The end to Florence

Today marks the end of our last day in Florence. I'm kind of upset because I have enjoyed our stay here (especially due to the amazing hotel staff and the leather market didn't hurt either). Today was one of my favorite days yet. It was really cool to visit the Uffizi and be able to see some of the most famous works of art that we have studied all year in person. The Birth of Venus and the The Primavera by Botticelli were by far my favorite, and were much larger in person than I expected. It was interesting to be able to see the actual brush strokes and detail even in the grass of the paintings. You can not see those same details when looking at it on a powerpoint in class.
My favorite part of the day, and what I've been waiting the whole stay in Florence to see, was Michelangelo's DAVID!! Kat has seen him and told me I would not be disappointed with him in person, and boy was she right. He was one amazing specimen :) I could have sat there and stared at him all day. Once again, in class we discussed he was really tall, but I was just amazed at how tall he really was. I was just in awe and stared at him for most of the time that we were at the Accedemia. Seeing him in person was a completely difference experience. You could see all of the detail that Michelangelo put into sculpting him. His veins were visible in his arms and hands, you could see his achilles tendon, his ribs and sternum were sculpted, and his muscle definition was unbelievable. It was really cool to be able to see his back side (not for the reason you're thinking), but to be able to see his strap from his sling shot. I never really noticed that from the powerpoint in class. As Dr. Mills pointed out, it was also nice to be able to see the unfinished slaves in the room to see how rough marble sculpting really is, and helped me appreciate Michelangelo's effort in creating David.
In defense for the poor souls who ate Ben & Jerry's today, it was gelato, not ice cream. It was much smoother and creamier (or so I've been told). I also heard it was pretty tasty ;)

Days off to explore!

The last two days we have been able to travel to a city we wanted and view or do pretty much whatever we stumbled upon. Yesterday, Ashley Wilson and I traveled to Perugia. As soon as we got off the train at the station, we immediately questioned why we chose this city. We were thinking we were crazy! Luckily, my mom's friend's son traveled abroad at the college in Perugia and he told me where to head to. Like many of the groups discovered, no one spoke English, and the information desk didn't even have a map! We managed to finda store to buy a map and we trucked uphill for two whole hours (no exagerration)! We thought we'd finally get a day to rest our legs, but boy were we wrong. We stumbled upon many helpful people that helped us follow the map. The last man pointed us to an escaltor to help us get up the hills of Perugia faster. As soon as we got off of the fourth or so escalator, we thought we had arrived in heaven! There were probably about fifty or more stands selling handmade jewelry and all sorts of crafts, in this gorgeous underground brick and stone cave-like area. We shopped for a long time and bought quite a few things. Finally we ended up in Piazza Novembre where the boy had told me to go. It was absolutely gorgeous as well. The sights were similar to those of Assisi, overlooking the beautiful hills. Once again, there was tons of shopping! We also stumbled across the Fontana Maggiore, which is considered to be one of the most beautful fountains of the 13th century. We also went into the Museum of S. Lorenzo. It was very interesting and you could go underground yet again and explore under all of the stone architecture. Even though we did get quite lost at the very beginning, it was totally worth it and we knew exactly why we picked that city in the end! After taking the bus back to the train station (we decided not to walk for two hours again) and hopping on the train, everyone was happy to see we made it back in one piece! They thought we wouldn't survive on our own!
Today was a very relaxing day. For once we got to sleep in. Afterwards, we had a failed attempt at finding a Harley Davidson store. We did find it, but of course it was closed since it was Sunday, and it was not in the best area ever to say the least :x We then shopped some more and had a nice dinner! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Ciao from Erin! :)

Italy has been amazing so far!! The first day was very tiring with all the rain, sightseeing , and most importantly the time difference. Rome was cool, but it seemed more like New York City with all the traffic, graffiti, and busyness. The trip to Assisi was breathtaking today! The scenery was so green, with hills with beautiful buildings on them, and tons of sheep grazing. Assisi was even more beautiful than I expected. We were able to see the San Francesco church which Dr. Johnson kept telling us we wouldn't be able to see through all the fog. It seriously looked like it was a scene from out of a movie. We've only been in Florence for the night, but I can tell I'm already going to love it. It's a lot more calm than Rome and I don't fear Jazmyne almost getting hit by cars as often :) It's time to go to bed to rest my sore legs from those 551 steps we climbed from the Dome yesterday. Goodnight and miss you all from home :)

Annotated Bibliography

Avery, C., & Finn, D. (1997). Bernini: genius of the Baroque, (pp. 144-149). Canada: Little, Brown & Company.

This book gives an excellent description of the Cornaro chapel. It does tend to describe The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and the scene surrounding in a theatrical way, which tends to be up for debate with critics. It provides us with great descriptions of what Bernini had in mind when constructing the sculpture and even provides pictures of his sketches. It gives great descriptions of the chapel, helping us to visualize what we will see and where it can be located upon entering. There is an excellent colored picture of the altar.

Call, M. J. (1997). Boxing Teresa: The Counter-Reformation and Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel. Woman’s Art Journal, 18, 34-39.

This article focused more on the Cardinal Cornaro and why he chose St. Teresa for his chapel. It also provided a detailed description of what the sculpture looks like. It tries to describe it, as well as give reasoning for why it looks the way it does, which is helpful. By providing facts and information for why certain things are placed where they are in the scene, it gives me a better understanding for what Bernini’s goals were in creating this sculpture.

Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art. Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Biography of Italian Baroque Sculptor & Architect. Retrieved November 4, 2010 from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/bernini-giovanni.htm

This website was probably not the most reliable source to use, but it did have information that matched up with my books and articles. It had a few different sections that included Bernini’s biography, a summary of his life and his works, and a section of the Baroque period. It tended to repeat a lot of the same information over and over again though. I used this website for a better understanding of his life and how he got to become the great artist that he did.

Lubow, A. (2008, October). Bernini’s Genius. Smithsonian magazine. Retrieved November 4, 2010 from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/berninigenius.html?c=y&page=1

This magazine article, found on a website, provided a large amount of information on Bernini’s life and his development into becoming the well-known artist. It gave explanations of his great work ethic and described his long, lifetime career. It gave me honest explanations of the artist as well though, explaining how he did really want to be famous and create a legacy. It explained his integrity as an artist, as well as a great man in general. It didn’t really provide much information on the actual sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa though.

Wallace, R. (1970). The world of Bernini, (pp. 11, 153). New York: Time-Life Books.

This book gave a discrete explanation of the sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. It also provided a large, zoomed in picture of the angel and the Saint, so you could see more detail. It has a great description of what the Baroque style really entails. I mainly used this book to form a better understanding of the Baroque art in which Bernini was known for.

Warma, S. (1984, September). Ecstasy and Vision: Two Concepts Connected with Bernini’s Teresa. The Art Bulletin, 66, 508-511.

This article provided an extremely detailed description of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. It also provided an extensive amount of excerpts from St. Teresa’s Autobiography detailing her many characteristics of experiencing ecstasy. The article provided the very detailed description of what the whole basis of sculpture is about, her ecstatic experience with God. It gave great comparisons of what St. Teresa explains as ecstasy to how Bernini tried to portray it in his sculpture.

Wittkower, R. Bernini: the sculptor of the Roman Baroque, (pp. 158-173). Regent’s Wharf: Phaidon Press Limited.

This book provided a detailed description of many chapels and churches of the Baroque period. It definitely favors the Cornaro Chapel and compares it with other ones of that time. It does give a quick description of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, but doesn’t go into quite as much detail as other sources. It does go into great detail about the chapel itself, and just slightly includes The Ecstasy of St. Teresa as a sort of ornamentation. It does have excellent pictures, though they are in black and white. It includes pictures of the sculpture itself, as well as an up-close picture of the angel, the Saint, the side viewing spectator boxes, and even the spectators themselves.

High Renaissance vs Mannerism

While looking at the Renaissance and Mannerism artwork, I can definitely notice some differences. In the High Renaissance, the artwork was highly praised for its naturalism and was very balanced and harmonious. The artists of this time period, worked very hard to make everything appear very natural, the way it would be found in the everyday world. Michelangelo even used optics for the big hands to appear a normal size in his work of David. He tried to represent every little detail and be anatomically correct, especially when the sculptures or paintings had people in odd positions. Mannerism art seems to focus more on emotions and the artistic effect rather than naturalism. The artists deliberately painted distorted positions in irrational spaces, sometimes the forms were elongated or even looked contorted. The anatomy was definitely not up to Michelangelo’s par. Whereas he was anatomically correct down to every last muscle, they used very abnormal anatomy. Mannerism also seems to use clashing colors.

Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Long Neck really represents these interpretations. She has a neck that is so elongated and unrealistic to the natural body. Mary herself is huge, she is almost twice the size of the angels to her right. The baby, Jesus, is also quite large. If you look closely, and attempted to stand him up, he would be about half the size of Mary! He also is an a very awkward position on her lap, and appears as if he could fall at any moment. The colors all appear to be very dark, with much less background.

Mannerism art seems to be exaggerating the realistic view of humans, but in my opinion, Michelangelo’s later Renaissance works seem to exaggerate real human bodies in his own way. He maintains correct anatomy, but takes it to the extreme. He makes the men’s muscles too big and bulky, and even makes the girl appear to have masculine muscles as well, which was probably not the case with the women of that age.

Art Then & Art Now

I unfortunately agree with Courtney on how artists are viewed in today’s society. I don’t think we value their hard work and effort towards artwork the way we did back in the Renaissance timeframe. Photography is a form of art, and I think we all take that for granted. Mostly everyone I know has a camera and an editing program on their computer where we can become the “best photographer” that we want to be with it. We don’t value the amazing talent some people have in taking beautiful pictures or painting a picture. We just want to buy a particular picture because it will match the interior décor of our house. It’s actually kind of sad.

The Renaissance art seemed to be valued more than the artwork today. In class, we talked about all the effort it took to build the Duomo of the Cathedral. They had to form fires for their lunches and ways to go to the bathroom. In today’s world, this wouldn’t be such a production. We would have lifts or build some sort of temporary elevator, or even put a porta potty up there, so everything would be convenient for them. They had to put so much time and effort forth, which I feel like workers today would slack on. Many buildings today seem to be built more for convenience or cost than for the beauty of the work itself. Workers are hired to do what the architect designed. They go to work, do what they are told, and don’t care as much about the quality of their work. In the Renaissance time, they wanted their work to be the best they could, and the artists wanted to prove themselves as worthy artists.

Travel

I think it’s extremely important to travel (even though I have not done too much traveling of my own) to gain a better understanding of what the world has to offer. So many people don’t leave where they come from because what they know is comfortable to them. For example, so many people from my small town just stay there forever and know nothing else. I feel like even traveling to Columbus from my small town I have grasped a better understanding of different people and cultures. There is no way to possibly reach every foreign destination we would like to in life, but traveling to as many places as we can help open our minds and hearts and may even change us for the better. We many oftentimes take our lives for granted, and traveling somewhere (that may be less off than we are) can help us appreciate our lives. I think the best way to travel is with a group of people, preferably smaller. I’m not much of a loaner and like to share experiences with people whom you can later talk about and recall the experience with. A smaller group allows you to not be so noticeable when you walk into restaurants, etc. and also allows you to visit specific places that everyone would like to see. I think that best places to travel to are really any places that you have an interest in. If you are interested in a town across the state, then it would be worth it for you travel there. When you have an interest in somewhere, whether it be for the artwork, the people, the food, the wine, the landscape, etc. it is definitely worth the traveling in my opinion. I think in order to get the best experience that you possibly can out of traveling, you need to keep an open mind and be respectful of the people and the culture. I also think that you need to be able to go with the flow, because not everything fits perfectly with your itineraries and some of the best experiences happen randomly by chance.

http://opentravel.com/blogs/category/travel-news/
This website is pretty interesting and informative. You can find very helpful information, from travel guidance, current events, and the 10 places to travel before they're gone! It also has some really silly information on it like the ugliest hotels, the most boring cities to visit, and which countries have the most gorgeous women.



This is just a random picture of the beach, and it is one of my absolute favorite places to travel to. When I go to the beach I seem to embrace my surroundings and appreciate everything more (probably because we don't have something like them around here). When I have gone to the Bahamas, I had to embrace the culture of the people of the island and I had to respect them just as I feel you should do anytime you travel somewhere new.

Seneca Essays

http://www.stoics.com/seneca_epistles_book_3.html#‘CI1

The first essay I chose was “On The Futility Of Planning Ahead”. The entire essay seemed to be based around the technique of dichotomy (or trichotomy) of control. He basically is saying throughout the entire essay that we’re planning for eternity, but death is always over our shoulders. Many people pray and beg for a longer life and will do anything to prolong it and have less suffering, but death is one of those things that is completely out of our control, so why waste time worrying about it. I feel this is represented quite clearly in the following section, “But how foolish it is to set out one’s life, when one is not even the owner of the morrow! (uncertainty)”. He says that worrying about the outcome of our future just “eats away the mind” because essentially it is out of our control and just causes unnecessary fear.

http://www.stoics.com/seneca_epistles_book_1.html#‘III1

The second essay I chose was “On Discursiveness In Reading”. He says, “Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough”. He’s telling us that happiness and contentment lies within what we have in life and we need to stop striving for things that we do not have. He also refers to the technique of fatalism. He says, “’Contented poverty is an honourable estate.’ Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor”. If one’s fate is to be poor and live in poverty, then they need to live contently in the poverty because that’s how they were meant to be. This same idea was used in describing reading. Reading many books or authors at one time is not appreciating what you have and is nothing but a distraction. You will never fully appreciate a book or author until you focus solely on that one without thinking what else is out there to read.

Response to 1.b.

World Heritage sites are different places, monuments, and artwork that have been considered to be of great value to humanity in one form or another. UNESCO tries to protect these sites so future generations can see our natural heritage.

The rock drawings in Valcamonica have more than 140,000 carvings that date back to over 8,000 years, representing a group of people that no longer exists. The figures of agriculture, dance, war, etc. help form ideas of how they once lived and thought, and further contribute to the fields studying their history and sociology.

The trulli of Alberobello are pyramid shaped dwellings that were formed from limestone boulders found in the surrounding fields. This sit represents the very beginning of a construction technique that is still used in today's modern buildings in this area.

-Erin Lenkey

Hey!

Hey guys! I'm Erin Lenkey. I'm from Lisbon, Ohio and am a senior nursing major. I'm extremely excited to learn about and actually getting to explore what we've learned in Italy! I look forward to getting to know all of you!