Brain-bombed by art: the Uffizi
Plus, random
An Italian construction worker in the early afternoon, as his co-workers debated where he should dig next.
As always, click on an image to see a larger version.
A wise man who knows how to manage his time.
The collection at the Uffizi is staggering, big enough that even though the non-Roman-statue collection on display now covers only about two hundred years, my brain felt like a bombed-out wreck after walking through it. Before I realized that the Uffizi does not allow photography, I took a few pictures of some statues, notably this one of Leopold de' Medici.
He should have stuck to portraits, where they could paint him largely head-on.
Working through the Uffizi chambers, it became clear that sometimes an artist would emerge and be dramatically and obviously better than his contemporaries. Botticelli was the most striking example. What beautiful work.
I wish I could show you more, but I wasn't willing to break the no-photography rule once I was aware of it, so I'll have to recommend the Uffizi to you in books and, if you have the chance, in person. Like so much of Florence, it's a must-see.
The sky over Santa Croce today looked very different indeed.
On the personal front, I'm still stress-dreaming heavily every night and having trouble sleeping, but I believe I'm making progress. I certainly hope so. Time will tell. I look forward to finding out how I feel without all this accumulated stress.
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1 comment:
Dear Mark,
There was a recent show at the Duke (Nasher) art gallery titled El Greco to Velasquez—Spanish art under Phillip III. It covered a whole generation of painters, many of whom I’ve seen discussed individually elsewhere.
But if you take the two ends of the period as in the title, you can ignore all the rest. When I chanced across El Greco’s View over Toledo at the Met, it reinforced my opinion. Yeah, some people are just better by an order of magnitude.
Dave
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