Breakdown of 2nd day of Class

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I wake up for class today and am immediately feeling better. What saved my life this morning was Starbuck via, that instant stuff you just pour in some hot water. I’m all jittery and energized to start the day. Upon entering class, Tony immediately starts reviewing. He tells us to memorize page 23 of our notebook which breaks down the art and history in Florence in a timeline format showing the transition from the Gothic/Medieval period to the Early Renaissance and Later Renaissance periods. Listening to this guy ramble is so funny, I wish I could capture it in words, but he’ll be talking about one thing and then interject something that has absolutely no correlation to what he was teaching at all. “Go to page 23, you see Ghiberti, who was he, tell me someone, good, now flip to page 33, the video we discussed, don’t let me miss my bus at 10 today, now the three most famous Italian artists objectively who were they? Good, Micahealangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo Da Vinci… you may want to throw Donatello in there but I won’t have it, this is fact (guy from apartment walks in, uses printer, tony addresses him mid lecture, mid sentence actually) tell me sir, who were the three most famous artists in Italian (guy looks dumbfounded but answers, we laugh) see… see I have backup!” He is quite a character! We conclude class with a video that we started last night. My takeaway of class today was learning about this competition that was held in Florence during the Renaissance period. The winner would be the fortunate soul to design the doors of the Baptistry in Florence. So it comes down to these two guys, that are both pretty famous: Lorenzo Ghiberti and Brunelleschi… Ghiberti ends up winning. The town suggests after the competition that the two artists should team up and design the door, but Brunelleschi, being anything but modest, won’t have it. So he heads to Rome for a couple years to study the architecture there. Ghiberti then works on the doors to the Baptistry, and these doors are famous, called the “Doors of Paradise” made of Bronze and contain sculptures and engravings that depict various scenes from the Bible. I can’t even wait to see them. So, back to the story, Brunellesci returns from Rome probably all amped up from losing that competition, maybe on some Renaissance type steroid that increases ones artistic talent and he wants to design a cathedral, a Duomo (the largest church in each city is called the Duomo), and he wants this cathedral to be round, egglike. Everyone is like, “your nuts man, your loco, look at this here egg, you cant make it stand up, it tips over, there is no way you can do this to a building nonetheless.” Brunellesci, ready to prove himself, takes the egg, and lightly cracks it onto a table, flattening the bottom and making it stand upright. Crowd stares in awe. Plans to build the famous St. Lorenzo church have begun. You’ve probably seen this cathedral before, if you’ve been to Florence you certainly know what I am referring to, but it’s the big Dome like structure slicing the horizon when you see Rome from a distance. 130 ft in diameter, 370 feet high, this dome as well as others were constructed with the heavens in mind, to inspire awe and wonder, and “contain God” in their heights. Because no technology had built such a round like structure at the time, Brunelleschi’s innovation led him to design a system that rounded the bricks and stones of the cathedral as it was built from the ground up, giving the St. Lorenzo church its magnificent egglike appearance. Knowing the background to this church is going to make it that much sweeter to see in person! Plans for the day are to map out itinerary of Siena later today with the gang, get some groceries, and use the gym. Feeling much better. Mucinex medicine is legit. I’m out. Will blog again later tonight!

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Photos

The Duomo of Florence
The church that Brunellesci designed after returning from Rome. In Florence it is called Il Duomo