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! 
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!
