Marble Perfection.

 


found our way laboriously too the Gallerie d'Acadamia for our chance at the David.... he was totally worth it and the grotesque lines and crowds...

ugh... florence lives only for it's tourists. it was very hard to find a section of town that felt totally occupied, or restaurants that didn't cater to tourists. and this really isn't high tourist season, i can't imagine going during high season. I thought it was quite warm enough (well... close enough... hands still freeze sketching...) and already crowded enough to be less enchanting then it could be. not very healthy, but i guess i can't see less people coming in in the future... until the blizzard of identical digital pictures all gets put on the internet and you can see every concievable angle of every concievable thing to look at, the maybe people will just sit at home. thinking on the subject throughout the week - hard to see too much value in some of these pictures, even the ones i take...

anyway... galleries had a lot of art that would have been more exciting had i known more about iconography and the religious art of the period (i was also kind of pretending i didn't to push through to the michalangelo statues) some interesting old harpsichords and pianos - then the real gallery - the place used to be a sculpting school, so these were there for the students to study - the David amazingly, and then the unfinished works tortuously pushing their way out of crude blocks of stone - so amazing to see the strokes of the work and different stages of roughed-out to polished statues. of course it was better when it was finished. had a good time sketching, blah blah blah fill in something about human perfection for yourself, it applies. he was also huge - 15 feet high... honestly his hands and feet and head seemed a little out of scale, but the angle it was seen at and just how ungodly perfect the balence and pose and expression and impression was made it not matter in the slightest - it was obviously deliberate. he was also huge - 15 feet high... how amazing an artist to know when to take that liberty.

the student thesis-pieces were all cluttered together in a side room - rather creepy busts all up the walls and big pieces in the middle - all variously good or bad, to have them together like that really forced the comparison. sculpture really seems to stand better on it's own....

fun night wandering by santa croce, past the only shady abandoned piazza in the city apparently, a random smiley face balloon shoving itself under a car wheel, creepy symbolism... finally a fun looking but cheap restaurant, split creamy gnocci and a steak (guidebook says: you have to try the HUGE florentine steaks! split them with someone! beth says: they're quite good if you feel like steak, on a par with good steaks here but not too much more incredible. and be selfish, they aren't THAT big... save your stomach for the PASTAS!) ha... and cheap wine... in a jug... distrust jugs, we got a liter, and i would not have guessed visually the volume in it to be 4/3s that of a bottle of wine. excellent conversation and meal..... a very good night, topped by a long walk back and a night cap at a small bar... better wine this time....