Art and Arch- Siena Good Cathedrals Lately?...

One of my favorite trips was to Sienna, a city stuck in the middle ages.  Its architecture and city grid is set up around the central government building and Gothic-style Duomo.  What makes this building noticeably Gothic is the extensive use of gargoyles, and exotic animal and human heads as decoration on the façade. The Renaissance artworks of Florence were followed by prosperity after the economic decline of the middle ages.  However, this fortune was not shared with Sienna.  In fact, before the plague, Sienna began expanding its cathedral in order to house more attenders, but because of the devastating plague and drastic economic drop, the expansion ceased and remains unfinished today.  The art present inside of the main government building contains religious figures, but is more about the town’s citizens, and less about faith.  It also has newer frescos depicting scenes of a unified Italy.

I really love the medieval and gothic look that Siena presents, and the small-town feel of the city.  I'd talk much more on it, but it is definitely a city that should be saved for another topic of my blog.  

Art and Arch- Conquering Rome

On my first weekend here, my group and I took an hour-long train ride to Rome.  Roma truly is an ancient city, and its preserved buildings and monuments attest to that.  We arrived in the terminal in the late morning and, after a few metro rides, arrived a short distance to one of the most famous city-states in the world, Vatican City.  For this visit, we were gifted a tour guide, who made the experience complete with her knowledge of the buildings inside.  We visited the Vatican museum, one of the first collections of ancient arts and artifacts.  Two old buildings were part of this museum, one for the art, the other for and entrance way.  Between them, a very modern glass and steel canopy covered a courtyard, set there in preparation for the last jubilee.  This area explains most of the experience: a love for the past, with obvious modern accommodations. 

There were large exhibits from many parts of the world- largely, Egypt.  Mummies and sarcophagi made up the oldest of the attractions, but it was the more Roman and Renaissance sculptures that really drew my interest.  Belvedere Torso, a broken Athenian sculpture, is proudly displayed in the center of its own room.  The statute was highly influential to Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo who is known to have much of his time studying the piece and incorporating it into his own art.  Most powerful to me, however, was the famous Roman sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, which I have seen often in years of Art History classes.  The sculpture depicts a mythological episode of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons being attacked by sea serpents.  The writhing marble snakes twist and spiral around the contorted figures who struggle against their assault.  This piece has become a point of interest for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, the artist gives very believable action and detail to marble.  The life-like serpents, drapes, are impressive enough, but there is something about this statue that really defines the Roman and Romanesque art periods: their faces.  In contrast to the blank and placid expressions on many classical sculptures, these faces are in a perfectly depicted agony.  These expressions are presented later during and after the Renaissance. 

As we exited the museums, we entered St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was the first basilica that we had visited and I was in awe of the grandness of the holy building.  The enormous dome and vaulted ceiling was decorated with ornate mosaics depicting religious episodes and artworks.  This meant that flash photography was allowed as the art was not a fresco that could be damaged by the cameras.  It was also a powerful experience to see Michelangelo’s statue Pietà as it too is a well-known sculpture.  One thing that struck me as strange, however, was that tombs of former Popes were on display for prayers and pictures.  Although one was a closed stone sarcophagus, two others we walked past were transparent glass, housing the wax-covered bodies of the pontiffs visible and open.

Food- The Food Market

Italian food and wine is just as big as Italian art and architecture, and I expect to devour as much of this city as I can during my brief stay.  Already I have expanded my pallet beyond what I believed possible.  I have tried things I never even thought to eat, and enjoyed more delicious versions of dishes I have previously eaten.  I will go over everything in a more refined and analytical section later in my blog, but for now, I want to touch on today's happenings specifically.

Yesterday morning, I woke my roommate up early and together we walked twenty minutes to the giant food market here in Florence.  We were met with scents of fresh meat and fish on ice, sticky-sweet pastries, and spices of every kind.  The ground floor was set up in a loose grid shape of meat markets, veggie and cheese markets, candy shops, and wine stores.  On the first floor- second floor, if you're in the States- is a plethora of restaurants, bars, and gelaterias that you can't get enough of.  Walking through the building is a fulfilling experience in itself, but I couldn't walk away empty handed.

I knew I wanted to make a sandwich, and so I got to work.  From one deli I bought prosciutto- a raw, cured ham- and from another I purchased delicious buffalo mozzarella swimming in a bowl of whey.  After a few more ingredients (fresh bread, arugula, tomatoes, and pesto) I was able to make myself a delicious sandwich.

Then again today, my class took a walking tour of Florence that ended at this same building.  Unfortunately the ground shops close at 2pm, so instead we headed up to the first floor with the assignment to ask around and try traditional Tuscan dishes.  After scuffling about for a few minutes, we all met up stuffing our faces with various finds.  One of my roommates returned with panzanella- a salad traditionally made with stale, leftover bread that is soaked in water, and tossed with cheeses, basil, and tomatoes.  Another member of our group from EIU tried the number one Florence street food: lampredotto.  Lampredotto is a sandwich made with prepared tripe with salsa verde (an herby sauce).  I personally had a variation of a cannolo, which is traditionally made with sweet ricotta stuffed into a sugary, deep-fried roll.  However, the one I had was actually stuffed with gelato and chocolate chips.

I hope to try each of the other dishes before I leave, and to find others to try. Tonight, around 2am, I have an alarm set to go find one of the rumored "secret" bakeries in Florence.  If all goes well, I will create a post going into more detail on the matter.  

Until then,

Ciao!

My prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella panini. 

Art- Frescos

An art medium quickly associated with the Renaissance is fresco art.  It certainly isn’t strictly a Renaissance method, and in fact is found in Italy from multiple time periods.  However, it is a huge part of the décor here in Florence, and I cannot help but to see it every day.  A fresco is a two-dimensional art form created by adding color pigment to wet, white plaster.  An example would be the famous Sistine Chapel in Rome.  Until my time in Italia, this was the extent of my knowledge concerning frescos; pigments mixed with wet plaster equals art.  But there are things I’ve learned in class- especially on class trips- that have really expanded my understanding of this art.

Firstly, there is an obvious setback to making frescos: you have to work quickly.  If not, the plaster will dry and you will have nothing to mix pigment in to.  So what do you do to counter this?  The artist mixes and plasters in sections the size of what he can work in a day.  These sections are called giornatas, and literally mean “a day’s work.”  Many pieces have slight variations in color within them, allowing you to see the specific giornata.

Before the artist can slap plaster on a wall and create a fresco, he must first prepare the wall.  This is the second thing I learned on a class trip to San Miniato al Monte, an ancient basilica just outside of Florence (I will go into this trip in more detail in another post).  Before the artist colored the fresco, he would first draw on the wall to map the project.  I know this should be obvious, but I really never thought about a fresco as a drawing colored in with plaster.  These drawings are rough, basic sketches called sinopias.  Sinopias are named thusly after the natural red earth pigment used to create them. There are many example of frescos left incomplete, containing only a sketch of the fresco-to-be.  Personally, I enjoyed the sinopias I saw and thought them to be just as- if not, more- aesthetically pleasing than the completed frescos.

(Written 26-05-2015)