Casa Buonnarroti, Museo Marino Marini, and the Sights of Siena

Another breathtaking week in Florence! This week has been particularly exciting as I finally was able to see some of the artworks I have studied in my courses at RIC. For my Genius of Michelangelo course, we went to the Casa Buonnarroti, where Michelangelo lived and worked!! I had no idea that I would have the opportunity to see this. Inside we got to see some original works of Michelangelo, including the plan for the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo, The Battle of the Centaurs, and some small studies for marble sculpture.

I loved the level of detail even in this small model that was proposed for the San Lorenzo. 

I turned a corner and was left completely speechless at the sight of this painting among many others lining the ceiling of the dining room. It is the Allegoria dell'Inclinazione, by Artemisia Gentileschi. She is my absolute favorite artist, and to see one of her works in person was an experience I can't even begin to describe. She has another work, the Judith Slaying Holofernes in the Uffizi that I plan on seeing at least once; hopefully I will be able to see a lot more of her work throughout my time in Italy. I was amazed at how well this work, as well as many others, have been preserved over centuries. 

I got to visit a few more museums this week, including the Museo Marino Marini, as in my Florence sketchbook course I was asked to go there and draw sketches from his sculptures. Admittedly I didn't find his work all that interesting at first, however upon taking more time to really observe I found that each of the sculptures had their own story to tell, and captured a particular moment or emotion. 

Over the weekend I went with two friends to Siena, and went to the Museo Civico there. I got to see the Allegory of Good and Bad Government murals by Ambriogio Lorenzetti. These two murals cover the Council room of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. In the same museum is the Simone Martini mural, the Maesta. These are all paintings that I have studied back at home, so it was great to see the real thing. They each cover an entire wall in size so the pages in my textbooks can't do them justice. 

Maesta, Simone Martini

**I should mention photography is not allowed in many of the museums so some images are pulled offline. 

Also in Siena we went to the Duomo, and saw some Duccio and Donatello works! Walking through the interior of this cathedral was overwhelming to say the least, it's much smaller than the one in Pisa and has many roped off areas because of mosaics on the floor. I took pictures of some of them as this was truly unique to Siena's cathedral, so far anyway. So here is the exterior and interior of the cathedral, and one of the mosaics.

The absolute best part of Siena was climbing the tower of the Palazzo Pubblico. It was kind of scary, but well worth it! The view was just gorgeous. 

This image overlooks the piazza or center of town that is home to the Palio, or horse race in the square (They run through the gray areas). Twice each year a horse represents each of the city wards and it can often get dangerous as there are very tight turns in the track. (Seriously, check it out on youtube). The races are not held while we're here but the center is lined with restaurants and gelato shops. 

Overall another great week in Italy! A friend of mine from home is in Italy visiting family, so she came to see me in Firenze on fashion night, of all nights! It was the night all of the big brand stores show off their fall collections, so it was hectic downtown but an awesome night to visit. She and I are planning a weekend trip to Capri!!! Capri is one of the major places I wanted to see so it will be exciting to get to share the experience with a friend from home. Ciao!

Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre

I started classes last week, and they started off pretty well. We mostly just went over what we would be doing for the semester in each class. We looked at different examples of prints from past students' work in printmaking. This is a course I took last semester at home, however this class goes through more techniques, and will allow me to experiment with the medium in further depth. I am particularly excited for wood cuts, involving carving into a piece of plywood, spreading the ink on to the plate, and printing. This is a technique I will use in later classes once I get back home, but to have some experience already will be helpful as printmaking is a very meticulous, detail oriented process. Having most of the techniques already, I will just be exploring and building on the overall concept of my work for the remainder of my undergrad work.

For Art History I am taking a seminar course on Michelangelo, which consists of going to see many of his original works in museums around Florence, and studying his work in comparison with his contemporaries, Leonardo and Raphael. We even get to visit where he lived! This experience has already been so much more helpful than looking at pictures in books, as the sculpture specifically really allows you to empathize with the artist in a more physical way. It's almost as if the sculptures have an aura or energy about them. They are absolutely beautiful- all of the parts of the form seem active, and to bear weight. For my sketchbook course we will study these in more detail in drawing through observation, which I have become much more interested in since viewing the sculpture at the Palazzo Medici. It would be impossible for me to be here and not draw inspiration from my surroundings, which makes me grateful that these classes are sort of intertwined. In my sketchbook class today I finally learned how to measure anatomical proportions correctly! It was so helpful! And we made tinted paper, which is something we don't learn at home. It gives the antique feel that Leonardo's sketches have, like this:

As interesting as my classes are, the real fun was over the weekend when my study abroad program took us to Pisa, and Lucca on Saturday and Cinque Terre on Sunday. We saw the Duomo and Baptistry in Pisa, and I counted 61 people taking pictures to look as if they were holding up the leaning tower of Pisa within a ten minute period (haha). This was my first time seeing the inside of a Cathedral, and it was breathtaking! Obviously I took over 300 pictures in two days, so I just put up a few of my favorites. 

The Duomo:

This chandelier was what made Galileo discover the concept of terminal velocity. 

Lucca: 

The islands of Cinque Terre: My retirement location. A series of small islands where the villages are formed along the mountains. There are miles of olive and lemon farms and tons of seafood restaurants! The food here was amazing. 

We started off on a walking tour of Cinque Terre, but of course I wandered away for a second and got lost. I've had quite the habit of doing that these days! I took the opportunity to explore off of the tourist path. There are alleys that lead up the hills to houses all along the street, so I walked up one of them. Before I got in trouble for being on private property (oops!) I took a few pictures, like this one. 

On the way back down the hill, I passed an older woman who was putting potting soil in her plants. I said good morning to her and she motioned for me to help her... After I helped her I asked her if I could take a picture of her but she wouldn't let me :/ It reminded me of the "genre" scenes, images of daily life, of artists like Carracci. I have decided to make this a focus for my photography while I'm here, although there is so much to see that it's hard to focus entirely on one aspect of the environment.  

Some other images from Cinque Terre:

Amazing succulent plants, I couldn't stop taking pictures of them. 

Wrapping up the First Week!

My first week here is coming to a close, and I have to admit that much of it has been a blur. The time has gone by extremely fast and every moment being here feels like a dream. I have finally gotten used to the time change and am getting familiar with my whereabouts. In the past few days we've had several tours around the city, orientation meetings and some fun outings. We learned how to make pasta from scratch and tiramisu at a cooking school here, and it was delicious! We made a basic tomato sauce and ragu blanca, which is a while sauce with hamburg and vegetables.

I also got my museum card and went to the Palazzo Medici and the Palazzo Piti with some friends, it was gorgeous! Definitely one of my favorite places so far.. The views of the city are breathtaking.


Medici Palace

Ceiling Fresco in the Medici Palace

Panoramic view of the courtyard

From the Boboli Gardens at the Palazzo Piti

Classes start tomorrow! Can't wait! Ciao!