Exploring Italy

The third month here in Orvieto is simply flying by! Two weeks ago we began another new class, Renaissance Narrative.  Its being taught by Dr. Skillen, the founder and former director of Gordon in Orvieto, and we’re discussing the intersection between narrative story telling in verbal form and storytelling through the art of frescoes. We spent a lot of time the first week discussing the differences between the artist in the Renaissance the artist today. In the Renaissance the artist was more highly regarded as a craftsman and were commissioned by churches and rich patrons to paint in monasteries, churches, private family chapels and family palaces. The best way to understand this form of art is to see frescoes in person, so that is exactly what we did in Florence two Fridays ago! We went to four specific locations in the city—a monastery, two churches and the Medici Palace. Here we saw some really famous paintings, all in the context they were originally created for. Even just walking around the main spots of Florence (The Baptistry & Duomo and Ponte Veccio bridge as pictured to the left) was wonderful. It represents the heart of the Renaissance and in my mind is a perfect depiction of quintessential Italy. If any of you get the chance, you should absolutely go!

About 15 of us decided to stay overnight in Florence after the ‘field trip’ ended. We spent the evening getting dinner at a market, walking around the city and listening to some live street music.

Saturday morning I went to the Academia museum and saw Michaelangelo’s David! That was an absolutely incredible experience. On Friday we saw the spot in Florence that the sculpture was originally intended for, in front of the ‘town hall’ of Florence. The statue is huge and so detailed and absolutely breathtaking. We were in the museum for a little over an hour and I spent the entire time in front of the statue—gazing, taking it in, writing and falling in love with the masterpiece. I’ve never spent so much time in front of one piece of art, so it was quite an experience!

The rest of the day I spent like a total tourist—hanging out in front of Florence’s Duomo, tasting what has been claimed to be Italy’s finest gelato, walking to Piazza de Michaelangelo (from which you can see the entire city) and shopping for lots of leather souvenirs at Florence’s famous leather market! Once again, the day was perfect and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. J

 

In week two of Renaissance Narrative we continued to dive into frescoes, studying in class and going to see four different cycles. In class we compare the written biographies and legends of Renaissance figures to the fresco cycles in Italian churches. We’ve seen frescoes about St. Francis and St. Benedict, the Legend of the Holy Cross and a Last Judgment cycle in Orvieto’s own Duomo. All the images we look at are beautiful, but so embedded in Renaissance culture that I often feel inadequate to study them. Each fresco tends to have a central theme and a lot of them lead back to scripture and the crucifixion, a reminder of how important religion was to Renaissance life. As we look at these frescoes, I have to reorient my mind from what has thus far been a really varied and more modern palate of art to a very specific time period and artistic style.  But being able to see all of the art in person and then really look at the details more specifically in class is helpful. It will be a busy next two weeks as we have a paper, creative project and test to focus on before the class is over! But here’s a bit more about the towns we saw…

Arezzo is a combination of Orvieto and Florence. A hilltop town with beautiful stone churches and a beautiful lookout spot of the surrounding Tuscan towns. 

 

Mt. Oliveto looks a bit like Rivendell…we drove up a hill and all of a sudden hit a mountain of treetops and sunlight. The monastery we went into would be a perfect retreat center. The soft stones and pathways make for a quiet reflection area—or a great picnic place in our case! It’s the monastery where Ptolemey went and founded his own order following the Life of St. Benedict. Here we saw the fresco of St. Benedict’s life, one of my favorites.

San Gimiagno is like the little  Manhattan of Italy in that it used to consist of over 60 towers! A handful of them still exist in the town and give it a unique architectural structure. The streets in the town are so picturesque that you could almost imagine it to be a town created by Disney just for our aesthetic enjoyment! 

During our free time in the town a few of us had the privilege of coming across a modern artist Antony Gormley’s Vessel exhibit. In the midst of a historical town, its interesting to open up the question of the place of modern installation art.  

 Some flowers outside the church...I couldn't help myself!

On Saturday I went into Rome with a few classmates to see more art and experience some serious European religion—a futbol match! We saw Michaelangelo’s Moses statue, tons of Bernini sculptures and Caravaggio paintings in the Borghese museum and ate some gelato! Our original plan for the day involved going to the Zoo, but unfortunately we relied on Roman signs instead of researched directions to find said zoo and when we found a zoo in the Villa Borghese it was almost time for our appointment at the museum and had to forgo the animals for Baroque art—overall a wise decision. J Being at the Roma soccer match was one of the most fun experiences yet—we were sitting next to the section of overenthusiastic fans and had almost as much fun watching them as watching the action on the field. And now I’m officially a Roma fan!