Florentine Art Under Fire

Name: Florentine Art Under Fire
Author: Frederick Hartt

by Frederick Hartt

The second book I’ve chosen is Florentine Art Under Fire by Frederick Hartt. Hartt wrote six or so seminal textbooks that are read by literally thousands of undergraduate students all around the world. They led me to Florentine Art Under Fire, which is Hartt’s memoir of his time as an officer working for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Commission during World War II. These officers were assigned to protect the art of Florence and the area around it from war damage, and Hartt’s book is a very dramatic and heart-wrenching account of his activities in Florence as the Allies were moving in. They were one side of the Arno river and the Nazis were on the other side. The Nazis had laid mines around Florence and there was a danger they were going to blow up most of the city as they retreated. There was some very serious fighting right in the centre of the city and the major loss was the Ponte Santa Trinita, a 16th century bridge designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati that many people consider far more beautiful than the Ponte Vecchio. The Germans blew it up. They also destroyed a section of the city just across from the Ponte Vecchio in order to try to block the bridge with debris. They were not allowed to damage the Ponte Vecchio, though, because it was one of Hitler’s favourite works. There were literally hundreds of objects that went missing during the Occupation. There was a systematic looting of works, for example from the Uffizi Gallery, which the Nazis stripped. The works were later found in an abandoned jail in northern Italy. There are certainly some works that were completely lost but there are no seminal works that come to mind. It’s more the destruction of a neighbourhood; the willingness to blow up a city of such historical import. Thankfully some of the churches and palaces in the neighbourhood that was blown up by the Germans survived. It’s quite astonishing that they did. They were really built to last. Also the idea was to create rubble in the streets to block pathways, not to proactively damage monuments. There was this strange juxtaposition between the willingness to blow up a city of such historical import and the fact that the Germans would not touch something like the Ponte Vecchio. Hitler had a passionate relationship with art and architecture having wanted to be an architect or an artist in his youth. He sanctioned incredible destruction and yet he wanted to preserve individual titbits that stood out to him. This is dealt with in other books by Frederick Hartt – the expropriation of antiquities and art by the Third Reich.

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Noah Charney

"The second book I’ve chosen is Florentine Art Under Fire by Frederick Hartt. Hartt wrote six or so seminal textbooks that are read by literally thousands of undergraduate students all around the world. They led me to Florentine Art Under Fire, which is Hartt’s memoir of his time as an officer working for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Commission during World War II. These officers were assigned to protect the art of Florence and the area around it from war damage, and Hartt’s book is a very dramatic and heart-wrenching account of his activities in Florence as the Allies were moving in. They were one side of the Arno river and the Nazis were on the other side. The Nazis had laid mines around Florence and there was a danger they were going to blow up most of the city as they retreated. There was some very serious fighting right in the centre of the city and the major loss was the Ponte Santa Trinita, a 16th century bridge designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati that many people consider far more beautiful than the Ponte Vecchio. The Germans blew it up. They also destroyed a section of the city just across from the Ponte Vecchio in order to try to block the bridge with debris. They were not allowed to damage the Ponte Vecchio, though, because it was one of Hitler’s favourite works. There were literally hundreds of objects that went missing during the Occupation. There was a systematic looting of works, for example from the Uffizi Gallery, which the Nazis stripped. The works were later found in an abandoned jail in northern Italy. There are certainly some works that were completely lost but there are no seminal works that come to mind. It’s more the destruction of a neighbourhood; the willingness to blow up a city of such historical import. Thankfully some of the churches and palaces in the neighbourhood that was blown up by the Germans survived. It’s quite astonishing that they did. They were really built to last. Also the idea was to create rubble in the streets to block pathways, not to proactively damage monuments. There was this strange juxtaposition between the willingness to blow up a city of such historical import and the fact that the Germans would not touch something like the Ponte Vecchio. Hitler had a passionate relationship with art and architecture having wanted to be an architect or an artist in his youth. He sanctioned incredible destruction and yet he wanted to preserve individual titbits that stood out to him. This is dealt with in other books by Frederick Hartt – the expropriation of antiquities and art by the Third Reich."

Art Crime · fivebooks.com