SCOTT + INGRID: Florence, Italy

Love Tuscany!

We arrived in Livorno, we took a bus from the Cruise Port to the train station.

We took the train to Florence. I've been to Florence before so I knew what to do, and where to go. It's such a lovely place to just walk around and have a good time.

Whenever we arrived we both needed to use the restrooms, so yes, we went to Mc Donalds and paid 1,50 Euros each, to use a NASTY bathroom. After that, we kept walking and went to a bakery shop and got some yummy treats and a water. We kept walking to the Accademia we wanted to see David, from Michelangelo.

Accademia Gallery in Florence

Tip: Buy your tickets online. The lines were so huge, we ended up paying a little bit more for someone that had paid online and reserved a time to get in. But we didn't have to stay in line.. time was more precious for us, since we only had one day there.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

David, Material: Marble, ht. 516cm. 1502-1504

" Nor has there ever been seen a pose so fluent, or a gracefulness equal to this, or feet, hands and head so well related to each other with quality, skill and design."

With these words Giorgio Vasari attempts to define the reasons behind the marvel that the vision of David provokes in the observer. He continues by stating that the statue so far surpasses both in beauty and technique ancient and modern statuary that one needn't bother seeing other works in sculpture.

At the end of 1502, Michelangelo obtained the permission of the "Opera del Duomo" to work a block of marble which had been abandoned in the courtyard of the Cathedral of Florence for the creation of the figure of the young prophet, subsequently placed in front of Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza Signoria. David is represented in a meditative pose following his victory over Goliath according to an unusual iconographic interpretation in which the young here is not portrayed in his traditional pose of triumph with one foot on the severed head of the defeated giant. His sling is also barely visible as though to emphasize how David owed his victory not to brutal force, but to his intellect and to his innocence. As soon as it was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the statue became a symbol of liberty and of civic pride for the Fiorentine Republic. Surrounded by hostile enemies, the city identified itself with the young hero, who, with the help of God, had defeated a much more powerful foe. In 1873, Michelangelo's statue was brought here to the Tribune of the Galleria, built expressly for it and, only in 1908, was it substituted in Piazza Signoria by the marble copy, still there today. The bronze copy found in Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking Florence was done some.

The Nineteenth Century Hall

Lorenzo Bartolini, international portraitist

The numerous plaster models of busts of men and women, exhibited along the walls of the hall, are tied to Bartolini's fortunate activity as a portraitist.

Having won distinction for the portraits of the Bonaparte family, as of the early 19th center, he was sought after by a select international clientele, from royal families to the aristocracy, to varyingly famous personages who would stop in Florence, a must leg of the Grand Tour, before proceeding to Rome. For many of the busts, the portrait's mainly private, and at times even infantile intended use, makes it difficult to definitively identify the person portrayed, as the location of their marble renderings is also often unknown. The male busts follow the so-called "heroic" typology (that is to say, only the head and a small part of the bared chest. - Fig.1, or they have a hint of a garment draped in the style of antiquity. Fig. 2- The female portraits generally have a trace of a tunic, but the characterized by hairstyle, in various fashionable versions and all carefully described. Modest inclinations of the head varyingly modify the frontal position of the portrait. By 1830, in the typology of female portraits, more than the half-bust, Lorenzo Bartolini adopted the half-figure model (down to the waist); Fig.3- Derived from the model of the portrait of Madame Rècamier, devised by the sculptor Chinard. His plaster statues are almost all models, very few casts, and they therefore often present the nails or tacks necessary to render them in other materials, generally marble. In point of fact, they belong to Bartolini's mature activity, after the 1813 devastation of his studio in Carrara and his move to Florence. Several of the busts present traces of terra-cotta patina, while others that appear irregularly yellow, state that they were treated with rabbit glue gelatin, perhaps in order to be rendered in bronze. In part, the surfaces appear somewhat faded, as they were damaged by the 1966 flood.

Carved from an ancient piece of marble. (Left, above)

Created by the artist as a plaster model for the marble statue placed under the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria, (fig. 1) where it can still be seen today. The sculpture represents an older man defeated by a young and vigorous opponent who gasps a young woman with a forceful gesture. The three-figure composition derives from Giambologna's study of two-figure sculptural groups during his youth when he was commissioned the pendant statue to Florence triumphant over Pisa, (fig. 2, today in the Museo Bargello), Michelangelo's Victory (fig.3 today in the Palazzo Vecchio)

The three figures in the Rape of the Sabines are contracted along a spiraling vortex which, in its spatial movement, induces the spectator to move around the statue and offers infinite viewpoints. This type of composition goes beyond classical statuary based on the principle of privileged viewpoint.

This problem had been dealt with more that a century earlier by Donatello in his Giuditta once located in Piazza della Signoria (now in Palazzo Vecchio). Giambologna was so involved in the formal solutions to his composition that created the sculpture without any particular subject in mind, " only to show excellence in art". It was the scholars Vicenzo Borghini who, after seeing the statue, suggested the title. In order to make this interpretation clear to all, Giambologna sculpted a bas-relief representing the Battle of the Romans and Sabines on the base of the statue.

Anton Domenico Gabbiani (Firenze, 1652-1726)

Grand Prince Ferdinando with his Musicians

Oil on Canvas, 1685

Florence, Galleria Palatina, on loan to the Galleria dell'Accademia

Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici can be immediately recognized standing in the foreground of the painting as he turns towards the singer Vicenzo Olivicciani, to his left. In the background on his right a bust of Georg Friedrich Händel can be seen. Ferdinando had in fact a long and lasting friendship with him, as the rich epistolary between the two testifies. The youth with the chiatorrone in the center may be 1685 from Modena. In effect, during that time Ferdinando sustained intensive relations with the Este, the ruling house of that city. The next figure an exceptional prominence, both for his privileged placement within the group and for the fact that he is the only figure who is not playing an instrument. A lira da gamba rest on the ground on his right silver, a revolutionary system that had been recently discovered and improved the sonority of the lower tones in the instruments of limited size. He could be Pietro Salvetti, mentor of the Grand Prince in the practice of various bowed strain instruments, chapel master in 1683, 1689 and 1691, chamber assistant to Ferdinando, mathematician and numismatist. The composition closes on the left with two other composers: the first may be Francisco Vernacini, for the resemblance with the figure in the following painting.

Jacopo di Cione, Niccolò di Tommaso, Simone di Lapo

Coronation of the Virgin

Tempera on woodd

Unknown Provenance

The painting was executed in 1372-1373 for the Florentine "Zecca", the mint where the florin was coined and one of the richest guilds of medieval Florence. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel loom over the Virgin's crowning which takes place in the presence of good number of saints, chosen among the ones most worshipped in the city of Florence. The coats of arms of guilds and Florentine families appear at the base; the ones at the ends are fruit of modern restoration. Among the painters recalled in documents for the realization of the work, "Jacobo Cini" seems to have played more important role than his colleagues "Simono" and "Niccholao".

Walking in the streets of Florence and falling in love with my husband.

Cathedral de Santa Maria del Fiore

Duomo de Florenca:

Palazzo Vecchio behind us:

Ponte Vecchio behind us.

Built very close to the Roman crossing, the Ponte Vecchio, or Old Bridge, was until 1218 the only bridge across the Arno in Florence. The current bridge was rebuilt after a flood in 1345. During World War II it was the only bridge across the Arno that the fleeing Germans did not destroy. Instead they blocked access by demolishing the medieval buildings on each side. On November 4, 1966, the bridge miraculously withstood the tremendous weight of water and silt when the Arno once again burst its banks.