Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Uffizzi Scavenger Hunt

Saturday, June 25th

After a day of vacation we had a morning tour of the Uffizzi galleries. It was wonderful to be able to come back and be guided through the art galleries by professors who are walking encyclopedia's on art, history, culture and context for European art and Italian Renaissance particularly.

It was also the day that I chose the work I would research for my final project and the day that we were assigned an activity sheet to complete at the Uffizzi.

For my painting I chose the St. Barnabus Altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli because I loved the Madonna and Child and it was a room that I would be spending a significant amount of time studying in- the same room that houses my favorite Primavera and the Birth of Venus.


After our tour of the major Italian Renaissance works, starting with Giotto and continuing on to Leonardo, Botticelli, Raphael and more, I went to lunch with friends in a cafe nearby. Sadly, the food was terrible, but it was nearby and I was glad to have gone straight back to finish the homework as it took a very, very long time.
 

My friend's Gigantic Calzone, that strangely had hot dogs in it.


My maccaroni quattro fromaggi (sadly not that tasty)

 I do have to say that our professor's central goal of "looking" at art, not just seeing it as you pass, but spending significant time studying it until you start to notice details you clearly missed was very much a part of this assignment. It included questions like, "what do angels look like" find ten paintings by ten different artists and describe.

It felt a bit like art history camp for adults in the best possible way. I learned a great deal and had a blast, although the Uffizzi, which does not have central air conditioning or fans, is not the best place to be inside on a very hot day.

No comments:

Post a Comment