Day 15 and 16- Say Goodnight, Florence

Back to being able to post as of tonight in our new spot in Salsomaggiore. I accidentally used up Erling and Lynne's whole internet capacity when I uploaded the last post, so I hope you read it! And looked at all the pictures!

View at breakfast from Lynne and Erling's place.

Marianne made it back without a hitch (as you may or may not know, we fly on standby tickets, making every move non-warranted.) She found her way to the Palazzo degli Artisti unassisted, for which she gets major kudos on navigation. After coming in at about 11 am, she was willing to head out with us to go peek at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, a large townhouse built for Cosimo Medici starting in 1444. The house has two great courtyards and a number of well painted rooms, including the recently restored Magi Chapel, painted by Bennozzo Gozzoli in 1459. There is also a very cool dining room with painted mirrors and a large allegorical ceiling in it, but it was holding some kind of meeting, so we couldn't look in.

You might be crabby too if you had a big block of stone balanced on your head for 500 years!

The day was kind of short- did some errand running, ate with Lynne and Erling at a place that had gluten free pizza (yay!) and went back to the flat where everyone passed out after watching some pretty good lightning. Next day was Monday, when many things are closed around here, but we thought we had a couple of destinations going, only to find that they were both actually closed also. We stuck our noses in to see the Pontormo Deposition at Santa Felicita, then decided to attempt the bus ride to Poggio a Caiano, where there is a very large Medici Villa that has a famous lunette by Pontormo also. 

cluster of hands in Pontormo's Deposition at Santa Felicita

By the time we got out there we were starving, and a nice English woman who worked at the ticket office told us where we could get lunch in the back room of a pasticceria down the street. Always nice when you get away from the major tourist centers in Italy; prices are lower and people are a lot more relaxed. They don't speak as much English either, so you have to be ready for that, but they're generally pretty patient. 

Entry to the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano. Magnificent place!

After filling our bellies with lovely soup, pasta, and salad, we headed back up the little hill (Poggio means "knoll") we headed into the park surrounding the house. Everything there is totally free, which was a nice surprise, and we had it all to ourselves again. The house is a magnificent chunk sitting on this knoll, still surrounded by the gardens that were remade when the Italian monarchy took up residence here in the 19th century. We entered through the ground floor into a hall, the ceiling of which had some of the most convincing trompe l'oeil work I've ever seen. Say what you will about 19th century decorative work, when they got it right, it was superior, especially the trompe l'oeil. 

Lousy photo taken through the window of the entry hall ceiling. Completely trompe l'oeil ornament!

We then entered the billiard room, which I had seen in pics before, but had forgotten about. An absolutely drop dead gorgeous trellis ceiling (also 19th century) with all kinds of realistic looking flowers and a complex structure that looks like woven bamboo. I was dying to take some photos of it, but since we were the only ones there, it would have been impossible to get away with it. Behind that was a couple of rooms that had originally been used by Bianca Capello, Francesco de Medici's mistress and wife, that had been repainted with some exquisite ornamental work. 

Quirky ornamental work from 1865

We were then led upstairs to the main floor (the piano nobile) where there is a mix of both Renaissance and 19th century work. The villa was built up by Lorenzo de Medici in the late 1400s, and occupied by the Medici for about 100 years. Francesco and Bianca both died there in 1579, under somewhat suspicious circumstances. It was either malaria, or arsenic. There are only two big rooms left from this period, everything else having been remodeled when Vittorio Emanuele II lived there in the middle of the 1800s. 

Pontormo's end wall was much larger than i had imagined- the bottom of it is almost 20 feet off the ground.

Fortunately they saved the grand reception room with it's murals by Andrea del Sarto and the magnificent end wall by Pontormo, which was much bigger than i had expected from the photos I'd seen. By this time, the guards were distracted and I had a a chance to take a few pics of the place, and then we went out and cruised the slightly overgrown garden accompanied by a friendly tortoise shell cat. They had an orangerie full of dozens of citrus trees all laden with fruit. Wish ours would do that!

This little guy followed us all through the garden. Must have been bored in the off season!

Back to town on the bus and had our last dinner with Lynne and Erling at the incredible palazzo, watching the ever changing Florentine sky do light shows on the Duomo and the Campanile. I'll leave off here, since I can't seem to finish a sentence any more. Tomorrow I'll tell you about today and yesterday. 

Dinner with a view!

Day 11, 12, 13, 14- Catching up!

Ah Firenze!

Back in Florence, and the crowds have already begun to build! I've been here for four days now, but the internet at the house is very limited, so I haven't been posting of late. Time to catch up a bit tonight, since my hosts Lynne and Erling are out seeing some music. 

View from the breakfast table. Upstairs you see even more of the roof line.

It has been interesting to see how once it gets warm (and it is getting warmer- 70's at mid day) the hordes of tourists arrive from all over. Spring break teens are the most obvious- not only Americans, but loads of Italian kids in packs, coolly touring by day, boisterously wandering by night. The streets around here are almost as loud as Campo de' Fiori was in Rome. Fortunately, we're a little higher up here, but I'm still using my earplugs. 

This is a shot of Lynne waving from the window of the dining room, taken from the top of the Duomo. That's how close it is. 

Staying with Lynne and Erling has been great. The house is absolutely jaw dropping and very central- right between the Duomo and Santa Croce with a view of the Duomo and Campanile that is literally unreal looking. It looks surreally large as I look at it right now out the window of the room they are using as an office.

Inside the Duomo things are not so rosy! Especially if you've been naughty!

Been doing my usual series of photographs this time around, but a little less manic than the first time, since i hit a lot of the big places last time and don't feel quite as compelled to get every bit of info. I did get a double dose of the Palazzo Vecchio yesterday and the day before, including a pretty exhaustive shoot going room by room taking lots of closeups, which are the most challenging to shoot and are the most rewarding for us painters to look at, especially as they are rarely included in what little printed matter there is on the subject of grottesca and ornamental painting. 

Inspecting the secret passageway that runs through the attic of the Room of the 500, designed by Giorgio Vasari., part of the hidden tour at teh Palazzo Vecchio

Chronologically, here in Florence I've seen the Duomo (up close and personal from the climb to the cupola, which goes via a catwalk that rings the inside of the dome,) the Bargello Museum, which not only has excellent sculptures, it also includes some really good examples of Majolica ceramics with very nice grottesca decorations, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, the Palazzo Vecchio (twice- once on the hidden tour of some of the lesser known nooks and crannies, and again to take more photos and climb to the top of the tower, where there is also a tapestry restoration lab), an excellent show of Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino at the Palazzo Strozzi, Santa Felicita to see a bit more Pontormo, and finally today revisited the Brancacci Chapel. Plus loads more bits of sgraffito on the exteriors of buildings around town. 

This guard at the Brancacci Chapel would wake up every few minutes to tell the crowd to be quiet. Disturbing her sleep no doubt.

Had a great visit with Alison Grace Woolley, a Canadian painter who has lived here for quite a while and does beautiful grottesca work. She's working on a harpsichord box for a French maker, and it should be exquisite. Also met up with a French painter who lives in Pordenone (near Trieste) and just wanted to talk shop with Lynne and me. Had a nice lunch with him near Santo Spirito and afterwards drooled on handmade shoes at a shop next door to the restaurant. When I get to be a big art star I'm going to order a pair of these dreamy looking brogans- they start at $2,000 and up! But they look so great, and I'm sure they fit like a glove. Or a shoe. 

want

Lynne's foot got sore, so Erling and I wandered around and stumbled into an interesting little exhibition about a Catholic priest nick-named "Don Cuba", who jumped on a motorcycle with a buddy and rode it all the way to Mt Kilimanjaro, where he gave a mass. They had the bike, and a little suitcase altar that he brought, and a ton of great photos and info in both Italian and English. 

Don Cuba's moto- made it most of the way down Africa overland with his buddy Steve.

Marianne is actually coming back here after going home for a week, and will be here for about 5 days. We fly for almost free (thanks to her aunt, who used to work for United airlines) but it still seems totally nuts to me. But she wanted to do it, so she'll be here tomorrow night. I'll wrap this up now so I can post it and hopefully put a couple of photos with it. ciao for now!

Palazzo Vecchio photos up on Flickr.com

Just uploaded 126 new photos of (mostly) the interior ornamental painting at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, taken in June 2013. Enjoy it here

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Florence Redux

Day 16- More Florence

Apparently I missed writing about this day while on the trip (I guess it was because I posted about the day before on that day, and it was my birthday!) Anyways, here's how I recall it from looking at the photos. 

Started out with a quick look at the Brancacci chapel, which is right next door to our little apartment in the cloister. It was cool to see the actual Masaccio frescoes of Adam and Eve, which I used as a basis for a design I did a few years ago at the Villa Tramonto. Masaccio was a very skilled young painter (he died in 1428, at age 27!) and his work at the Chapel is said to have profoundly influenced the young Michelangelo. Masaccio's figures are very expressive for the time, and his mastery of both linear and atmospheric perspective is impressive. The rest of the church has some great baroque trompe l'oeil frescoes of extended architectural spaces. 

Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio, with later baroque ceiling above it.

Then we crossed the Arno into the center of town, stopping first at the Palazzo Davanzati, a 14th century wool merchant's house and workshop that is covered in wall decorations that straddle medieval and Renaissance styles, restored in the 19th century and thus quite complete, if not entirely original. You can only imagine what the smell was like there in the summer months with a wool operation going on on the ground floor!

The Room of the Parrots in the Palazzo Davanzati.

Next we hiked a ways across town to the Casa Buonarotti, which was not actually Michelangelo's house, but was established by his nephew as a tribute to the master. It has some interesting tidbits in it: a couple of early sculptures by Michelangelo, some of his drawings, and a room full of tribute paintings from a variety of masters. It also had an awesome little chapel and a niche full of ceramics that the disinterested guard could only tell me were every day items from the house. Being a museum guard in Italy must be kind of equivalent to working the register at Ace Hardware here, but less interesting.

According to the guard at the Casa Buonarotti, these ceramics were just "every day ware". Oh really?

After various windings and detours we ended up back at the Palazzo Pitti, where we took in the Boboli Gardens, a sprawling but formal series of terraces that give some great views of the city, and where it is easy to imagine the elaborately dressed wealthy citizens of the past seeking shade to avoid the heat in their layers of clothing. Arriving at the "Coffee House" high up on the hill, we realized too late that it was only the building of what must have been a very pleasant place to sip a brew, so we went back thirsty, passing through an elaborate and shady grotto, and trotted back to our place to cook up some grub, rested a while, then headed out once more after things had cooled off to take in the Ponte Vecchio at sunset and have another gelato.

The Coffee House in the Boboli Gardens is a delightful Rococo confection, but alas it does not serve coffee, just views!

Day 15- Three hits and a Grand Slam!

Day 15- Three hits and a Grand Slam!

Passed out immediately after dinner last night, so this one's coming in a bit tardy, but you'll get a double dose today (if I don't do the same thing tonight.) Yesterday was a marathon day- took over 500 photos of three of the main sites in town and finished with a real dazzler.

Began the day with a return to the Pitti Palace. Kind of like the Louvre- there's so much to look at it's overwhelming. There was a really cool show of depictions of dreaming from the Renaissance, including several paintings that featured the Zeus and Ganymede composition (originally by Michelangelo) that I used on one of my ceiling murals. We then toured the royal apartments there, which are mostly still furnished and are absolutely over the top in terms of both size and decoration. 

Center of a grottesca panel with Zeus and Ganymede from Michelangelo's design- same one I used for the library ceiling at the Villa Tramonto in LA.

Then we met up with Alison Grace Woolley, a fellow decorative painter, at her studio. Always fun to bump heads with a kindred soul who's been walking the same path for a while. I need to spend some more time in her studio, so hopefully I'll get a chance to come back next spring while Lynne Rutter is over here. Alison took us to a little neighborhood trattoria for lunch where we got to witness the famous Italian temper tantrum, with one of the employees storming out from the kitchen, quitting as he left!

Then it was on the Uffizi Gallery, one of my holy grails. While we did actually spend a fair amount of time looking at the pictures on the walls, far more time was spent looking at the amazing ceiling panels in the hallways of the loggia, which are some of the finest grottesca work in the world. If you don't know what grottesca is, go over to my art+works page and you'll find loads of examples and explanations in my pictures. Endlessly free flowing creativity and just fun painting, all informed by a well trained hand

Finished off the day with the grand slam. The Palazzo Vecchio, the "Old Palace" of the Medici clan, was not only stunning in size and decor, but it's also well lit and THEY LET YOU TAKE PHOTOS! It was nice not to have to feel like a sneak while I indulged my passion for this art form. My only regret was that we hadn't scheduled this one earlier; Marianne was starting to flag -she's been a real trooper keeping up with my obsession- and our 72 hour museum pass runs out this afternoon and we still want to see some other sites. 

crazed ornament at the Palazzo Vecchio

As we were emerging the weather was dramatic, lightning on the horizon and we passed by a bridal photo shoot on our bridge. Checked my photos today and the bride is the same one we saw being shot in the Piazza San Marco in Venice a week ago- same dress even. Must have been a bridal fashion shot. Went back to our little cloister and crashed hard after dinner!

This was the same model we saw in Venice- in the same dress!!

Day 14! 

Florence gave us a big day today! Started with a walk in near Santa Maria Novella where we immediately ran into a pretty nice Stile Liberty building, followed by a church and an unexpected cloister with a very old fresco by Ghirlandaio that had been damaged by the floods of 1966. What was cool about it was that in the process of restoring it from the flood, they were able to separate the top layer and preserve it where it had been originally, while they removed and displayed the underdrawing (called the "sinopia") on the adjacent wall. So you could compare the drawing with the finished mural and see what the artist had changed in the process. Very interesting!

"Do these pantaloons make my butt look big?"

We then threaded through the chaotic street markets down to the Medici chapel, which was actually a mausoleum, though in reality it's a gigantic jewel box. It is finished entirely in exotic marbles, with a side chapel that was designed by Michelangelo which has several of his sculptures in it. I love marble, so it was very hard not to photograph there, but I held back. Now I wish I hadn't. At least a few.

"Are you talking to me?"

After that we went to the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, where they allow you to photo (thank God!) After that to the Central Market, where you can pick up just about any cut (or species) of meat you might like, but in our case, we just bought some killer mushrooms, bread, and bits for a picnic lunch, which we ate in the Botanical Garden nearby.

Who knew Nick Nolte was Italian? From the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.

We then stopped by the incredible Four Seasons Hotel, which is built around the  restored Palazzo Gherardesca, where you can sit and sip tea (free!) on green velvet sofas in the courtyard, surrounded by 16th-century frescos by Flemish mannerist Jan van der Straet, also known as Giovanni Stradano. Really cool spot, and it had no attitude problem at all.

Walked back over to the center of town and looked at the Duomo interior (yawn!) and the Baptistery interior (OMG!) and then ran into a parade for the town's patron John the Baptist, complete with Renaissance costumes, marching bands and flag twirlers, all men. I'll post some video in a bit. 

After that we went into one of the newer museums in town, the Palazzo Strozzi, which had a very cool show placing classical art (ie- Roman era and earlier) next to the Renaissance art it had inspired. Lots of Donatello, Brunelleschi, and other superstars of the Renaissance art world with the pieces they might have seen at the time. While we were there, a thunderstorm started outside and by the time we emerged, it was coming down! Fortunately, there was someone selling cheap umbrellas in the courtyard, so we ran back up to our spot and cooked up a yummy dinner with the big yellow mushrooms we bought at the market earlier. 

Our market selections today. Those orange mushrooms were soooo good!

Thinking we were done for the day, we settled in to internetting and sorting photos, only to discover that fireworks were on the way to celebrate the patron's day. So we went out and grabbed a gelato to wait on the bridge with a whole bunch of locals and tourists and watched a pretty great show of fireworks. Now back home again catching up before starting out again tomorrow. 

Fireworks over the Arno

How's that for an itinerary? Oh yeah, we also booked our rooms for Orvieto and Rome after we came back.