are a lot of interesting orts that might not be as easily or entertainingly found elsewhere.
• 
  Susan Tryforos

  This book has been described as a love letter to Florence and that is very accurate. Delves into the Florentine mindset of yesterday and today - political, artistic, physical, philosophical. Lots of verbal descriptions and scene settings. Would have really loved this book if it had included pictures of the many paintings and architecture included in the text.
• 
  Lou

  
  
  If you haven't been to Florence, don't let Mary McCarthy's first chapter dissuade you. Once you're beyond it, McCarthy will give you a sound history lesson of the city and will prepare you for its wonders, the palaces, churches, gardens, the Arno, myths about Florence and more.
• 
  Deb

  I liked learning stories surrounding the art and architecture of Florence with only minimal references to the politics and torture. Home to the Duomo. I must someday see the work of Brunelleschi, Giotto, Ghiberti, Uccello, etc.
• 
  Marilyn

  Have a pen and paper nearby to take notes when you read this wonderful book about Florence, Italy. Ms. McCarthy really gives Florence its own personality and voice--a must read for any one who has been and is going back to that great city.
• 
  Michael

  "The eternal Florentine has no need to be sentimental about the past, which does not seem remote but as near and indifferently real as the clock on the tower Palazzo Vecchio to the housewife who pits her head out the window to time her spaghetti by it".
• 
  Leslie P.

  Some parts are interesting, but on the whole, it drags. I also think that because it is so dated, some parts do not ring true. Worth a quick read before a trip to Florence, if for nothing else, another reference for historical background.
• 
  Sarah Lee

  THE book to read when you're heading to Florence. It lightly treads on all history, culture, and even the fundamental meaning of being Florentine. A must read!
• 
  Mel

  Older book from the 50s describing the architecture and art of Florence.
• 
  Eszter

  i miss florence. this is just a book about florence. sigh.
• 
  Kiely

  "In Masolino, Masaccio, Piero, Ghirlandaio, Gozzoli, Filippino Lippi, the same greyish faces reappear, like an eternal recurrence of prose. These faces belong to citizens who seem to have edged their way into the picture and stand craning their necks to be seen, as if in a modern newspaper photograph, where a head of state or a screen star is snapped in the midst of a pushing crowd. They wanted to go down in history, evidently, these serried Florentines, and this, in fact, they have done, though, being for the most part no longer identifiable, they represent for us the anonymous, everyday, banal part of history — the part that is always the same. And the truth is that it is these faces that, literally, have survived. The beautiful boys and girls, the dancing Graces, and the Madonna have disappeared from real life. In the streets of modern Florence, you will never see a living Donatello - a San Giorgio or a David - but middle-aged Gozzolis and Ghirlandaios are everywhere."
  
  I love Florence, and it's my favorite place in the world; you may already know this about me, because I tend to never shut up about it. I finally read Mary McCarthy's loving and concise inquiry into the history and legacy of Florence when I visited again after five years, after living there for a year and a half in 2017-2019. McCarthy's book is an extremely intelligent and wide-ranging exploration of why Florence is SO different from so many other places and why such a small town had such a disproportionate impact in the history of the western world, and particularly how the Florence of the Renaissance reflects and reverberates into "modern" Florence.
  
  I loved McCarthy's insights into: the public and private sculptural legacy of Florence; the Florentine Republic and how it has shifted and changed throughout the history of the city; the quirks and habits of the Florentine people; the legacy of Anglo-American tourists and expats who changed the city and its reputation within the last hundred or so years; the ways that Florence and practically everything about it diverges from characteristics of other Tuscan or Italian cities; the parallels between scientific achievement and artistic achievement in the history of the city; and sculpture vs painting in the artistic legacy of the city. I also loved her many sick burns on various historical figures which are incredible niche jokes but nonetheless made me sometimes laugh out loud!
  
  Much of this book is very dated to the 1960's and not particularly politically correct, but it does stand as an interesting historical document. Most of what Mary McCarthy says about the city and its quirks is still completely true, because Florence is a city that doesn't really change; it always lives in either the 1500's or the inescapable present. Also, this book definitely would have been nicer if it had images of some of the places and art pieces that McCarthy talks about!
  
  I've always said that Florence is a city where so much of its culture is founded on different kinds of love: religious, spiritual, civic, unrequited, familial. McCarthy's book is ultimately just completely suffused with so much love for this bizarre place and all of the things that make it so special. Florence is sometimes a hard place to love, for various reasons that McCarthy eloquently articulates in her book, especially if you live there for a longer period of time, but I do love it a lot, and McCarthy evidently did too. I'm so glad I went back to Florence for a week this spring, and so glad that I had McCarthy's lovely book as a companion throughout my travels. Florence forever & ever & ever; can't wait to go back to my favorite small, cramped, and slightly dirty city again <3
  
  [PS: this just in: Mary McCarthy caused the disastrous 1966 Flood of Florence !! 😂]