Jess 1-7-08

Ciao ragazzi!

Good day today. Went out at noon for another field trip, this time to the Academia where, of course, Michelangelo's David resides. The entrance to the museum is unimpressive for how fancy it is inside. It looks like some seedy hole-in-the-wall bar, just a door with a sign on it on the side of a Università (di Firenze) building, leading into a dingy hallway. But after that it gets really beautiful, and I tell you my first experience with the "real" David was, for lack of a better word, epic.

Unlike other pieces of art like the Mona Lisa (apparently, haven't seen her myself), the David is even more grand than you imagine it might be. I mean, it's really just magnificent. I think it had an even better effect because, like many of the museums in Florence, I didn't know it was coming until you turn the corner and it practically hits you in the face. So basically I just walked aimlessly into a hallway and all of a sudden he's standing there in his giant glory. Now, I don't react much to art physically but I got the shivers all over. It was so beautiful.

It's even more impressive that, apparently, Michelangelo took a partially completely crappy statue from another artist and turned it into the David. That is to say, someone else started it, it wasn't turning out right, gave up, and Michelangelo came in to create it from someone else's failure. It was meant to go in the massive circular windows (along with other statues) in the Duomo, but it was too big to lift that high. So it went in Palazzo Vecchio where the fake David stands now, and of course currently he stands under a windowed ceiling in the Academia. Actually it was pretty cool because in the large hall leading up to the big dome where David is, there is a collection of unfinished works by Michelangelo so you can see how he went about creating it.

Anyways yeah. Wow.

So then after that I went to painting class and finished up my glass and papertowel painting. Not by choice, of course, but she was taking down the still life so we had to finish it today, or get it as close as possible to finished. I would have liked to work on it more and I feel like I really had to rush at the end... but it turned out alright for a rushed first painting. I darkened it a lot, for better contrast. I knew it was looking washed out but I was afraid of making it too dark. But I think that it was a pretty successful, if not painstaking, alteration. I don't have a picture of it now but I will soon.

Oh and I had my most interesting encounter with cat calls today. While walking towards the Academia I walked past/through a group of three or four men who proceeded to say "WOW" after I passed them and bark, (yep, bark) until I disappeared from view.

Well, time to go get some dinner. Much love! Ciao :)