AT HER FEET, A DOCILE DOGGIE – Lucca / Italy: A market over the amphitheater, marble cherubs and a dog next to Ilaria

Vitruvian Man created by Leonardo da Vinci is a design, where a man in two overlapped positions (with arms and legs spread wide), is inscribed in a circle and a square. https://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/submissions/clabaugh/history/leonardo.html Throughout the centuries, that image has become a cultural icon. Perfectly proportioned, the symmetry of the human anatomy is correlated with the symmetry of the universe. That man is you, inside your existential experience, where you breathe and see, hear, eat and feel it. Welcome in Lucca, Italy.

Lucca is an Italian city where it is pleasant get around on foot. Everything in this city of art, is enclosed within its sixteenth-century walls (wonderfully preserved), over which you will be able to move around on foot or by bicycle. Surely you will not miss the opportunity to visit the Church of San Michele in Foro, but after having photographed the Guinigi Tower, come with us where time seems to stand still: the Cathedral of San Martino. A Roman soldier had shared his cloak with a beggar, the name of that soldier was Martino. You’ll see a Romanesque façade (two-tone marble), and a Gothic interior structure, a bell tower built in 1060 and an asymmetrical porch, but certainly you can keep the marble reliefs representing the labors of the months.

The masterpieces are in that church. We can enter. That is the small Octagonal Temple, with the face of San Martino in wood. Watch it safely, we’ll look forward to the Tomb of Ilaria. The Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto is a white marble emotion, where a mysterious young woman sits on a sarcophagus. The sarcophagus, as you see, is surrounded by small angels holding up a garland. Look down, under that banner, you can find a docile stone dog, constantly waiting for the awakening of his mistress.

If we go into the sacristy, there is an altarpiece (Madonna and Child with Saints), painted by Ghirlandaio. If you want to photograph the statue of St. Martin, we have to go between the right portal and the middle of the church. Look, the porch arches are supported by pillars with pilasters, decorated with foliage. Before returning to the hotel, leaving the church, we look once again at the top. Above the facade of the Church of San Martino, there are many small two-colored marble inlays. Yes, each is a tiny jewel in black and white.