We started with Santi Apostoli. Built in the 11h century and remodeled in the 15th, it retains a medieval feel. The stone is not the dark grey piedre serena of most of the later churches. (See the picture of San Lorenzo in the blog "rocks" for the beautiful grey sandstone piedre serena. "Serena" has a meaning similar to its English cognate. It is a serene stone. It is also used in the painting we next discuss.)
Today is Palm Sunday and church was popular. We sat over coffee for an hour waiting for mass at Santa Trinita to end. We paid for the lights and saw this wonderful Adoration by Ghirlandaio. It is a triple Adoration- Mary's, the shepherds', with the Magi en route. Beautifully composed and beautifully executed.
Monday, April 12 2014
We went to the Marino Marini Museum this morning. The museum is in the former St. Pancrazio Church, which has been repurposed:
It was refreshing to view some works less than several hundred years old.
One chapel from the deconsecrated church remains. It contains the funerary monument to Giovanni Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti.
Alberti was a writer, philosopher, and architect. His sort is where the phrase "Renaissance man" comes from. Ahead of his time, Alberti was concerned about the social impact of his buildings.
We had lunch a the too-famous, too-popular, too-self-consciously-authentic Trattoria de Mario. see
http://trattoria-mario.com/Site-2013/index.php . They specialize in Florentine steak (rational portion) , and it was excellent with a good brunello. We're getting a bit flowery ourselves. Time to go.
Tuscan color palate:
Buildings in Tuscany are painted in earth tones. The walls are often allowed to peel and rot. We assume that the colors are the result of some regulatory requirement, but our research on the internet has not been fruitful. The overall effect is lovely. This picture is from the ticket line at the Pitti Palace:
This is from the Piazzella Michelangelo, which is on a hill overlooking the city.
Complaints: Merde, mosquitos, and mobs.
Imagery and worship: Bruce remembers his first exposure to Italian church art as a child. The representation of an object of worship was very creepy. In the absence of a religious response, can "modern" observers "appreciate" or "understand" these works? Does a contemporary Catholic? Can we see them as more than art. Did the Renaissance person find more meaning in a Giotto crucifix than than of an anonymous painter?
Gusto Leo: tomato bread soup; pasta fagioli; pizza.
Trattoria di Mario: Florentine steak, frites.
Final indulgence, return to Giostra. house hors d'oeuvres (bruschetta, pickled eggplant, pimentos, celeriac in a mayonnaise sauce, chopped liver, & a potato spinach cheese ball), fried artichoke, pasta with wild boar sauce (really a stew), bronzino, brunello (not montapulciano). Too much, no dessert.
Tuesday, April 15
Happily, today was entirely uneventul. We are now in Vienna.
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