Renaissance / My Boy Builds Coffins

The view from the fifth floor window of Hotel Meridiana was my first breath-taking moment in Florence. The setting sun gleamed over terra cotta rooftops as the balcony door opened. I became covered in sooty dust as I grasped the windowsill to gain a peek further down the tree lined street. Cars zoomed by below and beams of sun blinked through the hint of the Duomo standing in the distance.

The Art History intensive class crammed into last week left me not only breathless and covering in goosebumps, but also speechless. A brilliant man named Rocky was our professor and guide. His relaxed yet informative on-site lectures left me weak in the knees. The course focused on High Renaissance and Mannerism. 

Throughout the week, we covered Donatello, the Sculptural and Architectural Works of Michelangelo, Mannerist Painting, Rome under Pope Julius II, The Medici Popes & Dukes, Da Vinci, and Raphael. 

Upon visiting the Borgello Museum, we saw the first freestanding male nude statue made since antiquity (Donatello's David), the Competition Panels of Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, a statue of St. George the Dragon Slayer, as well as a statue of Bacchus by Michelangelo. Visiting Casa Buonarroti after that was fantastic. Though Michelangelo never actually resided there, the home was made as shrine to him and his works after he left his multi-million dollar fortune to his nephew. One of my favorite parts of this place was seeing the master of marble's shoes and walking stick, in addition his fantastic sculptures. 

Other sites visited in Florence throughout the week were The Uffizi Gallery, The Accademia Gallery, The New Sacristy, Palazzo Pitti, San Felicita, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, and The Duomo (which I climbed alllllll the way to the top of for a terrifyingly beautiful view). I also visited a nearby rustic town in the hills named Fiesola for a gorgeous view of Florence. Also, the Boboli Gardens outside of Palazzo Pitti were breathtaking. 

By the end of each of Rocky's lectures, I found my self more and more obsessed with Michelangelo. Despite Raphael's vibrant use of congiantismo or Leonardo's perfection of chiaroscuro, I just wound up always marveling at Michelangelo's influence on the history of what makes an artist. He experienced his success at such a young age, and his minute mastery of stone surpassed any other sculptor. His works, like The David, had me literally brushing away tears and goosebumps. His room dedicated to tombs of the Medici at The New Sacristy told a mythological story that was literally explicated in every curve of marble. 

Another artist who made a large impact was Botticelli. Seeing LaPrimavera and The Birth of Venus was truly a spectacular experience. The large scale paintings with gold-leaf interwoven amidst paint and myth brought an emotional effect. The iconography and stories within Avid's Metamorphoses explicated the visual narrative as Rocky put the works into historical context. Created under the patronage of the Medici Family in a time when Catholicism dominated in Italian art, the paintings prove stunning in their duplicity. For example, the figure of Venus in LaPrimavera, goddess of love, could be seen as a type for the Blessed Virgin Mary, as her son Eros (Cupid) flies above her bringing love to earth (i.e. Jesus Christ). I personally love when classic Greco-Roman themes of myth and paganism are able to be tied in with religion of the Renaissance...oftentimes within one single work.