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Published: January 9th 2018
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"Perseus with the Head of Medusa"
You can find the self portrait of Cellini by looking for the nose first on the lining of Perseus's helmet. The beginning of each year is always the prime time for reflection. December and January is typically when people are reflecting on the year they have just experienced, but it’s also a time they reflect on what they want for themselves as they make their new year resolutions. The funny thing is that anyone could pick any day out of the whole year and decide for themselves who they are and what they want out of life; however, many people wait until this one time of the year to reflect.
I believe that when the major figures of the Renaissance, and many others of that time, knew that there was changes to be had and art to be made they did not wait. They were constantly reflecting and it is evident through the art of the Renaissance. In art pieces from this era you can find both self-reflections of the artists as well as reflections the artists had over the history before them.
When walking through the Uffizi Gallery today there was numerous works of art that included the virgin Mary and the son, Jesus Christ. As a religious individual, it is easy
to appreciate religious art because you don’t really need explained the significance of those pieces, rather you can feel it. What is important to recognize is that there can be ten different pieces of art of trying to tell the same story, but what the art really reveals is each individual artist’s depiction of that story. Considering, this really shows how much reflection each artist went through before completing their pieces; for multiple pieces of the same story to be recognized in the same museum says something even more! I really appreciate the reflections these artists went through as the birth of Christ is something that will never die, and it is beautiful to see that so many were thinking of Christ when creating art.
Even the pieces that I do not think were meant to be related to religion, I could feel the emotions of the art. I particularly loved the piece “Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli. This piece has the same woman,Venus, in Botticelli’s, The Birth of Venus, but there is something more to “Primavera” that I love. There is a sense of rebirth, a common topic of the Renaissance era, with all of
the women looking slightly pregnant, the flowers, spring time, and love. This combination really made me appreciate being a woman. I also generally love the spring. Botticelli did very well.
During a walking tour through Florence the following fact was brought to light: the Duomo took over six centuries to build and finish. That massive and ever detailed cathedral had thousands of people help create it, and yet nearly each person who worked on it must’ve known that they would never live to see it complete. I loved the analyzation I heard concerning that fact, “each person who worked on the Duomo knew that the project was bigger than themselves”. It is crazy to imagine and made me reflect on how those artists must’ve reflected while working on the Duomo. Knowing that those people knew creating the Duomo was “bigger than themselves” allowed me to have a whole new feeling towards the Duomo; there is a greater respect and appreciation for the people who played a part in creating this masterpiece. Every day since I have been in Florence I have walked past this building and every day I find a new detail that makes it even more magnificent than it was before. I don’t think I could look at every detail this building has on it could be analyzed in a single day. While many of the symbols will remain a mystery to me, it is nice to know that each detail had a specific reason.
My favorite sculpture to this point thus far is “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” made by Benvenuto Cellini. This is the only bronze sculpture in the Piazza della Signoria, and it depicts not just merely the head of Medusa being held by Perseus, but also reflection. Perseus was able to cut off Medusa’s head through over-coming fear by reflection. I like this because I think this is what we are all really trying to do: get past our fears and do what we want to set out and do. You can’t get past your fears unless you reflect on why they fear you; this is a thought I never had before. Even Cellini recognized this I think as he put his self-portrait into the back of Perseus’s head. Reflection was the key to rebirth and to the Renaissance, a concept that I don’t think could have been absent from Renaissance art.
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