Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in Florence--The City of Masterpieces

By Robert Clark

Birthplace of Michelangelo and home to untold masterpieces, Florence is a city for art lovers. But on November 4, 1966, the rising waters of the Arno threatened to erase over seven centuries of history and human achievement.

Now Robert Clark explores the Italian city’s greatest flood and its aftermath through the voices of its witnesses. Two American artists wade through the devastated beauty; a photographer stows away on an army helicopter to witness the tragedy first-hand; a British “mud angel” spends a month scraping mold from the world’s masterpieces; and, through it all, an author asks why art matters so very much to us, even in the face of overwhelming disaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 7, 2008
• ISBN: 9780385528344

Robert Clark

Robert Clark began his career with Corrections Canada in 1980, working in the gymnasium at the medium-security Joyceville Institution. Over the next thirty years, he would work in seven different federal prisons, at every level of security, in every conceivable role. Clark lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Reviews for Dark Water

[kiwimrsmac · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the historical references, and the nod to the restoration effort, but found that the book didn't meet my expectations of more information about the flood, and the effect of the flood on Florence. That isn't the fault of the book, but more my own expectations.
The book is jam packed full of references to the damaged art, and its history prior to the flood, so if art is more your thing, then you will love the beautiful descriptions contained within these pages.
This book isn't so much about the flood of 1966, its more about the art, and the art history. Bear that in mind if you are going to read it.
Having said all that, it is a beautiful read. Almost more a story than a non fiction narrative.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It must have occurred to Emanuele Casamassima that he should be facing a labor shortage; that in a city without food, power, or transport, people should be too busy fending for themselves to be mucking about in his library. Yet they were, dozens of them, and he hadn't even asked them to come. Nor, it seemed, had they asked for instructions or equipment: the books just kept surfacing, bubbling up as from an inexhaustible spring. These workers weren't organized; they didn't have a party or a manifesto like the Casa del Popolo; it wasn't clear what they were against or what they were for, except perhaps books. You could call them volunteers, except they hadn't volunteered or been recruited: they'd simply appeared as though from thin air and set to work. Maybe they'd been sent by Francis or the Madonna; maybe they'd been thrown up by inevitable historical forces, by the dialectic operating at light speed. But they were some sort of miracle. Florentines came to call them angeli del fango, “mud angels.”Ten years ago I had the good fortune to visit Florence with my sister-in-law, who had lived there for several years and who speaks fluent Italian. The last evening of my visit, we were invited out to dinner by my sister-in-law's elderly friend. In the course of our conversation that evening, he wanted to make sure that I knew about the 1966 flood the covered much of the city and endangered many of the famous art works housed in Florence's churches and museums. Although 40 years had passed, the flood didn't seem like a distant memory to this man. It seemed to me as if he could still see the water in the city streets.After reading Robert Clark's book, I now understand why the 1966 flood was a definitive event in the lives of everyone who survived it. Clark first summarizes the history of Florence and its relationship to the always flood-prone Arno. At the heart of the book, the 1966 flood is described from the perspective of several survivors, most of whom Clark interviewed during his research for this book. The rest of the book describes the aftermath of the flood and the efforts to restore the art works, books, and manuscripts that were damaged in the flood.The pre-flood section of the book was longer than I expected. I was already familiar with much of this history from other reading I've done, and I became impatient to get to the flood story. I was also surprised by the extent to which the author inserted himself into the history of this event. He wasn't in Florence when the Arno flooded in 1966, yet he contemplates its meaning with himself as the reference point. It wasn't his tragedy. I was expecting history, not memoir.On the positive side, this is a well-researched book. The bibliography added a few more books to my reading list, as well as a hard-to-find documentary by Franco Zeffirelli. Histories of the flood written shortly after the event addressed the human tragedy. It takes much longer to evaluate the cultural tragedy, since art restoration requires time and patience. The 40th anniversary of the flood and a reunion of the “mud angels”, who were young adults in 1966, made the time ripe for this analysis of the flood's impact on Florence's cultural heritage.

[marzia22_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great read for anyone who has spent more than a few days in Firenze and loves Florence.

[jane1aitkens · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book about the 1966 flood and the art rescue. I especially liked the 'back story' of the Arno and the previous floods. I wished for more photographs of the flood..