Brian Sewell - Art Critic & Connoisseur - on Florence

A bit of a "Marmite" figure, noted art critic and connoisseur of painting, Brain Sewell always delivers: he educates, entertains, exasperates, and edifies.

I hope you agree with me that, like him or not, in this piece, he gives us an insightful account of Florence and the "Grand Tour". A highlight of this is his account of Michelangelo's sculpture of David.

Brian Sewell

Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell was an English art critic and media personality. He wrote for the London Evening Standard and was noted for his acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. The Guardian described him as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic", while the Standard called him the "nation’s best art critic.

The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the 17th- and 18th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a chaperone, such as a family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old).

The custom - which flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transport in the 1840s - was associated with a standard itinerary and served as an educational rite of passage. Though the Grand Tour was primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of other Protestant Northern European nations, and, from the second half of the 18th century, by some South and North Americans.

In 2005, Brian Sewell followed in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists for a 10-part television series "Brian Sewell's Grand Tour". Produced by UK's Channel Five, Sewell travelled by car and confined his attention solely to Italy stopping in Rome, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, Turin, Milan, Cremona, Siena, Bologna, Vicenza, Paestum, Urbino, Tivoli and concluding at a Venetian masked ball.

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