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Arezzo
The city has had a chequered history. It was a central
constituent of the Etruscan
confederation of twelve cities, it
was then known as Arretium. In
1289 Florence defeated the cities
armies at the battle of Campadino,
after the Ghibelline medieval
commune offended the Florentine
Guelfs. But in more recent times
the city became famous as the
setting for Roberto Begnini’s
oscar winning film La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful). Arezzo has the satisfaction of
knowing that it is home to a large
number ofculteral masters. Alist
of some of these is given below:
1.
Guido Monaco (or Guido
d'Arezzo), born around A.D. 995,
invented the modern musical scale
and notation.
2.
The poet Petrarch (1304-74)
helped found the humanist movement
that was the basis for the entire
cultural Renaissance.
3.
Spinello Aretino
(1350-1410) was one of the great trecento
masters of Italian fresco.
4.
Pietro Aretino (1492-1566),
a gifted poet, was capable of
writing the most vituperative,
scandal-causing verses. He was an
even more gifted blackmailer,
adept at appealing to powerful
men's purses in order that his
select words about them might
never reach the general public.
5.
Giorgio Vasari (1512-74), a
so-so painter but a good
architect. His book Lives of
the Artists –
a collection
of biographies of masters from
Cimabue and Giotto through
Michelangelo – was the first art
history text.
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