Devonport High School for Girls is a selective grammar school in the city of Plymouth situated on the South West Coast of England in the County of Devon. The school is going to visit Empoli in Tuscany, Italy, a town situated between Florence (Firenze) and Pisa.
In the country that has given the Western World so many artistic wonders, cultural and political concepts are there still solutions that todays world could use.
Inspiration for our trip has come from a huge fresco by Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Publico in Sienna titled “Good and Bad Government”. The painting looks at our relationship between the city and the land, our faith and what happens if we are corrupted by bad influences.
More pictures can be found at:
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/lorenzet/ambrogio/governme/index.html
http://www.comune.siena.it/museocivico/museocivico/salapace/salapace.html
The second painting that is significant to our Xchange to Empoli is to do with what distinguishes man from the animals. The painting is by di Cosimo and called “The Forest Fire.”
Fire being the symbol that enabled man to dominate and become civilised, but above all this the painting is about language and the art of communication. A skill that all creatures have.
