Wed., July 16.
We walked across town to the National Pinocateca (Art Museum) for Bologna, about 25 minutes from our hotel. It was quite warm, but the walk was almost completely shaded by Bologna's colonaded arcades. These have been a feature of Bologna since the 13th century:
The colonnades were required to be built on private property but open to use of citizens.
The Museum featured the usual ecclesiastical Medieval panels. These works are most often very wooden and formulaic. True here, too. But we can offer this small,14th century image of a fretful St. Peter as an impressive exception:
Actually, the most well-known painting in the Bologna Museum is Raphael’s Ecstasy of Saint Cecelia. Nothing else comes close.
The painting is usually reproduced cropped thusly:
The grouping -- St. Paul, St. John Evangelista, St. Augustine, and Mary Magdalene -- had us stumped. Wikipedia explains:
“The iconography of the altarpiece is unusual in that rather than portraying a figure or figures to be worshipped, it represents the act of worship itself. Each of the saints was associated with visions … and the celestial choir that opens above the saints' heads is closely associated with the patron's own devotions, in which music was an important element. Cecilia was associated with music from the Middle Ages, but the broken instruments here appear to refer to the abandonment of earthly pleasures that resulted from Cecilia's devotion to the sacred. In this painting she personifies religious music as a route to union with God.” [footnotes omitted].
Mary Magdalene, is not really part of the group. She is more interested in us:
The beauty of the work does not pixelate perfectly.
Next, the 16th century Palazzo Poggi, which now houses an eclectic assemblage from the University’s collections:
Natural History:
Notice the cool cases. Some cases contained woodblocks that were used to illustrate very old books. For example, seahorse.
Military technology (e.g., one of many models of fortifications):
Maps, etc. (no pics)
One of the joys of repurposed buildings is the disconnect between decoration and content.
This on the wall
wax anatomical models in the cases.
We mentioned that Bologna is a college town. There are many wearing laurel wreaths today, surrounded by enthusiastic friends.. Have they graduated, defended a thesis? And what about are those celebrating in Minnie or Mickey ears, or even more peculiarly, home made rabbit ears?
Lunch was lasagna for Bruce. Leslie had pumpkin filled ravioli with a balsamic vinegar sauce and crunchy bits of bacon --- amazing combination.
Dinner at P122@s sea bass, lasagna, pina nero.
Thurs. July 17.
We finished our visit to Bologna with a visit to the Medieval Museum. Worthy of note were a couple of 14th century glass flasks in perfect condition:
missed lunch. Train to Ravenna (next post).
No comments:
Post a Comment