The Uffizi

I had my first Italian art history lesson today, and what better place to learn than the Uffizi? A handful of fellow students and I were privy to a four-hour guided tour by our wonderful teacher who introduced and explained some of the most famous Renaissance works to us. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos (or water bottles) and the rooms were quite hot, but those things notwithstanding, it was a great lesson and I learned much more than I ever would have with a guidebook or on my own.

Of note were the Madonne of Giotto, Cimabue,  Filippo and his son Filippino Lippi. Then there was Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus, which we learned was based on a section of Angelo Poliziano's poem Stenze per le Giostra:

...una donzella non con uman volto,

da zefiri lascivi spinta a proda,

gir sovra un nicchio, e par che 'l cel ne goda. 

Vera la schiuma e vero il mar diresti,

e vero il nicchio e ver soffiar di venti;

la dea negli occhi folgorar vedresti,

e 'l cel riderli a torno e gli elementi;

l'Ore premer l'arena in bianche vesti,

l'aura incresparle e crin distesi e lenti;

non una, non diversa esser lor faccia,

come par ch'a sorelle ben confaccia. 

...a young woman with nonhuman countenance, is

carried on a conch shell, wafted to shore by

playful zephyrs; and it seems that heaven rejoices in her birth.

You would call the foam real, the sea real, real

the conch shell and real the blowing wind; you

would see the lightning in the goddess's eyes,

the sky and the elements laughing about her; the

Hours treading the beach in white garments, the

breeze curling their loosened and flowing hair;

their faces not one, not different, as befits sisters.

Then I saw one of the first "billboards" ever by Da Fabriano. He painted the three magi wearing ornate clothes to advertise his fabric merchant patron's business.

After all of the learning and standing, my friend affectionately known as Michelangela and I went to a free exhibit on the other side of the Uffizi called Figure, Memorie, Spazio: Drawings from Fra' Angelico to Leonardo. Our teacher had told us that it was a very rare collection of drawings from some of the great artists and the only other exhibition had taken place in the British Museum in London.

Today's word of the day is stoffa, or "fabric". It is something that you should always pay attention to when looking at paintings in Florentine churches because it will tell you about the time period and the person who likely commissioned the painting.

Bonus word of the day (because you deserve it): "Uffizi" comes from the Italian word uffici meaning "offices". The building in which we now find the museum originally housed offices for the statesmen.