Bologna,my favourite Italian city ,often overlooked on the tourist drag from Florence to Venice
is proudly red in colour as well as political persuasion, has a masterpiece of medieval sculpture,appropriately in terracotta, the characteristic material of medieval Bolognas decorative facades.
Sculptured by Niccolo Del Arca ,it is particularly Bolognese as it is sculptured from the "workers stone" terracotta tucked away in an ingnominious niche of the
Church of Santa Maria della Vita ,speaks to me every time I contemplate this masterpiece. Below is surely Niccolo himself,complete with his tools,his heavy artisan boots looking stoically at the viewer,in direct contrast to the anguished women in flight ,hands supplicating as they are struck with the terrible reality of grief-is he saying woman are able to express this more outwardly than men? Do men document and women express?
The sheer beauty of the fabric captured in flight and the mastery of the sculpturer makes this yet another hidden treasure that every town in Italy holds.........
