WOW! I can't even believe it has already been a WEEK here in Florence - it's gone by soooo fast! Luckily we still have one more until we make our way over to Rome!!
So today started off with a really good class lecture mainly on the artist Masaccio and Leon Battista Alberti. The former was a revolutionary painter in the beginning of the Renaissance whose use of expression, shading, and perspective created much more realistic, poignant pieces than those being made previously. Even artists like Michaelangelo looked to this guy for inspiration and artistic direction.
Leon Battista Alberti, on the other hand, was mainly an architect who wrote a treatise on painting and perspective. He is the first to actually write down how to compose a clear, ordered piece according to linear perspective, etc. even though sculptors like Donatello had already been experimenting with these ideas.
So the first site we visited was the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine which, from the outside, looks like nothing special.
But inside, in one of the chapels called Cappella dei Brancacci, are beautiful and very famous frescoes by Masaccio. The frescoes illustrate stories of Peter - mainly because the order of the Carmelites wanted to promote papal authority and what better way to do that than feature the 'first pope'? - but they are famous more for Masaccio's innovative use of a single, natural light source and his heavy, sculptural figures.
And best of all - we got to take pictures!!!
...I was totally in art history heaven... :)
And the rest of the church was pretty beautiful too...
Unfortunately we couldn't stay in there forever...though I would've liked to.
Next we headed over to the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella which is the church after which the main Florentine train station is named. It had a much more grand facade - one on which I had to give a presentation! - which was designed by the afore-mentioned Leon Battista Alberti. It was supposed to bring to mind the religious and civic architecture of antiquity as well as praise the wealthy patron who commissioned it...which is made clear by the fact that the man's family crest and name is emblazoned all over it!
...see that writing at the top? Yup, that's the patron's name - Rucellai.
...and those curly symbols? That's his family crest - they're supposed to be ship's sails.
Inside was amazing too - couldn't take pics this time *sobs* - but we saw another famous work by Masaccio called The Holy Trinity created sometime between 1425-27 (he died shortly thereafter at the age of 27), but it too got me literally jumping in excitement...one of the girls Stephanie can attest to that fact. It was sooooooo cool to see this work I've studied so much actually in person!
It just encapsulates the Renaissance ideals of architecture, perspective, sculptural figures, space, as well and the religious focus on one's mortality that was so pervasive in the society of 15th century Florence.
Here's a Google pic:
...and that bottom part (the skeleton) wasn't even discovered until the 1950s cuz it was hidden by an altarpiece!
But that's not all!!
Also in the church was a huge crucifix done by Giotto - another famous artist known for helping to usher in the Renaissance, and there was a the amazingly-preserved Tornabuoni Chapel. The frescoes inside were life-sized (which I totally had not imagined when looking at slides back home) and were so vibrant in color and detail they almost seemed new!
More Google pics...because it was so awesome, words cannot alone suffice!
...there are even more scenes and they all looked way better in person, but you get the idea. Oh it was so cool!
Anyways, after the church, we ran right next-door to stroll through the covered walkway of the Green Cloister (one of the three Dominican cloisters built during the 1300s that attach to the church).
The cloister is called 'green' mainly because of the green tint used throughout the frescoes on the walls of the walkway done in the 1400s by Paolo Uccello. Unfortunately there was a massive flood that destroyed much of the artwork - but a few remaining figures and scenes can still be made out.
We also ducked into what is known as the Spanish Chapel where there were more frescoes - much better-preserved - and one of them shows the original plans for what the Duomo was to look like before Brunelleschi stepped in!!
...SEE!! SO COOL!!!
After the church, Sabrina and I headed over to the local H&M to pick up a cardigan for her sun-baked arms...she was feeling just a bit self-conscious after the 10th "mamma mia!" directed towards her "rosa" skin. lol.
But she found a really cute one and it even had elbow-patches! So after that shopping success, we worked our way back home but I split off just beforehand to grab a few more things at the grocery store - and did I make it through the transaction without speaking a word of English? Yes I did!!!
Then for dinner we mixed together some pasta, rice, red sauce, tomatoes, and pancetta for dinner and then finished off the night with some ice-cream in front of the tv. We had perhaps too much fun dubbing over an Italian soap opera, trying to lip-read a 50s American western, and laughing hysterically at the fact that Chuck Norris as Walker Texas Ranger was playing - and Hodgins from Bones played a geeky hacker!
I even got a pic:
...and that's all there is to it, folks.
