The Bridges: Florence

The arches of the Santa Trinita bridge span the River Arno in Florence, Italy. The profile of the famous shop-lined bridge, known as the Ponte Vecchio, is visible beyond. A confident artistic hand drew this scene with its crisp contrasts of light and shadow. Artist Frank Duveneck used earth tones favored by the academy in Munich, Germany, where he had studied. He combined these shades with an exploration of direct light, which he encountered while in France. Duveneck was a charismatic teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio. He regularly brought his many American students—a gregarious group known as the Duveneck Boys—with him on his travels to learn from masterpieces and locales as they traversed Europe.