Hi Everyone! Monday, May 28, 2007 5:13 Hello From Florence, Italy

Some storms came through yesterday, but the rain didn't really interfere with our activities. Our group went to the Museo San Marco where the Fra Angelico frescos are. It is an old monastery with a fresco in each monk's cell as well as through out the common areas. We saw the famous Annuciation (with Mary and the angel) from art history books. It is amazing! We also saw Ghirlandio's (spelling?) Last Supper fresco.

I stayed and sketched a little since it was pouring down rain outside. I am keeping a sketchbook diary which you all can see when I get back. :)

I had a wonderful strawberry grape mini torte. Yum! I try to communicate in Italian, but I can't always recall the right words. Plus German words come to me more readily than the Italian. I've also had a wonderful gelato the other day. :)

I found a marbled paper store. It is hand made here. They cover all sorts of books and nice things with the marbled paper. I bought a few gifts. :)

We got our first drawing assignment: Choose 5 familiar, but different things
Sketch each using 5 different techniques. Do a collage of 1 of them made from things acquired freely in a public space. Then sketch two different poses of my hand using the 5 different techniques. It's due Wednesday afternoon. I better get drawing!

Today is our free day. Tomorrow we have the morning free. It's is cool and a little rainy today also. It's nice to have the cool weather. I hope to finally get to the grocery store today. I am all out of food and bottled water.

Thanks for all your emails and greetings.

Love,

Cindy

Hello Everyone! The Duomo and Ravenna Tuesday, June 5, 2007 16:39

Thanks for your emails. It's nice to have news from home since we don't really get it here. I haven't been on the internet since I was afraid I would have to pay the normal rate, which is kind of expensive. Luckily I got the student rate. :) I didn't bring a laptop and have to pay by the hour to use a computer and internet. The key board is slightly different from ours also.

Our beach trip was postponed due to rainy weather. We'll probably go this coming Sunday, although that will make our schedule really full. I have the cooking class tomorrow evening. There were several evenings scheduled and I am in the last one. I am looking forward to it. I heard others say how good it was. We went to Ravenna today, which wasn't on the itinerary, since we didn't have the beach trip.

May 29th we walked up to San Miniato, a monastery, church and cemetery. We heard the monks chanting which was cool. Walked through the cemetery...an interesting mix of statuary monuments and crypts. There were rain showers but they didn't interfere too much. I got a Tiramisu gelato that evening. :)

May 30th We visited Santa Maria Novella and saw the famous fresco of Masaccio's Trinity. The color was different than the photo in my art history text. It had a lot of red in it. Some say it was overly cleaned. We also visited San Lorenzo a church of the Medici, designed by Brunelleschi. The interior was very regular mathematical and serene. The exterior facade was never done. Michelangelo was assigned to do it, but then switched to another project. There were great pulpits by Donatello and an Annuciation painting by Fra Lippi. Pastries today: raisin bun and a yummy fruit filled cookie. :)

There is a great bakery on the way to the studio. We walk over there from our apartment each morning. In the evening I watched a trio of musicians playing in the market area after the merchants cleared out for the night... A bass player, an accordion player and some sort of harpsichord player. They were great. About every night there is some sort of musician playing. They even have concerts in the Piazza near our apartment on weekends.

May 31st we climbed the Duomo here in Florence. That was an experience! There is an inner and outer dome and the stairs go between the two! They are very narrow and steep at places. I can't imagine being a worker building the dome back then. At the time Brunelleschi designed it, no one believed he could do it...they were all afraid it would fall in! The view from the top was incredible! 360 deg of Florence. We could also walk around the inside of the dome, right next to the frescos. They are done on a huge scale! The brush strokes were incredible! Some of the figures were very gruesome too! Looking down at the church nave below was something too! We also saw the Baptistry and the famous doors by Ghiberti. They are freshly cleaned and looked great...these were reproductions, though. We saw the real ones in the museum a few days later. The mosaic in the baptistry was beautiful. The real gold shining in the light...done by Venetian artists with tiny 1\2 inch tiles. Pastries of the day: croissant filled with cream and another cream filled lattice type pastry. Yum!!

In the afternoon we walked up the hill to San Miniato again. I can't believe I agreed to that after I walked the 400 some steps up the Duomo. I was able to do a nice painting. It was a quiet scenic place.

We had a Renaissance dinner that night at Palazzo Borghese. The staff was all in period costumes and there was lots of great food fun and games. I'll write more later. I'm running out of time.

Love,
Cindy

The Duomo Museum, Pisa and Lucca Sunday, June 10, 2007 15:07

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday we took a day trip to Siena and San Gimigano, Etruscan hill towns. Very scenic! Tomorrow we leave for a 3 day trip to Rome, which will be very busy. The rain and stormy weather has cleared up but it is also warmer. The beach trip to Cinque Terra was rescheduled for today, but I decided not to go to since our schedule has been really full.

I'll fill you all in on the days I missed...starting with where I left off last email. June 1st we went to the Duomo Museum (Museo dell'Opera di Santo Maria del Fiore). We saw a great wood sculpture of Mary Magdalen by Donatello. It looks very modern. Some say it is one of his strongest works. We compared the choir boxes of Della Robbia and Donatello...very interesting. We saw parts of the exterior of the Duomo that were moved to the museum for preservation, panels from the the tower and the real baptistry door panels. It is amazing the 3 dimensionality of the bronze door reliefs. Brunelleschi's desk mask is also there (a cast made of his face after his death)...interesting to see what he really looked like. The museum also contains the courtyard where Michelangelo worked on David. The David sculpture was originally intended for the exterior of the Duomo Cathedral. When the patrons saw it they decided it was so well done they didn't want to mounted up high on the cathedral. I'll tell you more about the story of the famous David later. :) There is a room with relics in. One of them was John the Baptist's finger!

It was a rainy day again, so I stayed after the tour and sketched Donatello's Habacuc or "Zuccone". One of my favorites from art history class. I also attempted to draw Michelangelo's Pieta (the Nicodemus figure is actually a self portrait). I was surprised to receive a card from Debby Walker...Thank you! :) The Duomo museum is great!

I also did some shopping at the Mercato Central for fresh fruits, veggies, gnocchi, bread, dried tomatoes and mushrooms, and fresh basil. I cooked a yummy dinner that night of Gnocchi with a sauce of dried mushrooms, basil, dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and olive oil.

There are often musicians in the street. I enjoy here a the guitar player. There is often one or two violin players in the evening. During the day I often see the live statue actors, by the Uffizi (art museum) where the tourists line up to go inside.

June 2nd we took a day trip to Pisa and saw the famous leaning tower. The cathedral is actually leaning also! It is the birthplace of Galileo. The tower is now stabilized with concrete under it, but we didn't go up it. It's expensive and our group was too large. It was interesting to learn that the cathedral and baptistry there are built from parts of other marble and limestone structures. There are fragments of works, carvings, etc in the blocks used to construct it. The columns don't match and the capitals on the columns vary. The courtyard of the cemetery contains ground from Jerusalem. Ships would leave from Pisa (it used to be a great maritime power) to take people to the crusades. They couldn't return empty, so they filled the hull up with holy ground from Jerusalem! They used to chain the harbor closed at night to protect it. We saw the huge chains. The frescos there use a special formula for the plaster since it is more humid there than in Florence. We had a nice lunch in Pisa. I had Lasagna and Bruschetta. :)

We stopped at Lucca on the way back to Florence and saw the Basilica of St. Frediano. We also saw where an ancient Roman amphitheater was turned in to a ring of buildings. The arches are now the doorways to stores, with apartments above. Gelato in Coconut and Pistachio. :) On the drive back we crossed through an ancient Roman aqueduct.

June 3, Sunday, was a free day. It was nice to sleep in a little. I went out and painted the Ponte Vecchio. The oldest bridge in Florence. The only one left after WWII. I went with one of my roommates, Iva Joe, to the Catholic church service at Orsanmichele, an historic church. It was in Italian, so we didn't understand very much, but it was nice to spend the time in worship and prayer. I painted in a courtyard behind San Croce (another historic church) in the afternoon. I made the mistake of going to the grocery store, Standa, on a Sunday evening. It was packed the the shelves were very empty.

I need to go and pack for the trip to Rome. I won't be able to email from there. I'll continue the travel log when I get back home to KC if I'm not able to tell you about everything before I leave Florence. I want to tell you all about the city...just walking around town is an adventure! or obstacle course! :) Anyway, I'd better go.

Love,
Cindy

Masaccio and Mosaics Friday, June 15, 2007 16:23

Hello Everyone,

I am back from Rome. We had a great time. The weather is warmer now...nothing compared to Phoenix. :) So I don't mind it like some. The Vatican Museum was very crowded and they routed us through a round about way. I thought we'd never get to the Sistine Chapel. I'll write more about it later...

Today we took a short trip to Fiesole. I think it is my favorite Etruscan hill town so far. Very scenic and quiet and cool Roman ruins.

Back to a few days I missed...

June 4th I took a trip to the Mercato Central (Central Market). This is my favorite place to shop. It is a little disturbing though to see the chickens plucked with their heads and feet still on!! There are also lots of animals and parts of animals that we don't normally see in the grocery store...rabbits, some critters' brains, octopus, eels... There is also a great bakery that has wonderful whole grain bread with nuts in and great homemade pasta. I like to buy olives here too and dried tomatoes and mushrooms to put with pasta.

We took a tour of the Santa Maria Del Carmine church with the famous Brancacci Chapel that has Masaccio's frescos of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, Tribute Money and the Baptism of the Neophytes. It was great to see them in context with the surroundings. His frescos stood out from the others...the figures are much more 3 dimensional. A thunderstorm went through so we stayed in the church courtyard under the roof and painted. :)

The next day ( 6/5/07) we took a train ride to Ravenna. I am glad they were able to add this to our itinerary. :) It is the city with all the mosaics. Mosaics are great because they are so colorful and don't fade or darken like frescos or paintings. It so nice to see ones I remembered from art history class in place on the walls of the churches... Basilica Di S. Apollinare Nuovo, Basilica Di S. Vitale The detail in the mosiacs is amazing! It is really pain staking work to create them. I love the way they use the natural patterns in the marble stone on panels and columns in the churches. It is amazing the effect of the mosaics and colorful marble! They did really achieve a heavenly atmosphere.

We had a buffet lunch so I tried dishes I wouldn't normally order. I love the variety of food. Meats and veggies we don't normally have or serve differently.

Gelato flavors: Coffee and something like butter pecan Yum!

June 6th I walked around Fortezza Da Basso here in Florence since we had some free time in the morning. It has a nice park around it, which is peaceful compared to the rest of the city.

I had a wonderful apple cake with pine nuts from the bakery. :)

We went to the Galleria dell Academia that afternoon where Michelangelo's David is. There are also 4 of his unfinished sculptures. They were started for Pope Julius' tomb. It was neat to see the variety of tool marks on the unfinished pieces. His Pieta was also there, unfinished. It was interesting to see the relationship between the power of the figures in Michelangelo's age...His work as a young man had much more power. I stayed and sketched David. I was surprised how tall it is, 15 feet!

Michelangelo started from an abandon piece of marble that another sculptor had already carved a chunk out of. He worked David's legs around the hole. The reason David is so huge and the hands so large is because it was created to be mounted high up on the Duomo Cathedral. Michelangelo worked in seclusion year round. In the summer he created a misting system to keep him cool. The marble dust he created though made it very messy. He worked about 3 years on David, his ideal of the male form. When the city fathers finally saw the finished piece they were so impressed they decided not to put it high on the Duomo. Instead they wanted in at the Piazzo Vecchio. (Near my apartment... I walk by the fake David that is there now everyday.) It was the city hall at the time. The Medici didn't want it there, because it symbolized the underdog. It took 3 days to move the sculpture from his workshop to the Piazzo Vecchio. Michelangelo slept with the sculpture at night to keep the Medici from breaking it . Once David was finally installed they couldn't touch it...it was so popular. A symbol of power for the people of Florence.

That evening was cooking class. I choose veggie night since I thought it was about cooking while we are here and I didn't really want to prepare meat just for me. The dishes we prepared were kind of involved though, so I haven't cooked any of them yet. I will make some when I get home. We are exchanging recipes with the other groups that prepared different meals so I will get all the recipes. :) We made Focaccia, one with olives another with onions. That was good! We learned how to make it thick or thin (can be used for pizza crust). Also a chick pea and pasta and tomato soup, Eggplant with onions and tomatoes, a zucchini omelet and blackberry tart for dessert. We also learned some Italian customs and how to choose veggies at the market.

Love,

Cindy

Uffizi Marathon and Dawn & Dusk / Day & Night Sunday, June 17, 2007 16:59

Hello Everyone!

We leave tomorrow morning for 3 days in Venice then home to Kansas City. I've been packing and cleaning the apartment today. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant this evening.

I'll continue with the days I missed.

June 7th We had an afternoon tour reservation at the Uffizi museum. So I spent the morning at the park by Fortezza Da Basso. I saw little ducklings huddled together napping by their mother on the bank of the pond there. I also painted some poppies. The wild poppies are blooming now. Pretty red ones. :)

The Uffizi (Italian for office) was originally the government office building for the Medici. They have a private covered walk way (Vasari corridor) from there across the river to the Piti Palace. They didn't want to walk among the public for safety reasons. It is lined with artwork. We didn't get to tour the walk way, it is a very expensive exclusive tour. The Uffizi is huge. We spent over 4 hours in that museum! It is arrange chronologically. It is interesting to see how art has changed over the years. The development of different styles, the representation of figures and the use of perspective and light and shadow was interesting.

We could also compare the Venetian and Florentine artwork. Florentine art is highly finished and shows no brush strokes, while the Venetian art is more concerned with color and will show brush strokes and uses black. We could also contrast the more intense northern European artwork with the Italian work.

The ceiling of the Uffizi copies the style of the Roman emporer Nero's palace. It is called "Grotesque" style (from the word grotto) because when his palace was discovered underground they originally thought it was a cave.

The Albrect Durer prints were truly amazing. The detail and shading is incredible. Print makers study his work today. He was a true master of his art.

It was nice to see Botticelli's birth of Venus painting in person. There was a room devoted to his work alone.

We also saw Leonardo's Adoration of the Magi and unfinished work. We were able to learn something of his process of painting first the darks and then painting the lighter colors on top to develp his characteristic style.

It was interesting to see his teacher, Verrocchio's work in the Baptism of Christ. We could pick out the one figure Leonardo did in that painting. Evidently, Verrocchio quit painting after that, since Leonardo painting so well.

We saw Michelangelo's Holy Family painting. When that work was cleaned and they discovered the bright colors he used they decided to clean the Sistine Chapel ceiling as well. This caused art historians to rethink previous theories on the palette that Michelangelo used.

We also saw several Raphaels including a self portrait. It was cool to see Titian's Venus of Urbino painting which influenced the Impressionist painter Manet among others.

I wonder what Parmigianino was thinking when he painted the Madonna with the long neck. It is in the Mannerist style and is some what disturbing. The Madonna of course is very elongated and the Christ child is so elongated He looks to be about 8 years old. There are some other strange things in that painting.

There were 3 self portraits by Rembrandt. It was very interesting to compare his depiction of himself as a young man, middle aged and as an old man.

The only female artist so far, Artemisia Genteleschi's painting of Judith Slaying Holofernes was very powerful. Her work had much more power than her father's who taught her how to paint.

The Caravaggio's were also very interesting to see. It was his earlier work so we could see the progression of his style. He used some ultrarealism...rotting fruit, dirty things, etc. His later work has a lot of realism and very distinctive lighting and shadows.

June 8th we toured the Medicie Chapels at San Lorenzo. It was interesting to see the relicaries which held objects relating to various saints. The inlaid stone was truly amazing...so beautiful. The workmanship was incredible! They used the natural shading of the rock to add to the design. We saw Michelangelo's Dawn and Dusk and Day and Night, human figures to represt those times for the Medici sarcophagi. He designed the whole chapel. He actually hid in the basement of this chapel once during political turmoil with the Medici. They found his and his students sketches there. The statuary were carved in place in the chapel.

That afternoon I painted in a rose garden by San Mineato. A cute little hedge hog walked up to me sniffing around as I sat there painting.

Gotta go, running out of time!

Love,
Cindy