From the Ponte Vecchio, Florence

John Taylor Arms

John Taylor Arms shows the view from the medieval Ponte Vecchio bridge in Firenze, Florence, Italy, on a bright, midday afternoon. Seen are the apartments on the south bank of the Arno, where via de 'Guicciardini connects to the bridge. Ponte Vecchio, or “Old Bridge”, is the oldest stone bridge to cross the Florence section of the Arno - with its earliest iteration formally recorded in the year 996 - and was the only bridge until 1218. It is also noted for having been the only Florentine bridge spared by retreating Germans during World War II. The current bridge was rebuilt after a flood in 1934.

From this vantage point on the segmental arch bridge, from beneath a covered archway, the viewer faces a series of medieval residences jutting out over the Arno, seemingly untouched by time. A closer look shows then-modern chimneys dotting the rooflines, lending a small hint of the 20th century conveniences to remind the viewer that they have not traveled back to the 14th century.

John Taylor Arms, printmaker, lecturer, illustrator, and administrator, was born in Washington, D.C. on 19 April 1887. He first studied law at Princeton University but transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture, earning a Master’s Degree in 1912. He studied with Ross Turner, David A. Gregg, and Felton Brown. For five years after his graduation Arms worked for the architectural firm Carrere and Hastings, before establishing his own architectural firm of which he was a partner.

A gift of an etching kit from his wife, Dorothy, changed the course of his life. He produced his first etching in 1915 and he eventually produced 441 prints, mostly etchings. Arms became one of the most famous printmakers of the first half of the twentieth century. He is mostly noted for his etchings of medieval architecture but early subjects also included ships, sailboats, airplanes, rural landscapes, and the streets, buildings, and bridges of New York.

Arms’ exhibition history was lengthy beginning in 1927 and continuing to 1952. He authored 'Hand-Book of Print Making and Print Makers' in 1934 and illustrated 'Churches of France' and 'Hill Towns and Cities of Northern Italy' by his wife, Dorothy Noyes Arms. His work can be found in most major collections of American prints.

Arms was an activist for printmaking and assisted in assembling exhibitions of American graphic art that were shown in Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Rome; he was editor of the Print Department of Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts, and he lectured on the techniques, history and value of original prints. Arms also served as the president of the Tiffany Foundation in 1940. John Taylor Arms died in New York City on 15 October 1953.