Ponte Santa Trinità
Original oil painting by Matthew Holden Bates
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Ponte Santa Trinità - oil on canvas by Matthew Holden Bates
120 × 180 cm | Florence, Italy
Original painting / Prints available
About this painting
Ponte Santa Trinità is one of my largest paintings on canvas, measuring 120 × 180 cm. The vertical format gives the view a monumental presence, allowing the bridge, the Arno, the city, and the surrounding architecture to rise through the painting with the scale and atmosphere of Florence itself.
The Ponte Santa Trinità is one of the most elegant bridges in Florence. In this painting, the bridge becomes more than a crossing over the river. It becomes a structure of rhythm, perspective, light, and memory, holding together the movement of the city and the stillness of the Arno.
Like many of my cityscape paintings, this work began with direct observation and photography, then developed slowly in the studio through drawing, composition, and many layers of oil paint. At this scale, the painting becomes almost architectural, inviting the viewer to enter the space rather than simply look at it.