Day 7 - More of Florence

Day 7 - More of Florence 

Today was our Renaissance Art and Science day. We explored two famous art museums sandwiched between a science museum. Uffizi, Galileo Museum, and the Accademia. Lots and lots of paintings and sculptures by famous artists whose paintings and names we won't remember, except we have 100’s of pictures of their works and placards (to help us remember).

First up is the Uffizi museum, which is housed in part of the administration buildings of the Palazzo Vecchio. Cimabue, Giotto, Lippi, Botticelli, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Caravaggio, etc. are some of the big names with paintings and sculptures at this marvelous museum. Plus many, many more "B" listers. The art work was commissioned or collected by the powerful Medici family over their lengthy reign in Florence. When the last family member, Anna Maria Luisa, was about to die, she passed on the collection to the city with the stipulation that the collection be kept together. And it was. The downside are the crowds. People, people, and more people. We aren't in the high tourist season but it was very crowded. We can't imagine the museum in the summer.

Ceiling in gallery of Ufizzi

Nero

Botticelli- Spring (above) and The Birth Venus

Martin Luther and his wife Caterina Bora

 by Lukas Cranach

Didn’t get the name of this but it seems we can all relate. 

Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raffaello Sanzio

Below is a closeup of John the Baptist and Christ. 

Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero Della Francesca

This picture is posted all over Florence at the moment. We aren’t sure why it’s so famous. Feel free to enlighten us. 

Crucifix with Scenes from the Life of Christ by Croce

Lots of various crucifix paintings. Neat to compare the various styles and time periods. 

Self portrait of Rembrandt 

There was an entire “selfie” gallery. Fascinating to wonder if the artists depicted themselves as they are or as they would like to be seen. Renaissance Instagram!

Testa di Medusa on a parade shield

By Caravaggio

Adoration of the Child by Gerrit van Honthorst

The light in the painting is shining from the Christ child. How fitting. 

Right next door to the Uffizi is the Galileo Museum. Again, the Medici’s were the driver behind collecting and exhibiting a large collection of scientific instruments from the 1400-1700’s. Globes, astrolabes, electrical instruments, etc. And a bit outside the box, the middle finger of Galileo. All very interesting for Brad and Randy, a couple an engineers, but Cindy and Heather found plenty to enjoy also.

Galileo’s middle finger!

Optical illusion painting

Last up was The Accadamia Gallery. THE exhibit here is Michelangelo’s statue of David. Amazingly, the museum was much less crowded than the Uffizi. So you could get really close. Our group had a prior discussion about how big the statue was. Randy said life size, or maybe 5.5ft. Any guesses? Randy was wrong. The correct answer is 17ft, including the pedestal. The long corridor leading up to “David” contained many of  Michelangelo’s half finished Slaves sculptures. They were fascinating to see, giving a view of what an in progress worked looked like. Apparently Michelangelo had trouble completing works. Some new project was always side tracking him.

Gallery of sculpture casts

We closed out the touring day by visiting the Badia Fioretino, a local monestary that does a chant mass service. It was quite beautiful to hear the songs even though we couldn't understand much.

Beautiful ceiling 

This is our final day in Florence. We have seen alot, and certainly missed alot more. We have already had comments about "you have to go here or there....".  There just isn't enough time to do it all, trust us we tried. It just means we will have to come back.

Tomorrow is another transition day. We will make a short trip to Cortona, one of the many hilltop villages in Tuscany.

Caio!