A Day of Great Sculpture

Buon Giorno

It happened twice today—that marvelous sense of smug gratification that comes when I show up at a museum, swank by the loooong line, flash my Amici degli Uffizi card, and the attendant opens the barrier just for me.  I'm sure the folks in the line are thinking, "Is she somebody?  How does she rate?"

Well, Amici, I may not be a Real Principessa, but I do research and plan ahead.

So I had plans today, which I had to change, but first I took out the trash and got more cash.  Then look myself off hoping to get into the Duomo.  That's Santa Maria della Fiore, the magnificent cathedral of Florence in the heart of the city.  Ah—no line!  Ok there was a reason there was no line.  The Duomo wouldn’t open for another hour.  Worse the museum with the Duomo’s art works wasn’t going to open until noon!  I took some pictures though, which you can see above.

So I walked down the street to the Academia, saw the line and groaned inwardly.  Then I recalled my card.  

Do not pretend you have seen David because you gawked at and photographed the indifferent copy in the Piazza delle Signoria.  Come and see the real thing at the Academia.  The difference becomes apparent immediately.  The original has a tense, brooding power, but although all he’s wearing is a sling and a frown, the statue also projects a certain purity.  Other statues and art works are on exhibit as well.  Don’t miss Giovanni da Bologna’s spiraling, dynamic Rape of the Sabine Women or Michelangelo’s unfinished figures.  The latter gives insight into his method.  He carved from one side, releasing the figure he knew lay within.  Fortunately he could see the figure within a huge chunk of marble that other sculptors deemed unworkable, and so we have David.

Then since I was more or less in the neighborhood I strolled over to San Lorenzo, the Medici family church.  San Lorenzo looks like nothing much from the outside, but the interior is a marvel of proportion and elegance as I saw on my previous visit when one could just walk in.  Now there’s a line and an entrance charge.  Apart from the church there’s the Laurentian Library designed by Michelangelo, but I knew my card would get me into the Medici Chapels, so I headed there.

Line?  Not for La Principessa Alma de Peregrina!

There are two Medici Chapels.  One is a soaring, marble inlayed mausoleum, all gilt and grandeur for Cosimo and Lorenzo.  The other is smaller as befitting minor Medici, but it’s adorned with figures by Michelangelo and decorated in a more sober classical style.

But even I get tired of the Renaissance.  On my way to the Archeological Museum, I got lost.  But lost in Florence isn’t bad at all because one can lick windows while one gets back on track.  I wanted Etruscans!  I got Greeks and Egyptians, too, but mostly I got the Chimera of Arezzo, which was on loan last time I visited.  You can google it.  Bronze never looked so ferocious—except I could never figure out what was so fearsome about a goat head.

On my way back, I swung by the Duomo.  The ADU card wasn’t going to help me with that line!  Think Anne Frank house.  So I went on the museum.  I suffered some disappointment there, as well.  I especially wanted to see Lo Zuccone, Dontatello’s stark portrayal of some Old Testament prophet or other.  It was being restored, but there was much else including the sculptor’s Mary Magdalene and his St. John.  At the top of the stairs in a room all its own is the Pieta that Michelangelo designed for his own tomb.  It is the most finished of all his late Pietas, and Nicodemus supporting the dead Christ bears Michelangelo’s own features.

Regular readers of my travels know about my fondness for Il aperitivo.  Even I am not cheeky enough to ask for Campari in Tuscany, but I do like to sit and have a drink and bite before going on to make and have dinner.  I pour myself some Vernaccia and make a crostini de fegatini. The crostini is a slice of toasted crusty bread. Fegatini is a coarse chicken liver paste.  I bought mine in a tub at the store, but at home you can take some livers and cook them with a little garlic and some chopped onion.  Add capers if you like.  Mush the results in a good processor with a splash of vin santo or sherry and spread on your crostini.

Ciao