So that I didn't have wait in the hour plus long line to get tickets, I'd reserved my tickets online in advance. This meant that I only had to wait in the 20 minute long line before I could get in to see the art. I had also downloaded a podcast tour of the galleries by the author of my guidebook. While the book is amazing and incredibly informative, it gets annoying having to look down at the book then back up at the painting. With the audiotour, I could both listen and look at the same time, and it made the visit a lot more enjoyable.
The tour started with pre-Renaissance works (mostly Madonna and Child's) by Giotto, Duccio and Chimabue, all artists who began (sometimes not very successfully) to show Madonnas as real people inhabiting real spaces. At the same time, these works were really flat and often quite stylized, which set them apart from the Renaissance works to follow.
From the beginning to middle of the Renaissance there were really gorgeous works by Fra Fillipo Lippi, Botticelli, and Leonardo. They have there Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus and also his Allegory of Spring, both works that show the transition from religious to classical subject matter (although after the rise of Savanarola in Florence, Botticelli became focused once again on religious themes). Finally, they had Da Vinci's Annunciation, a less well known work, but a great one nonetheless. While it was kind of frustrating to view these works amid the throngs of tourists and tour groups (during this trip I've developed a healthy loathing of organized tour groups), I was still thrilled to be able to see these masterpieces!
Unfortunately, a lot of the works were either in restoration or on loan to other museums for special exhibitions. Because of this, I didn't get to see as much of the Northern Renaissance works as I would have liked. I did see a copy of Durer's Adam and Eve (likely completed by a student), but Cranach's representation of the same scene was absent. sad : (
Moving on to the High Renaissance, the museum has works by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. In fact, they have the only easel painting in the world by Michelangelo, showing the holy family. While I saw a lot of Raphael at the Pitti Palace, it never gets old, and his Madonna of the Goldfinch was probably one of my favorite works I saw today! There were also a bunch of works by Titian and the other painters of the Venetian Renaissance, some of which I remembered from an exhibition in Boston a couple of years ago. It was fun reencountering works like the Venus Di Urbino after having studied them in class.
Finally, the rest of the galleries have works of the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque. I was pretty tired by this point (after 3 hours in the museum), so I just browsed. They had Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck, which was fun to see, and a couple of nice portraits by Rembrandt. After such a long day of looking at great art, I was content to just sit on the rooftop terrace of the museum cafe and enjoy the beautiful views of the next-door Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo:
After coming home and chilling out for a few hours, we went out to dinner again, this time to the place where the daughter of this family (the one who is going to Spain) works. It is a cute trattoria near the Duomo, and even though it is now pouring rain, it was a really fun outing. I'm absolutely loving the food here and I dont know what I'll do when I get to England (a country not well known for its cuisine) and can't eat pasta, pizza, and gelato every day!
Anyways, the next couple of days (before I leave on Wednesday!) should be a little calmer. Tomorrow we are going to a large birthday party/family reunion in the countryside, and on Monday and Tuesday I'm planning on doing day trips to Siena and Pisa to explore more of the surrounding area.
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