PAINTING THE VAL D'ARBIA

"One Late Spring Afternoon" Oil on Canvas cm 25x35

Living in Tuscany is great.
Especially if you are a landscape painter.

Many artists throughout history have considered this part of Italy as one of the most picturesque places in the world. And  this applies particularly to the countryside of the province of Siena, where I happen to have been born.

In today's painting you can see what the Val 'Arbia, just south of Siena, looks like in Spring. 

This valley is named after the river Arbia, which flows all the way through it, and which is reminiscent of the greatest and most cruel battle between the Sieneses and the Florentines during the Middle Ages, the  Battle of Montaperti.

It was the bloodiest defeat suffered by the Florentines in their centuries long struggle against Siena, and Dante, in his Divina Commedia, described it as " The havoc and the great slaugther, which dyed the Arbia red".

This was back in 1260 though, today it's actually a pretty peaceful place..