Chains of love

Magnet #1088 - Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Given the last couple of weeks, it's nothing short of a miracle that my parents are able to celebrate their 39th anniversary today. You'd think there would be more celebrating, but there's really a lot of take-it-easy, take-it-easy [insert Filipino accent here].

That was also the theme when we were making (hobbling?) our way through the streets of Florence last year just after the Save the Couple Wedding. In fact, we just looked down the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), rather than making our way across it.

A Medieval bridge, Ponte Vecchio is one of the oldest in Europe - with first documentation of it is around 900. It spans the Arno River in Florence, and is dotted with several different merchants and stalls, with presumably more Florence, Tuscany and Italy magnets than I could ever hope to buy.

One thing we missed, though, is the bust of Benvenuto Cellini near the center of the bridge, whose railings the authorities are constantly trying to keep track of. I know, right? Why would anyone bother protecting it?

Here's something that I've missed for years and years and years...

Apparently, lovey-dovey couples from the world over attach padlocks on to bridges (or thereabouts) as symbols of their steadfast love. I don't know how I've managed to miss it, but talk about chains of love, or ball and chain, or bonds of matrimony!

Who's who in British history

Magnet #983 - Westminster Abbey

One of the coolest places to visit in London is Westminster Abbey. There's been a religious structure on this site since as far back as 960, when Dustan, a Benedictine monk from London, and a dozen of his buddies set up shop here. Dudes. The 10th century. That's 1,050 years ago!

Sure, the present church has really only been there since 1245, but how many buildings have you been in that are a hundred years old, much less almost a thousand? It's nuts.

And when you walk in, you can feel the history oozing from every nook and Poet's Corner, from every stone and Coronation Throne, and from every step and funerary monument. It's where almost every British monarch was crowned since William the Conquerer in 1066, and it's the final resting place for at least 17 monarchs. This place has seen more history that could fit in anyone's history books. It has to be seen to really be believed.

Remember last year, when I visited Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence? Santa Croce may have Michelangelo and Galileo and a few others, but man, Westminster is just like it...but on speed.

Chaucer's there. Chaucer. Buried in 1400. And he's just one. Shakespeare. Darwin. Keats. Shelley. Dickens. Newton. Olivier. Those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head! There are so many famous folks buried and/or commemorated in the abbey that you'd need at least a couple of days and a couple of tours before you can see everyone. The list is so long, that it's not even complete! It truly reads like a who's who in British history, and makes you realize what the Brits have contributed to this world.

Can you imagine what it's like in the dead of night when all the spirits are chatting each other up? Because you know the spiritual din in that building must be crazy. And the conversations they're all having?

You know, if I weren't creeped out by crypts and monuments and statues of dead folk, I probably would have spent much more time there if I could. As it was, on my last London visit a couple of years ago, I skipped it, opting for pretty pictures outside, rather than visiting with the dead by myself.

What? There's a reason I can't continue watching The Walking Dead on AMC.

Italian diversions

Magnet #927 - Il Duomo & Campanile

This is one of my favorite images of Florence - ever. I think the reason why, is because Il Duomo and its Campanile was built between the 1200s and the 1400s, and still, more than 600 years later, I can take the very same picture - without meaning to!

I'm using it for a couple of reasons, first, because I finally went to go see The American, mostly set in the Italian countryside.

Gravy, is my boyfriend George Clooney superduper pretty. But, definitely drink some coffee before you head into the theatre.

Oh, even though I should have known it from the get-go, it was definitely not the action flick I was anticipating. It's quiet. It's tense. It's quiet. No. I mean, seriously, George's dialogue had to have been less than 10 pages overall. Even as he came off as a model for designer sunglasses and wardrobe, George was fabulous in it - there was definitely no sign of George playing George.

The camera work is beautiful, and you can tell that the director is really a photographer. But ya'll know how I hate overdirected movies? This would be one of them. My biggest pet peeve with this movie.

"Here. Look at this beautiful roadside with a car driving down the left side. This movie (not car commercial) is set here. Here. Look at this beautiful Italian countryside. This movie (not NatGeo photoshoot) is now set here. Here. Look at George look beautiful in this doorway. He's worried someone's after him. Here. Look at George. He looks really hot in sunglasses. You can't see his true thoughts."

Oiy. Moving on.

The other reason I picked Florence because I picked up a new favorite show called Art of the Heist - all about famous art heists through history. Pretty cool stuff. Like the guy who walked into the Louvre and walked out with the Mona Lisa, and tried to sell it back to the Uffizi in Florence three years later. Really? You didn't think they'd notice?

Or, how some family started forging masterpieces and selling them. And getting away with it!

Or how the Hermitage in St. Petersburg did a standard inventory and found that more than 200 pieces in their collection were missing. Missing, I say!

I swear, most of these stories are fodder for White Collar on USA. Even so, now, I'm now totally planning my trip to the Hermitage in 2012.

That David thing

Magnet #891 - Michaelangelo's David

I debated on using this David magnet for joy magnetism, but then I realized you know what? It's considered one of the world's masterpieces. It's art. Deal with it.

We had a bit of a tough time of it in Florence last year, our first day being the worst. day. ever. Everyone was fighting. No one wanted to be there. And on top of that, God gave us some torrential rainshowers to deal with. In the middle of the day, with little coverage and only a few umbrellas between us.

Oh, my, it was just miserable. It was that day that I vowed to see what I could of Florence, because dadgumit, I was never coming back to town again.

So, a couple of days later, when my mom said, tiredly and clearly at the end of her rope, I really don't want to go see "that David thing." But we all said, "Hold up. We're here. We're in the neighborhood. Hells yeah, we're going to see 'that David thing.'" And so we did.

Can I tell ya'll? And there's really no way to say it without it sounding dirrty, but honestly, I had no idea how big David was. Everyone talks about Michelangelo and you've seen his work online and on tv and in books, and you sort of vaguely understand and accept that he's one of the greatest artists that the world has ever known. But, until you actually see his work, you just don't really get it.

So when you go to the Galleria dell'Accademia, and you turn the corner and you see David for the very first time from afar, down the long hallway, your breath just catches.

I mean, Michaelangelo sculpted this 16-foot (or 17, depending on who you believe) fine specimen of man from one piece of old, remaindered marble. One! Piece! It took him about three years, from 1501-1504. Dudes. That's more than FIVE hundred years ago!

And yet, here David stands proudly in this magnificent gallery space, all by his lonesome, save for the dozens of onlookers (uplookers)? examining every inch of his almost perfect body atop his giant pedestal. I say almost perfect because supposedly, the piece was conceived to be an outdoor sculpture, hence the larger than scale hands and feet. Oh! And according to the Accademia site, if you look at David's face head on, his eyes are actually looking in two different directions. Honestly, once you see the guy up close, all the way to his veins in his hands, forearms and legs, you just appreciate those other imperfections, as utter perfection.

So, yeah. If you get a chance to go to Florence, drop by and see that David thing. Mom didn't regret going in the end.

As for me, the best part about the visit was the sheer fascination the piece held for my dad. He's always loved to see how things are made, and has so much respect for workmanship that goes into any craft - whether it's building megabridges or building a simple wood cabinet. Watching him appreciate and study David was a lovely thing to see.

No kidding, in the couple of hours we spent there, we couldn't really tear him away from it. He must have walked around the statue a good dozen times, coming up with new details on every trip. We did, too, just to I Spy every detail. Right down to David's thing.

What? I couldn't help myself. I know it's art, but I just read that some companies who offer replicas of the piece actually offer a fig leaf, free of charge, for those who want to censor themselves. I mean, what?

Lo so! Pazzo!

Magnet #784 - Firenze, Santa Croce

Perhaps our best day in Florence was visiting Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross). Everyone was getting along, no one was overtired, and we were really enjoying what we were seeing.

Santa Croce is where Michelangelo was buried, as I've magnetblogged before, but I wanted to use this other magnet because whoa, there's a new Michelangelo in town.

Well, sortakinda. It's not technically new, because it's been here since before I was born. And, it might technically not really be a Michelangelo.

This really interesting ARTnews article is about Everett Fahy, the former head of the Met's European paintings group, who wrote a paper about how the Met's Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness could supertotally actually be a Michelangelo.

I know! Insane!

Back in 1970, the Met bought these two paintings by Franciso Grannaci from Sotheby's, one for $150,000 and the other for $200,000. The one for $200,000 wasn't technically attributed to him, but like someone in his close circle of friends....that just happens to include Michelangelo.

I know! Insane!

So, apparently Fahy has kinda always had his eye on the painting wondering if it was really Micheangelo, until one day, things kinda clicked and he put some pieces together, and he just sort of gradually realized it.

I know! Insane!

So they've done all sorts of studies, and they started doing all sorts of techy tests, trying to examine the paintings further. One was trying to see if the underwriting (where some artists draw out what they want to paint, and then they paint over it) was visible. Apparently, while Grannaci did that, Michelangelo (cuz he's Michelangelo, hello) did not. According to them, he knew what he wanted to paint. So, when you see all the underwork stuff, you can see that the John the Baptist one didn't have the initial drawings.

Lo so! Pazzo!

I'm trying to figure out why this isn't the most fanfare-iest news ever, and why more folks haven't like freaked out over it. That's way cool that we have a Michelangelo in our backyard.

Oh, I suppose when it comes to paintings that were supposedly done before the Sistine Chapel in the early 1500s or so, unless ya'll have the Doctor and his TARDIS to go back in time, you're never going to know 100% that it's Michelangelo's.

Still, it's enough to get me over to the Met as soon as I can get there. I kinda want to go right now. Hmmm. Stay tuned.

eta:
And yet again, I love living here because I can make that last-minute decision to run up to the Met and check out the painting for myself.

I love how it sits in relative obscurity in the last gallery (#7) in the back on the second floor. I was able to hang out for as long as I wanted, great bench seating, and like no foot traffic. The security guard knew I was hanging out for a reason, and was like, you know? And I said, yep, I just read the article.

I told him to watch out, once that article hits the mainstream and more people find out, you won't be able to get into the room. We agreed that they'd probably pull it from the collection in order to find a place of honor somewhere...not in the back. Hahahah.

BTW? Not surprisingly, I really couldn't tell the diff between the Granacci and the Granacci/possibly Michelangelo. But, the painting's really cool, the longer you stare at it.

Ease your storm

Magnet #762 - Medusa, by Caravaggio

As the last-minute, looking for the exit, bid to see more art at the Uffizi, we saw the Caravaggios hidden off in one of the more remote galleries.

As with DaVinci and Michelangelo and so many others, it was so very cool to see Caravaggio in Italy. That's probably what most surprised me, how much I was affected by seeing all that art in its native homeland.

Caravaggio painted Medusa around 1597, and it's so very lifelike, it makes you take a step back for fear of turning to stone. Ok, ok, it wasn't as lifelike as all that, but you could certainly make out the gruesome sheen of blood spouting from Medusa's head in that dimly lit gallery. Totally creepy and scary.

Which is fitting, because that's how I remember the classic 1981 Clash of the Titans fight between Harry Hamlin and the Gorgon Medusa. Scary. Sure, it was supposed be cheesy and crazy silly with the animatronics and greenscreen work of the day, but as a kid, I was totally freaked out by Medusa!

So, when I heard they were doing a new Clash, and with my boy Sam "packed only my books when I moved to the States" Worthington, I could not wait. Seriously, having watched the trailer a few times, and had the giant 20-story billboard teasing me from up the street. Totally looking forward to it. It was my first movie in months!

And, especially given how much technology's moved forward on the CGI/SFX front, I really thought the movie was gonna be amazing. And in 3D!

That's why we went to the 11:45am showing at the Ziegfeld - which has, despite the lack of stadium seating, the largest screen in Manhattan. I should have known when the theatre had about a dozen people. Goodness.

I love Sam. And Nicholas Hoult (Tony from Skins). And shoot, I even love Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson.

But the movie? I did not love.

It was just silly, and not in the way that classic Clash was silly. That was silly good. This movie was silly bad. So bad that I was entertaining walking out of the theatre, and would have, had I not spent $15.75, and have a thing for Sam's knobby knees, which for some reason, directors seem to focus on.

They updated the story, revising storylines and characters, which was fine by me, and they had a couple of shout-outs to the old - with a great one to the mechanical owl of old. And I suppose the effects were great, too, even though sometimes, I felt like someone on the production side was a huge LOST black smoke fan, with a little dash of Harry Potter.

The rest, though, was just terrible. I can always tell when something's bad, when I'm totally laughing at dialogues and scenes that I'm not supposed to laugh at. Out loud. To a deathly quiet theatre.

But c'mon. With a line like "Ease your storm" in the mix, you can see why I did a fair amount of giggling. I mean, really. Who wrote that and said, yes, that's an awesome line! Who directed that and said, yes, that was a great take! Who acted that and said, hells yes, that's not cheesy at all?

Ugh. Mind you, I'm totally stealing that line for everytime someone I know gets overexcited. I seriously can't wait. Sigh. Just like I couldn't wait for the movie to finally be over.

Oh, not to worry, they're still gonna make money, if the $24mil they made off of Friday's box office has anything to say for it.

No easing of the storm there.

With open galleries

Magnet #743 - Alexander Calder, National Gallery

We've established over and over that I love art, and art museums. That it's not even like I'm particularly well-versed in any genre or any artist, that I just love looking at the stuff in whatever museum I visit.

With as many as 15 grueling days ahead of us, we took a bit of a break and went to the new Tampa Museum of Art. A very cool building of pierced aluminum (900,000 holes!!!) nestled along the waterfront park, and designed by Stanley Saitowitz, an SF-based architect with several structures to his name.

So then we walk in - free, by the way, because of the Gasparilla Festival of Arts - and have lunch at the still getting its bearings in a big way Sono Cafe, and take a gander at some art.

The funny thing was that you walk into this giant open space, and you see this staircase that leads you up to the collections. Then, you turn around, and as you start to go up the stairs, you look up, and bam!, you see a giant multistory Calder mobile, much like the one in this magnet from DC's National Gallery. And while I'd seen the pictures of the Calder on their site, I was still awed by it as I looked up into the atrium of a zillion holes. Very cool.

The whole visit (save for Sono) was very cool. Very small. I think we may have missed a few collections, because we did only see one floor full of galleries that intentionally flow into each other to show the openness of art.

But that's the thing now...instead of having wings devoted to one particularly course of art, the rooms and exhibitions all just flow into each other. While on the one hand, this openness explores how art is interrelated, and pushes you to figure out how they are connected, it also doesn't visually define what you're looking at.

In other words, one minute, you're looking at a nude Matisse, you cross an entryway, and all of a sudden, you're looking at a Greek Black-Figure Amphora, circa 510 B.C., and then into a set of black and white Garry Winogrand Women are Beautiful photographs. And left to draw conclusions as to how they're brought together under one roof.

In the end, we did the Matisse side and the Winogrand side, and I'll give it to the TMA curator, that was a good job of tying the two exhibitions together. The sketches, drawings and paintings of various women by Matisse during the early 1900s was a great juxtaposition and comparison against the black and white photography of the women that Winogrand captured in the later 1900s.

It's kind of what the curator of the Accademia in Florence was going for, when he combo'd an exhibition of Mapplethorpe imagery of the human form and...Michelangelo sculptures. Mind you...that one blew my mind completely. Mostly because I couldn't believe it had been done.

Yeah, that's a whole nother magnet.

eta:
After being open a month, their little gallery was stocked full of the easily orderable Matisse magnets from Pomegranate (my faves, as you know), but low on the actual museum logo magnets themselves. Probably good because besides the Sono beef, my other issue with them is their logo. But, I can't wait to come back and see how that museum magnet collection grows. I'm hoping they do an atrium shot like this one here.

The agony and the ecstasy

Magnet #737 - Michelangelo's Creation of Adam

One of the greatest works of art in the world is the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, painted by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in the early 1500s. It spans about 5,000 square feet (!!!!), was painted during the course of four years, and mostly tells the story of the Book of Genesis.

This magnet that I picked up at the Seattle Art Museum a few months ago - it's the Creation of Adam, a small part of the many, many, many paintings on the chapel's ceiling. It depicts God on the wings of angels, giving the breath of life to Adam, through their outstretched fingers. A powerful subject, with exquisite detail. In my estimation, it's kind of a shame that it's on a ceiling, where you can't see it up close...or spend hours on your back examining the piece.

The Vatican Museums put together a pretty good virtual tour of the chapel, though, and it's quite amazing the amount of work that's gone into this chapel. The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who was pope in the late 1400s and founded this chapel and brought together great artists of the time.

I haven't been, but the frescoes alone should be enough to visit. I do have a dim memory of when I was little and being forced by my dad to watch The Agony and the Ecstasy, yet another Charlton Heston movie, this time as Michelangelo and the story behind creating one of his most definitive works. Oh! And there's this Eyewitness to History account of someone who spent time with him, and eventually wrote his biography in the 1500s.

Michelangelo didn't really want the commission for a few reasons, but one was because he didn't really consider himself a painter. He considered himself primarily a sculptor. I've been lucky enough to see some of those other great works. Our trip to Italy saw to that - don't worry, there's a magnet for that. I just love that not even two weeks later, I was in Seattle, getting to see a dozen original Michelangelo sketches and other papers on exhibit.

Fantastic exhibit, that was. The deal is that in the whole U.S., there's not even a dozen of Michelangelo's original works. But in Seattle, for the Michelangelo: Public and Private exhibition, they had a whole dozen, borrowed from Casa Buonarroti. Amazing. (Even though we totally should have hit up that museum while we were in Florence. Ack!)

They had what was supposedly the last letter he ever wrote, plus several sketches from his work on David and the Sistine Chapel. The deal with him was that he regularly destroyed his own sketches, because he didn't like for the public to see him as human, that is, that he would need to practice before his great genius was put into practice. But, his family managed to collect these drawings and studies and preserve them.

Despite all that - the glimpse into the man behind the genius - the studies he made, the original sketches he tried - I have to say, my absolute favorite part of the exhibit? They had a shopping list that Michelangelo put together for his servant. Except, because servants were generally illiterate, he had to draw the list. How fabulous is that?

So there's the list with the Italian word, and then little illustration. On the list was a cute little chicken, a cute little fish, a cute little loaf of bread. Can't you just see it?

Here's the list, just grab what you can at the ShopRite!

Except, you know...in Italian. So...

Ecco l'elenco, basta afferrare ciò che si può al ShopRite!

For the glories of humankind

Magnet #651 - Basilica di Santa Croce, Firenze

I bought a couple of Santa Croce magnets, this one I bought before ever having seen it, because it's supercute, plus I'd read about the church and it sounded amazing. The other magnet I bought, I'll use later with probably more info than you ever need to know.

For now, just know that Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is a medieval church down the way from the Duomo in Florence, supposedly founded by St. Francis. Seriously. Old. Like 1294 old. And that building was built to replace a structure that was there before it!

The church is going through a lot of reconstruction now, so the peace inside is disturbed with the sounds of careful hammering and funny elevators. But the din doesn't stop you from reveling in the Giotto frescoes, the Donatello reliefs, and the many, many funerary monuments.

It's like the Westminster of Florence - with monuments to the glories of Italian mankind, they say. Folks like Marconi, the man who invented the radio and Dante, the famous poet; and Rossini, the composer of the William Tell overture, and Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, one of the founders of modern political science.

But most people go to see the graves of the most recognizable names ever, Galileo and Michelangelo. Folks. Galileo! Michelangelo! Buried! There! It's crazy.

Glories of mankind, indeed. Standing in the presence of greatness, is what that is.

And, speaking of standing in the presence of greatness, the other reason I'm using this magnet for today, is because we found out some sad news three times over, of family friends who had passed away while we were in Italy. One was the mother of my friend's friend. The other two were close family friends of ours. Indeed, this morning, I got confirmation that it was actually my godmother who passed away last week.

Very sad, especially since I just wrote of her husband (my godfather) passing away a few months ago. My godparents were one of the few couples who prove the existence of happily ever after for me. Nanay Marian was truly a grand lady, with a deep faith in God, a deep love for her husband and everyone around her, and, it has to be said, the best donut recipe known to man.

But, Tatay Toting was her lobster, and so, I know with utmost conviction that wherever Nanay Marian is, she's very happy to be back with him.

Capitale d'arte del mondo

Magnet #648 - Botticelli's Birth of Venus

I've heard that Florence is the art capital of the world. This would not be a lie.

Today we did both the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Galleria dell'Accademia - seeing the masterworks of guys like Giotto, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Canaletto, Dürer, Caravaggio, and of course, Botticelli.

Here's the thing. I've been to a few museums around the world - it's what I do. But, today's visit to both museums pretty much blew me away. And I'm not an Italian artchick to save my life. But, it's one thing to see art from the later half of the 20th century in NY, Paris or London, but to see Medieval and Renaissance works of art in the country of its birth is another. They don't call these things masterpieces for nothing!

And, the Botticelli on this magnet, the rising of Venus from the sea surrounded by the Zephyrs and the Horai, was painted supposedly for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici around 1482. Dudes, that's a whole decade before Columbus decided to sail the ocean blue!

But, while the works of art were amazing, the palace itself was fantastic. It was built in the mid-1500s, originally designed by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo de' Medici, who's hanging out in front of Palazzo Vecchio on his horse. It's original use was to house administrative offices (hence the name, Uffizi). The design is pretty fantastic, with two long, long fresco'd corridors, forming a rectangle, with interior mazes of rooms that will knock your socks off, with one impressive collection of artists' work after another.

My favorite part, was seeing when the works of art became part of the Uffizi collection. Like the paintings that joined the collection around 1793. They've been hanging out on the walls since 1793! That's about 20 years after the American Revolution! And the paintings were old back then!

It's supercool, though, to think of the people who passed those same halls looking at the same paintings we saw, and writing home to tell about it. I love that you can see the old plaques beside the paintings, and even some of the exhibit numbers on their frames - clearly remnants of museum designs past. So cool.

Ok, Florence. You got me. After a crappy first day, you managed to make it up to me today. And I haven't talked about seeing Michelangelo's David up close and personal, or the to-die-for profiteroles I had at Rivoire, the first chocolatier in Florence!

Mille grazie, Firenze.

November rain

Magnet #647 - Firenze

Ok. So now we're back in business, posting on the day of. What? Ya'll think I'm insane, but seriously, they say after doing something 14 times it becomes a habit. Try doing something after 640 days!

Anyway, Save the World Sister and BIL (now I need a STW couple name for them) brought this back for me when they first visited here a few years ago, and now I'm actually here for myself.

Today was our first full day in Florence, the city of flowers. And rain. Like monsoon rain. Like pouring gatti and cani rain.

A thoroughly trying and stressful day - it's hard to try and shepherd nine other adults. But, that's ok, we got through it, seeing only Il Duomo, the Baptistry, the Duomo museum, and the inside of a Chinese restaurant, two different McDonald's, and a really great Florentine restaurant with really great food. Well, except for dessert - I'm not a fan of panacotta, so the chocolates from the chocolate festival we found in Padua will have to do.

Oh, like you're really surprised we stumbled upon a whole street paved with chocolate.