ellid: (Default)
ellid ([personal profile] ellid) wrote2008-01-14 07:19 pm

And to finish off today....

I went to Santa Croce, where more famous people are buried than possibly anywhere else, except maybe Westminster Abbey.

Seriously. This place contains the tombs of Aretino, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Ghiberti, Galileo, Machiavelli, Marconi, and about three dozen other people whose names I can't remember. The Michaelangelo tomb was done by Vasari and an amiable cast of plumbers, and I really wish the master had finished the Rondanini Pieta (currently in the Duomo Museum) so that could have been on the tomb insipid of the gleefully insipid putti Vasari painted on top of it:

Michaelangelo's tomb.

The church is simply crammed with art masterpieces: frescoes by Giotto (curently being restored), Bernardo Daddi, Taddeo Gaddi and his father Agnolo, the poor Cimabue Crucifixion that was basically trashed by the 1966 flood (now in the superb museum showing how they restored all the art that was damaged 42 years ago), Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel and supremely peaceful cloisters....

It was truly amazing. But the real reason I went was for this:

Taddo Gaddi's fresco of the Wedding of the Virgin. Please note the *cough*patchwork*cough* cloth hanging from the balcony in the background....

********

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Bargello first thing in the morning, than off to a noon appointment with David and several mediocre paintings at the Accademia. I may well swing by the Palazzo Medici Ricardi on the way back. And oh yeah, I'll need to eat some point...:)

[identity profile] tena524.livejournal.com 2008-01-14 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
(turns green with envy)

And here I am up to my *** in snow...

At least have some gelato for me! Gianduja, if possible.
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[identity profile] orphandani.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
I am really enjoying my vicarious vacation! THANKS!!