Italy: Florence

Florence: The City of the Renaissance

Our time in Florence:  July 2 to July 6, 2013

Sunset over Florence taken from Piazza Michelangelo

By the year 1300, while much of Europe was still mired in poverty and ignorance, Florence had become a powerful center of banking, trading, and cloth making. They were rich, and that wealth fertilized the cultural soil. Florentines practiced the art of civilized living, while the rest of Europe was still wearing hand-me-down leotards. Then in 1348 came the bubonic plague — the Black Death — killing nearly half the city's population. But as Florence recovered, the infrastructure was still intact, and the city rebuilt better than ever. Led by Florence’s chief family, the art-crazy Medicis, and with the naturally aggressive and creative spirit of the Florentines, it’s no wonder the long-awaited Renaissance finally took root here.

The word Renaissance means “rebirth”... the rebirth of Greek and Roman culture that had been lost for a thousand years after the Fall of Rome. It started first in Florence, around 1400, and over the next 150 years, the Renaissance swept through Italy, across Europe, and beyond. In politics, the Renaissance meant democracy; in science, a renewed interest in exploring nature. This was the age of Columbus and the discovery of new lands and people. In religion, it spawned the Protestant revolt. In literature, timeless works were written in local languages like Italian. The general mood was optimistic and “humanistic,” with a confidence in the power of the individual.

By contrast, in medieval times, poverty and ignorance had made life nasty, brutish, and short. People's lives were only a preparation for a happier time in heaven after leaving this miserable earthly existence. Medieval art was the church’s servant, its purpose only to embellish the house of God. Painting and sculpture were often crude, only realistic enough to tell Bible stories for the devout and illiterate masses.

But while the rest of Europe was mired in medievalism, in Florence, prosperity was rising, and so was people’s confidence in life and themselves.  Renaissance art was a return to the realism and balance of Greek and Roman statues and buildings. They built with Classical domes and round arches instead of Gothic spires and pointed arches. In painting and sculpture, Renaissance artists strove for life-like realism. Merging art and science, they used mathematics, the laws of perspective, and direct observation of nature to try to capture the three-dimensional world on a flat surface.

The Renaissance was not an anti-Christian movement, though it was a logical and scientific age. Artists saw themselves as an extension of God’s creative powers. For them, the best way to glorify God was not to bow down in church…but to recognize the talents God gave them, and use them. At times, the church even supported the Renaissance. The major cathedral in Florence, called the Duomo, hired Florence's best artists to decorate the church inside and out... in fact, Michelangelo's David was originally meant to stand atop the cathedral (it ended up in front of city hall). But also, for the first time in Europe since Roman times, we find rich laymen who wanted art simply for art’s sake.

After a thousand years of waiting, the smoldering fires of Europe’s classical heritage burst into flame right here in Florence.  I'm not a big 'art' guy but I know my daughters have more of an artistic side than I will ever had.   So we purposefully came to Florence to introduce the girls to the Renaissance.  I'm glad we did as we all learned quite a bit.

But first after a fairly intense week of travel from Croatia to Venice to Pompeii to a lot of touring in Rome, we needed a day off!  So, that is what we did our first day in Florence.

AJ and I headed out on a mission to find a playground...and what a mission it was!  Apparently people in Florence don't like taking their kids to playgrounds!  It was an interesting hour long journey to find this playground.  We were staying in a nice apartment that was maybe a 10 to 15 minute drive from the city center.

So, I thought we would go outward to find a playground and I literally ended up in Tuscany!  Florence is after all in the Tuscan region but after 10 minutes of driving AJ and I were in vineyards, winding up hills on one lane roads, and looking at what you would imagine a Tuscany Villa would look like.  In other words, Florence may be a 'major' Italian city but its got a pretty small feel to it.

Oh, and the motorcyclists here are INSANE (but not the one below ;)

We found a playground (ironically just over the river from the center of town), picked up the girls and Mommy and had a fun day.

....followed by movie night!

Michelangelo - David

While Americans celebrated July 4th, we were learning all about the Renaissance and Florence starting the Michelangelo's famous sculpture of David housed in the Galeria dell'Academia (for all intents and purposes a museum built to showcase this one famous sculpture).  

When you look into the eyes of Michelangelo’s David, you’re looking into the eyes of Renaissance Man. This 14-foot-tall symbol of divine victory over evil represents a new century and a whole new Renaissance outlook. This is the age of Columbus and classicism, Galileo and Gutenberg, Luther and Leonardo... of Florence and the Renaissance.

In 1501, Michelangelo Buonarroti, a 26-year-old Florentine, was commissioned to carve a large-scale work for the Duomo, Florence’s cathedral. He was given a block of marble that other sculptors had rejected as too tall, shallow, and flawed to be of any value. But Michelangelo picked up his hammer and chisel, knocked a knot off what became David’s heart, and started to work.

The figure of David comes from 1 Samuel Chapter 17. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, are surrounded by barbarian warriors led by a brutish giant named Goliath. The giant challenges the Israelites to send out someone to fight him. Everyone is afraid except for one young shepherd boy, David. Armed only with a sling, which he’s thrown over his shoulder, David cradles a stone in the pouch of the sling and faces Goliath.

In this carving, Michelangelo captures David as he’s sizing up his enemy. He stands relaxed but alert, leaning on one leg in a classical pose. In his powerful right hand, he fondles the stone in the pouch of the sling, ready to fling it at the giant. His gaze is steady, searching with intense concentration, but also with extreme confidence. Michelangelo has caught the precise moment when David is saying to himself, “I can take this guy.”

Michelangelo has portrayed David facing the giant, most likely before throwing the famous stone.  Unlike most depictions of David after the kill, this sculpture does not show the giant’s severed head. 

David is a symbol of Renaissance optimism. He’s no brute. He's a civilized, thinking individual who can grapple with and overcome problems. He needs no armor, only his God-given body and wits. His right hand shows raised veins and strong, relaxed fingers... many complained that it was too big and overdeveloped. But this is the hand of a man powered by the strength of God. No mere boy could slay the giant. But David, powered by God, could...and did.

Originally, the statue was commissioned to stand on the roof of the Duomo. But during the three years it took to sculpt, they decided instead to place it guarding the entrance of the Town Hall, or Palazzo Vecchio.  Some have said David's head seems a bit big for his body, but that is because Michelangelo designed it to appear in the right proportion when seen from far below the church rooftop.

When David was done, the colossus was placed standing up in a cart and dragged across rollers from Michelangelo's workshop through the streets to the Palazzo Vecchio (plaza in front of city hall).  There David stood — naked and outdoors — for 350 years. There is a  crack in David’s left arm where it was broken off during a 1527 riot when rioters threw a bench out of city hall and severed the arm. 

In 1873, to conserve the masterpiece, the statue was finally replaced with a copy and moved here. David now stands under a wonderful Renaissance-style dome designed just for him.

David is interesting from every angle. From the front, he's the picture of relaxed confidence. But when you walk to the right and look into his eyes, he seems a bit less sure, as he furrows his brow and contemplates the terrible giant.  His eye were the most interesting to me as they really did seem to change as you circled the statue.  

In Michelangelo's day, Renaissance Florentines could identify with David. Like him, they considered themselves God-blessed underdogs fighting their city-state rivals. In a deeper sense, they were civilized Renaissance people slaying the ugly giant of medieval superstition, pessimism, and oppression.

The other really interesting works in the museum were unfinished sculptures from Michelangelo.  They call them the 'prisoners' as they are attempting to escape from the rocks.  You can see the chisel marks and it was just fascinating to see this genius' works in progress.  Art historians theorize that whoever commissioned those statues passed away before finishing paying for them so Michelangelo moved on to other works as he was in very high demand.  

I think the line we waited in to see David will be the longest line we wait in during our stay in Europe....2 hours!  You can buy these 'skip the line' tickets BUT for some weird reason when you try to do that online they charge you for all the kids making it a very expensive process indeed (when you stand in line ALL the kids 18 and younger are free....and that has been true with almost every museum in Europe we have been to). 

Walking Tour, Downtown Florence

 After seeing David, we grabbed a bite to eat and used our Apps (thanks Rick Steve!) to do a walking tour of downtown Florence.  Some highlights....

The Duomo

The dome of Florence’s cathedral — visible from all over the city — inspired Florentines to do great things. The church itself had been started in the 13th century but it was left unfinished, with a big hole in the roof. These medieval people didn't have the technology yet to span it with a dome. No problema. They built it anyway, knowing that someday, someone could handle the challenge. In the 1400s, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi was called on to finish the job. Brunelleschi traveled to Rome and studied the ancient domed Pantheon, did the math, then returned to cap the church Roman-style — with a tall, self-supporting dome as grand as the ancients could build.

He used a dome within a dome. First, he built the grand white skeletal ribs, which you can see in the picture below, then filled them in with interlocking bricks in a herringbone pattern. The dome grew upward like an igloo, supporting itself as it proceeded from the base. When they reached the top, Brunelleschi arched the ribs in and fixed them in place with the lantern. His dome, built in only 14 years, was the largest in a thousand years.

Brunelleschi’s dome was the wonder of the age, the model for many domes to follow, from St. Peter’s in Rome to the US Capitol. People gave it the ultimate compliment, saying, “Not even the ancients could have done it.” Michelangelo, setting out to construct the dome of St. Peter’s, drew inspiration from the dome of Florence. He said, “I’ll make its sister...bigger, but not more beautiful.” Brunelleschi’s dome also symbolizes the confidence of the Florentines, who rose from medieval roots to found the Renaissance.

The bell tower is known as Giotto's Tower, because he designed it in the 1300s. Though Giotto lived two centuries before the age of Michelangelo, he's considered the father of Renaissance painting. In his day, Giotto was called the ugliest man to ever walk the streets of Florence, but he left the city what, in our day, many call the most beautiful bell tower in all of Europe.

On the other hand, the front of the church is made fun of by many art aficionados!  They call it the church in pajamas....but we all liked it.  Quirky and colorful with amazing detail as you get close to look at that statues and carvings etc...

Surprisingly, the inside of the cathedral is pretty plain...

...with a Last Judgment painting by Giorgio Vasari adorning the dome.  But this painting (close up picture was one near the beginning of this blog post) just doesn't have the same power as Michelangelo's Last Judgment scene in the Sistine Chapel that I could have sat and stared at for hours.  Rachel and I both comment on the number of cracks we saw in the painting and thus the dome so we think a renovation will probably be coming sooner than later!

The Baptistry and Ghiberti's Bronze Doors
 

Florence’s Baptistery is dear to the soul of the city. Traditionally, festivals and parades either started or ended here. In medieval and Renaissance times, the locals, eager to link themselves to the classical past, believed that this was a Roman building. It wasn't, but it is Florence’s oldest building, nearly a thousand years old.  One interesting little fact....Dante was baptized here!

The Famous East Side Bronze Doors

On the north side of the Baptistery are a set of bronze doors that some say brought the world out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance.  In the year 1401, Florence staged a competition to find the best artist to create this set of doors. Florence had strong civic spirit, with different guilds (or business associations) embellishing their city with great art. All the greats entered the contest, including Brunelleschi. (Brunelleschi lost the Baptistery gig, freeing him up to later design the cathedral’s dome.) The clear winner was 25-year-old Lorenzo Ghiberti, who set about casting these bronze doors for the north entrance. The figures are kind of small, and there's no real backdrop to the scenes.

However, when you go around to the east side of the Baptistery, you find the famous doors facing the church. In 1425, Ghiberti was given another commission, for the east doors. This time there was literally no contest. The bronze panels of these doors added a whole new dimension to art — depth. Michelangelo said the doors were fit to be the gates of paradise, and they revolutionized the way Renaissance people saw the world around them.  

The east doors are made of ten rectangular panels, each with a scene from the Bible. We stood and looked at these doors for at least 30 minutes as they are simply stunning.  First we figured out what each Bible story was being depicted.  Then we looked at the detail and wondered how in the world this artist made this sort of detail out of BRONZE!   

Here we see how the Renaissance was a merging of art and science. Realism was in, and Renaissance artists used math, illusion, and dissection to get it. Ghiberti's work inspired the next generation of artists to create three-dimensional paintings on a two-dimensional surface.

Ghiberti spent 27 years (1425–1452) working on these panels. 

I guess after putting in that much work, its ok to put a little sculpture of yourself on the door.  Notice the little heads near the cross gray cross beams in the pictures above.  One of them is Ghiberti (we have noticed artists do this quite a bit in many famous paintings and sculptures!)

Next we headed down the pedestrian walkway leading from the Duomo to the Piazza Vecchio (old city hall square) and stopped by to have the

The Best Gelato in Italy...

Poor AJ fell asleep at the wrong time on this day as we all had this INCREDIBLE ice cream while he napped the time away.  We laughed about it....but took mercy the next day and went back to the same place...

There were a couple of other points of interest on our walk to Piazza Vecchio from the church that had a grain business upstairs (Ornamichele church) to the only ruins from Roman Empire times in the city.  But we ended at a great place, the old city hall.

In front of this building is where the statue of David stood for 350 years.  A replica now stands where the original once stood...notice the 3 statues across the front of the building, David is the one that is center right.

In the structure to the right area all kinds of replicas of famous sculptures from the Renaissance era.  In that area there was a college orchestra practicing and later a college choir.  I got video of that but don't have the greatest connection right now so I can't upload those.  It was an impressive way to end our tour with great music in front of great works of art in a city known for its art.

We had quite a journey back to our apartment.  It started innocently enough passing by some street artists...

...riding a merry go round in the piazza with the only Roman ruin...

But then we got on a bus heading the wrong direction and when it circled back (30 minutes later to the area where we began) we figured it was going to head back again to where we had just been.  We were wrong as that bus did indeed go right by our apartment on what I think it is the most non-sensical bus route I could ever imagine.  Anyway, we finally got back to the apartment an hour later than planned....but happy with a great day

The Uffizi Museum 

July 5 we started the day early to avoid the traditionally LONG line at the Uffizi Museum.  It worked and, in fact, we learned this day that there are certain benefits in having a woman 26 weeks pregant (at that time) as a part of your group.  You get to skip the line!   Wish we had known that at the David Museum!   This wonderful bit of news has come in handy in other long line situations since this time ;)  We thought about naming the baby LC for 'Line Cutter' but decided to just be thankful this little one is already brining benefits into our lives.

Uffizi Museum

The top floor of this museum (formerly office spaces during the Medici days of rule in the latter part of the 1400s), is filled with the greatest collection of Florentine painting anywhere Botticelli's Venus, works by Leonardo, Giotto, Michelangelo, and more. As you walk through, you can see the evolution in art from unrealistic, gold-backed medieval altarpieces to lifelike, three-dimensional scenes featuring pagan goddesses and Renaissance centerfolds.

I was incredibly thankful we had the Rick Steve Travel App on this tour as I think I would have been bored out of my skull in this museum.  But having a guide brings things to life and really makes things much more interesting.  

We weren't allowed to take pictures in this museum but I did take one here because I just thought Rachel's comment was so funny.  She called this the 'High Five' room of statues as it looks like all these statues are wanting to give you a high five.  

From the top of this museum you get the best view of the famous bridge called the Ponte Vecchio as well as the private walkway of the powerful Medici family (covered red roof structure in foreground).

A bridge has spanned this narrowest part of the Arno River since Roman times. It was built where the east-west axis of river trade met the north-south axis of the main highway from northern Europe to Rome. Even when Rome “fell,” Florence really didn’t, remaining a bustling trade center along the river through medieval times. When a flood washed away the old wooden bridge, this one was built in 1345. 

The shops were originally inhabited by butchers and hide-tanners, a natural fit because they could empty their waste into the river below.  But the stinky medieval trade has gone upscale as butchers were replaced by gold and silver sellers who still sell there today.  

In WWII, the German commander was ordered to blow up all the bridges in Florence when Germany pulled out of Italy...and he did....to all the other bridges.  I guess there were a few Germans who appreciated history.  

We also got a great shot of the top of the city hall from the Uffizi.

We ate lunch at a little hole in the wall that is very popular with the Tripadvisor.com community, headed back into the center of town to see some things that had been closed during our walking tour the day before, did a bit of shopping....and got that awesome ice cream mentioned above.

Waiting for the correct bus this time!  

Our last evening in Florence we headed to Piazza Michelangelo which has by far the best views of the city and is a very popular place at sunset.  There is another replica of David here....

Little AJ calls David "The Nakee Guy" and whenever he saw him in Florence that is what he would say.  "Hey, there's the Nakee Guy!"  This night was no different... thus the picture above in front of the statue.  In a future post I'll post a picture of a statue of a naked woman we saw in Geneva Switzerland where AJ (on his own) said "Hey, there's the Nakee Girl!"  We laughed hysterically at that one, and he was quite proud of himself.

When we planned our time in Florence I wondered if it was worthy of 4 nights and felt that way even as we headed into the city.  But looking back on our time there now, I have to say I'm glad we went there and learned all the things we learned.

July 6 we headed out on a travel day to Pisa and Geneva, Switzerland on our way to Paris.

Til next time, God Bless

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