from the abstract to the antique...: Uffizi & Siena

Finally...the Uffizi! Touted as one of the world's best collections of Italian Renaissance art, this place absolutely lived up to the hype (read: I was kind of in heaven). No pictures allowed, but obviously I snuck a few! I'll just go through a few of my favorite artists here...we begin with Botticelli. Highlights were...

The Birth of Venus

and Primavera

Botticelli's real name was Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, but he was nicknamed Botticelli, or "small wine cask," when he was young. The son of a tanner, Botticelli trained as an apprentice to a goldsmith and eventually entered the studio of Fra Filippo Lippi (which was a good move - Lippi worked for the Medicis, among other leading Florentine families). By 1470, he had his own studio (around age 25) and by 1481, he was so popular he was summoned by the pope to help decorate the Sistine Chapel. Interestingly, Vasari writes in Lives of the Artists that Botticelli was actually a follower of Savonarola during the political upheaval in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century (we met Savonarola in the last post!). At the end of his life, his style fell out of favor and he apparently died melancholic and depressed. As the National Gallery writes, "Botticelli's final years are marked by a rapid decline into poverty, isolation, and mental anguish"...a poignant and sad ending to such a vibrant life.

Moving on...the Uffizi has some great examples of early Leonardo. First, The Annunciation

One of his earliest paintings - I won't go into detail, but there are actually a few problems with perspective in the painting...look at the entrance to the garden behind the angel (a bit odd) compared to the brick corner of the building behind Mary. Just a bit off - horizontally, the perspective is right in the center, but vertically, it is about two thirds of the way up. The long, horizontal composition is also unusual. No matter, he painted this at about age 20-21 and obviously mastered these things soon enough!

Also really interesting is the painting The Baptism of Christ. Officially painted by Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo's teacher, we can see that Leonardo painted certain parts because the style is so different. His distinctly different (read: superior) style in evident in the angel's face (bottom left) and in the hazy background on the left...in these places, the promise of the young painter is clear. Just compare the face of that angel to the face of John the Baptist (or really any of the faces) and you can get a sense for the artist's superiority over his teacher.

Although the name Leonardo is basically synonymous with the Renaissance, the artist actually does not have that many paintings. He was just as interested in his scientific, mechanical, and biological studies as he was with painting. The National Gallery in London has one work by him and the Louvre has a few (yes, yes...the Mona Lisa - out of all of his works, it honestly isn't even my favorite...it is only so famous because it was stolen). My favorites were actually in Rome at Villa Borghese, but we will get to that later!

The last artist I was excited to see here was Titian...although the National Gallery in London has a fair amount of Titian works, this one is probably among his most famous - Venus of Urbino.

This painting is mysterious - nobody knows who the woman was and we can only guess at the symbolism in it...scholarly opinion has basically concluded that it is an allegory of marriage. The eroticism is a reminder of the marital obligations a woman had to her husband (Venus is the goddess of love, after all), while the sleeping dog on the corner of her bed alludes to fidelity. The girl in the background rummaging through a chest with a maid looking on symbolizes motherhood. Because it is so sensual, there is a very good chance that this painting was meant for private, domestic purposes (probably to hang in a bedroom). The subject of the reclining nude is something rife in art history - it can be dated back before Titian and there are a myriad of artists that reuse the motif after Titian (Manet's Olympia, Velazquez Venus at her Mirror, Ingres Le Grande Odalisque to name a few...here is a concise little article someone wrote on the topic).

There were SO many more amazing things to see but these were definitely the highlights for me. After a few more hours, I left and hit up Santa Croce, a church housing the tombs of people like Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo (among others).

Michelangelo

Galileo

and Dante!

I had planned to stay in Florence longer (there is certainly a lot I didn't see!) but I was feeling adventurous, so I left early to catch a train to Siena instead to see the cathedral there before getting to Rome. On my way to the train station I made a quick stop in Basilica of Santa Maria Novella...right next to the station in Florence. Lots of Masaccio goodies here.

(Masaccio's Trinity)

So - off to Siena. Not having researched anything about Siena before going, I got off the train and actually took my bag with me to the Cathedral because there weren't lockers at the train station (good thing I packed light!). The train station was not centrally located...I jumped on a bus and just assumed I would see the cathedral as I got closer to the city center and thank goodness, I was right (you can see the bell tower and dome in the background).

First, I stopped into Basilica of San Domenico (also known as Basilica Cateriniana) to see the relics of St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine is one of the two patron saints of Italy (along with St. Francis of Assisi) and her house is nearby.

Here she is!

Then headed to the Siena Cathedral.

I could have spent hours here, but just hit the highlights since I had to get back and catch the train to Rome within 2 hours. Here was the inside though - loving the stripes!