![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Today I did what I thought was impossible: I did five museums (okay, four historic sites) in one day. And lived.
This is not quite so melodramatic as it sounds. I started out early this morning at the Bargello, home to a huge amount of historic statuary, some very peculiar polychrome terracotta by assorted Della Robbias (some of it quite garish), a lot of medals collected by various Medici from Lorenzo on down to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, and an elaborate cannon decorated with (no lie) a perfectly gorgeous face of St. Paul. I got to see restorers working on Donatello's peculiar David (yes, he really does look about four months pregnant, especially from the side, and what Donatello was thinking when he sculpted it this way is beyond me), saw Donatello's masterful St. George, and left reeling from an overdose of sculpture.
I then had lunch, thank God. Fortified by food, I bunnied on over to the Accademia, where Michangelo's David holds pride of place. There were so few tourists that I was able to spend a good fifteen minutes circling him and taking notes on his posture, his expression, and the quiet *intensity* that Michaelangelo infused into the statue. As much as it's become a cliche, David is one of those matserpieces that deserves the hype. Really.
I also saw plaster models for 19th century funerary art, some mediocre Mannerist paintings, and more 14th century International Gothic art than one mind could comprehend. However...
I spotted three paintings (by Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi, and the Master of the Domenican Martyrs) with what appear to be patchwork cloths of honor hanging behind the Virgin. I'm going to write off to the museum when I'm home to request slides, since these paintings are all so obscure they're not in the museum guidebook, but I took copious notes. :D
I then stopped in to see the Medici instrument collection, including a quintet of Stradivarii made for the next-to-last Medici, an early piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori, and three beautiful fantail doves in the Accademia courtyard.
Even though my feet were starting to hurt, I decided that since the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi was on the way home, I'd stop in to see what was what. And found yet *more* stuff for my paper: there's a section of the floor in the Medicis' private chapel with a star pattern that looks almost exactly like what Deinara degli Agli put on her uncle's funerary cushion. It's everywhere, I tell you! Everywhere! :)
I then saw several portraits of the late and unlamented Grand Dukes of Tuscany (all fat, all bloated, some with a Hapsburg jaw, and one with what appeared to be a nasty thyroid condition that made him look rather like a Pekingese), enjoyed the orange trees in full fruit in the courtyard, and snuck a picture of a weird statue called 'the work of the diamond,' or something like that, smack in the middle of the courtyard. Lorenzo de Medici would have torn out his eyes with grapefruit spoons before allowing something like that in his house, methinks....
And since it was literally around the corner, I went to the Medici 'family church,' San Lorenzo.
This was the highlight of the afternoon. 3.5 euros gets on into the crypt, the cloisters, AND the church, designed by Brunelleschi according to the new principals of perspective and classicism. It's still a living congregation, not a museum, so they're basically covering their costs by charging admission.
As for the church - it was the most beautiful, elegantly proportioned church I've ever been in. It was quiet, all done in shades of gray and cream, and there were votives lit in several places. They offer free tours by a trained art historian, and Elisa, my guide, was a delight - she gave me plenty of inside information on the church, was very friendly, and absolutely refused to let me tip her. Lovely girl, and I wish I knew her last name so I could send her a thank you note.
The crypt contains the usual overblown reliquaries, but there were two things worth seeing: the tomb of Donatello, the first great sculptor of the Renaissance (crowned with not one but two laurel wreaths left by admirers), and the tomb of Cosimo de' Medici, Pater Patriae. Cosimo is literally buried *in* one of the support pillars for the church, and his tomb is unmarked. There's a cenotaph upstairs in the church floor, however.
My final stop was an impromptu visit to the Duomo, where, to my great surprise, I found a fresco of Sir John Hawkwood, the famous condottiere, on the wall. It was in excellent condition, and I was quite surprised to see him there.
I then limped home, had dinner at a cafe, and am home. *splat*
And how was *your* day, everyone?
This is not quite so melodramatic as it sounds. I started out early this morning at the Bargello, home to a huge amount of historic statuary, some very peculiar polychrome terracotta by assorted Della Robbias (some of it quite garish), a lot of medals collected by various Medici from Lorenzo on down to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, and an elaborate cannon decorated with (no lie) a perfectly gorgeous face of St. Paul. I got to see restorers working on Donatello's peculiar David (yes, he really does look about four months pregnant, especially from the side, and what Donatello was thinking when he sculpted it this way is beyond me), saw Donatello's masterful St. George, and left reeling from an overdose of sculpture.
I then had lunch, thank God. Fortified by food, I bunnied on over to the Accademia, where Michangelo's David holds pride of place. There were so few tourists that I was able to spend a good fifteen minutes circling him and taking notes on his posture, his expression, and the quiet *intensity* that Michaelangelo infused into the statue. As much as it's become a cliche, David is one of those matserpieces that deserves the hype. Really.
I also saw plaster models for 19th century funerary art, some mediocre Mannerist paintings, and more 14th century International Gothic art than one mind could comprehend. However...
I spotted three paintings (by Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi, and the Master of the Domenican Martyrs) with what appear to be patchwork cloths of honor hanging behind the Virgin. I'm going to write off to the museum when I'm home to request slides, since these paintings are all so obscure they're not in the museum guidebook, but I took copious notes. :D
I then stopped in to see the Medici instrument collection, including a quintet of Stradivarii made for the next-to-last Medici, an early piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori, and three beautiful fantail doves in the Accademia courtyard.
Even though my feet were starting to hurt, I decided that since the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi was on the way home, I'd stop in to see what was what. And found yet *more* stuff for my paper: there's a section of the floor in the Medicis' private chapel with a star pattern that looks almost exactly like what Deinara degli Agli put on her uncle's funerary cushion. It's everywhere, I tell you! Everywhere! :)
I then saw several portraits of the late and unlamented Grand Dukes of Tuscany (all fat, all bloated, some with a Hapsburg jaw, and one with what appeared to be a nasty thyroid condition that made him look rather like a Pekingese), enjoyed the orange trees in full fruit in the courtyard, and snuck a picture of a weird statue called 'the work of the diamond,' or something like that, smack in the middle of the courtyard. Lorenzo de Medici would have torn out his eyes with grapefruit spoons before allowing something like that in his house, methinks....
And since it was literally around the corner, I went to the Medici 'family church,' San Lorenzo.
This was the highlight of the afternoon. 3.5 euros gets on into the crypt, the cloisters, AND the church, designed by Brunelleschi according to the new principals of perspective and classicism. It's still a living congregation, not a museum, so they're basically covering their costs by charging admission.
As for the church - it was the most beautiful, elegantly proportioned church I've ever been in. It was quiet, all done in shades of gray and cream, and there were votives lit in several places. They offer free tours by a trained art historian, and Elisa, my guide, was a delight - she gave me plenty of inside information on the church, was very friendly, and absolutely refused to let me tip her. Lovely girl, and I wish I knew her last name so I could send her a thank you note.
The crypt contains the usual overblown reliquaries, but there were two things worth seeing: the tomb of Donatello, the first great sculptor of the Renaissance (crowned with not one but two laurel wreaths left by admirers), and the tomb of Cosimo de' Medici, Pater Patriae. Cosimo is literally buried *in* one of the support pillars for the church, and his tomb is unmarked. There's a cenotaph upstairs in the church floor, however.
My final stop was an impromptu visit to the Duomo, where, to my great surprise, I found a fresco of Sir John Hawkwood, the famous condottiere, on the wall. It was in excellent condition, and I was quite surprised to see him there.
I then limped home, had dinner at a cafe, and am home. *splat*
And how was *your* day, everyone?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-15 06:20 pm (UTC)From:Wow, you go girl!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-15 06:59 pm (UTC)From:Fangirls were not the first to come up with mpreg, apparently...
Sounds like you're having a wonderful time! I'm so glad! :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-15 07:09 pm (UTC)From:I'm so jealous -- you seem to be having a wonderful time! It's 30 years since I was last in Italy. (But I bet Michelangelo's David is still as amazing!)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-15 07:07 pm (UTC)From:I suppose you could always send it with a covering note to the church - they're bound to know who she is.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-15 07:09 pm (UTC)From:Very amusing pic of the modern art piece in the Medici house! I'm sure Lorenzo would have been mightily confused!