The Roman Colosseum

    After leaving Livorno, we sailed into port at the city of Civitavecchia.

It looked like a busy port for commerce and cruise ships.

      Since going to Rome was going to be an all day excursion, we got room service at 6:30 AM. We  asked for more food in order to make a light lunch for our noon picnic in Rome.  I had gotten apples oranges and bananas the previous day, and I added this to our meal which I placed in my back pack.
      After breakfast went down to the Liquid Lounge.  As usual the lounge was full of people waiting for their number to be called.  We picked up our tickets and our paste-on number "19" at the reception table and took a seat.  There were over 20 excursions, so we knew we would be waiting a while.  Finally our number was called, and we went out to find our  bus. There were only a few buses left and found ours near the end of the parking lot with the number 19. Like the trip to Florence, we were going to have two guides one for the bus and one for sight seeing in Rome. The bus guide's name was Renata.  She was a husky young lady with a baritone voice who spoke with a heavy accent which always ended her words with an extra syllable..."nnd."  It was a little getting used to at first, but soon enough the ear seems to adjust to this mode of communication.
     As Americans who are accustomed to instant gratification, we make it known that if something is not going well. In this case Renata was babbling along, but she wasn't talking into the mic. Almost in unison, people on the bus yelled, "We can't hear you!"  Renata turned around with a surprised expression as if we had interrupted her thoughts, and fiddled about with her mic bringing it up to her mouth and asked, "You..nd can hear..nd me now..nd?" and everyone yelled,  "YES!"  So she went back to her history lecture where she left off...
     I got a few words of her previous lecture..."Romulus..nd Remus..nd..." I figured she began with the founding myth of Rome. According to historians Rome was founded by Romulus in 735 BC.   But what about the "suckling wolf" you ask???

     The legend has it that Rhea Silvia conceived twins by the god Mars against her brother's wishes for her to become a Vestal Virgin.  When she gave birth, she left her babies in a large jar to die in the r Tiber River.  Somehow they were carried down the river to safety.  They were found by a she-wolf who lost her pups and adopted them while her friend the woodpecker fed them grubs.  After a while a shepherd and his wife find them and raise them as their own.  They name them Romulus and Remus and as they grow older they become leaders if their village.  They create a new city on the Palatine Hill.  Remus has a falling out with Romulus and since things were settled in a blood thirsty way in those days, Romulus kills Remus and names his new city Rome after himself!
      Romulus invited all classes of men including slaves and freemen to become citizens of his state. Noticing that his fledgling city had few women to populate his realm, he led the men to the hills and invaded Sabine and stole their women.  The Sabine king, Tatius, retaliated and counter attacked Rome, but the women stepped in and convinced Tatius and Romulus to reconcile and rule jointly sparing more blood shed. Romulus selected 100 men of his choosing to form a Roman senate as an advisory council. He grouped these hundred into three parts: Romans, Sabines and Etruscans. Each would get one vote collectively.  Then he grouped the populace into thirty "Curiae" named after the thirty of the Sabine women who had intervened to end the war between Romulus and Tatius.  The "curie" formed the voting units in the Roman assembly. By voting everyone got their ideas known, and they all owned part of the decision.  This was very innovative thinking for its time unless they knew about the Greeks.  The tribes stayed together when prosperity abounded and as time went on, more tribes were acquired and Rome continued to prosper after the rule of seven kings.
     Renata was now speaking about the Etruscans, a migratory peoples from the Near East who settled in Italy.  They were known for their mining quest and  metal work with copper and iron. Rome was a smaller state and as the Etruscans merged with Rome, their knowledge in metallurgy added to the prosperity of future Roman conquests.  The Etruscans built their cities at the top of hills and dug ditches all around like a moats. This offered great protection for those who lived above. The seven hills of Rome became strategic in this regard. They were also great engineers depicted by the bridges they built across the Tiber River. 
     While the patter of history continued, I took a look out the window to see that it was harvest time, and all the wheat was being rolled up into bales just like in the American mid -west.

       We had been driving for at least an hour and the history continued!  So by this time the Gauls had invaded Rome. It was 390 BC.  The Gauls occupied and sacked Rome looting what ever they could including any historical accounts of that period, that's why some of what we just learned may have been made up!  After the Gauls left to go back to what is now France, the humiliated Romans knew they had to build a stronger belt of walls all around the seven hills.  They called this barrier, the Servian Wall.  They then fortified and trained their army.  With its machine like army, they began to conquer settlements to the north, east, and south.  By 290 BC they controlled most of the Italian peninsula.  After these conquests they began building great Roman roads to unify all the conquered peoples and gave them all Roman citizenship. People flocked to Rome and with the abundance of people, the Romans built the first completely underground aqueduct to bring drinking water to Rome.
       Rome now wanted to expand to the island of Sicily, but it was under the influence of Carthage which was originally a Phoenecian port in north Africa what is not Tunisia.

Sicily is up for grabs! (Are these guys puny or what!)

         Rome had built a strong, disciplined army, but Rome needed to build ships in order to fight against Carthage across the Mediterranean Sea.  As soon as it was able to, it launched a series of wars called the Three Punic Wars that lasted a hundred years.

The Roman army was well disciplined!

        Carthage had a good navy because they were Phonecians and relied on trade.  They did not have much of an army and depended on mercenaries to fight its wars. They enlisted warriors from their conquered peoples so it was a mixed army of different languages and uniforms.   Its secret weapon was a huge battalion of war elephants. It is though that the Carthaginians used forest elephants from the forest of northern Africa which are now extinct. War elephants were widely used in wars in the Persia and India up to the Hellenic wars of Alexander the Great.  War elephants were new to European soil so, Hannibal the Carthagian commander, used war elephants to surprise the Romans in the second Punic War.  Though the forest elephants were smaller than Asian elephants they were still most impressive to fight against.  Men would stand in "houdahs" on top of the animal, and fire javelins and arrows from this height onto the troupes below.

Elephants transported the water on special barges.

Hannibal has a great vantage view on top of an elephant!

Throwing a javelin from the houdah.

      Hannibal led his army up the east coast of Iberia, crossed Pyrenees Mountains to  the Rhone River.  It took two days to ferry the elephants across the river.  To avoid the oncoming Roman troupes, Hannibal decided to cross through the alps and come down through norther Italy.  Hannibal made a serious mistake for his elephants did not survive the snowy conditions and almost all died.  The only known surviving elephant was known as "Suru" a Syrian war elephant.  Hannibal's troups were not able to penetrate the Roman wall ,but stayed for thirteen years in the valleys of Italy plundering the countrysides.

African elephants in the Alps!

         The Roman commanders decided they would strike Carthage to put an end to the war. The Romans sailed to Carthage to launch offensive on their soil.   By now they had ways to fight against elephant warfare.  When they Roman lines were attancked by charging elephants, they simply moved the lines separating to let the charging elephants go by.  Other times they would hurdle fire bombs to scare the elephants or attack them with carts filled with javalin spears.  In some cases the frightened animals ran behind their lines and crushed their own soldiers.
         

The well disciplined Roman army flanked away to let the elephants pass.

        Upon hearing that Carthage was being attacked, Hannibal was recalled to help save the city.  He left Italy with his own troupes and no elephants, but he was too late.  In this third Punic war  hundreds of soldiers died on both sides.  Rome came out the victor and won over Carthage adding North Africa, Sicily,  parts of Spain and the islands of Sardinia, and Corsica to its territory.
        At the end of the Punic wars, the war elephants were again brought to Europe by the Romans.  Julius Ceasar used them in his invasion of Britain in 43AD.  The war elephants gave the archers a great advantage being able to attack from the high position in the houdah.  Just the sight of the large beast must have been quite a frightful experience to the native people of Britain.
        After these wars  Rome flourished again with the abundance of workers.  Buildings were being erected such as the  Circus Flaminius, Roman Forum, great Basilicas.  These ancient Roman basilicas were great halls used for administration of justice and transaction of public and private business.  Also great buildings were built to store grain and other staple foods which made food abundant in the city.  To add drinking and bathing water, two new aqueducts were built: Aqua Marcia and Aqua Tepula.  Rome was the place to be.
     Dominance of the Mediterranean also brought supremacy in the East with the conquest of the kingdoms that were part of Alexander the Great's empire.  Contact with the east opened up new ideas in architecture.  The use of the arch transformed the square cut concept of the Greek style into concept of curves.  Using rare marbles from the East also embellished their architecture with marble columns.  Dull little houses made of wood were replaced by multi-storied brick buildings, palaces and temples.  Narrow winding streets made way for broad thoroughfares.

Julius Caesar

 
By the time Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, Rome's lands increased until they formed a vast empire that covered the major part of the ancient world.  It was hard to govern such a large area, however, and though Julius Caesar tried to do it by becoming a dictator, this wasn't the Roman way and he was assassinated.  The Senate tried to bring back the republic, but it could not and eventually Augustus rose to power.  Rome became the largest city in the Mediterranean with approximately 2 million people.

Augustus

       Augustus became the first urban planner.  It is said that he transformed Rome from a city of bricks to a city of marble.  He continued the expanding the city by building a larger Forum as well as restored many temples to the gods.  He also set up a police force and a fire department.  During Nero's rule there was a great fire that demolished much of Rome, but it was an excuse to build a stronger Rome by his followers.  In 69 AD the great Coliseum was built under Flavius.  The Baths of Caracalla and the Aurelian Walls were built later in the third century.
This was the height of Rome's glory and then it was down hill from there.
       Now we arrived at the outskirts of Rome.  We see by the ruins that it is left as it was without being rebuilt.  We will be able to see its greatness by the ruins that survived the ages.  These will give us a clue to what life was like in the first century when Rome ruled the known world.
       On the outside of Rome, we drove to a street in our modern age.  It was full of little cars and apartment buildings that are part of our world today.  Lines of electric wires lace the high barriers waiting for the street cars to come.

     As we continue into the center of town we now see some of the ruins left in the city.

Part of an acquaduct still stands

    After our driver parked our bus,  Renata gave us our walkie-talkies so that we will be well equipped to listen to our guide.  We were introduced to Angela our guide for the rest of our walking tour.  Renata was in charge of keeping us together and to make sure everyone was accounted for.

     Angela was introduced as an archaeologist with a PhD.  She spoke with a matter of fact kind of voice that implied, "Don't question me, as I know what I am talking about..."  So we humbly followed her to the Colosseum.

Colosseum designs with arches known as the Flavian Amphitheatre

 We followed Angela around the cobel stone street noticing the Roman writing still visible on parts of the walls.

 We had to watch our steps over the paved stones and bricks as Angela set a fast pace around to the front entrance.

As we came around the building we could see the construction of the arch with the key stone in the top center.  We also saw the holes all over the building. Angela said that they were holes made after vandals extracted iron that they used to make weapons or tools.

We came to the entrance handed our tickets and walked in with a multitude of tourist .

Angela pointed out that the arched roofs were covered to prevent loose stone from falling on tourists.

We stopped at the entrance wall where Angela explained to us the exact dimentions for assemembling the bricks.  The width size of the brick was measured by two fingers.  As can be seen they are all identical size throughout the wall.

She also pointed out that the space between the bricks on this particular wall was one finger in width.

Along the floor lay several examples of marble columns that must have looked impressive in ancient times.

A few more pillars pieces lay by another alcove.

Behind some restraining bars, we noticed some steps that lead to higher seats.  They were very steep and close together and absolutely no wheel chair access.

Angela used her lollipop to point out one of the pieces of iron that was used to hold the blocks together.

She also had us look at the arch and find the key stone in the center.  The building of arches was a result of going to the Middle East and observing Arabic buildings. This knowledge transformed Roman architecture in the early centuries AD.

Some tops of columns were saved to show he beauty of their construction.This is the top of a   Corinthian column.

The Italians are proud of the construction of their buildings.  The explanation is written in both English and Italian.

We finally step into the seating area and observe the viewing space below.

John poses inside the Colosseum

This level is for the privilege class and the Vestal Virgins sit.

Way up at the top is where the lower classes of people and the women sit.

     The Emperor Titus inaugurated the building of the Colosseum in 80 AD.  The construction took eight years.  The external architecture consisted of three storeys of arches (80 arches per storey).  The archways had Doric semi columns on the first floor, Ionic on the second floor and Corinthian on the third.  Thousands of blocks of travertine, 3,5000,000 cubic feet, were transported from the quarries at Tivoli for its construction.  An earthquake-proof construction technique was introduced by firmly joining the blocks securely together.  The technique consisted in placing iron clamps inside the stone blocks for a total weight of 300 tons of metal.  The housing for the clamps is visible in blocks knocked down by other devastation.  The holes on the outside and inside of the building were made during the Middle Ages in order to remove the metal clamps for other uses.

          The auditorium consisted of tiers of seats, which climbed from the oval of the arena up to the balconies.  It held 50.000 spectators. So many of the people could enter in a small amount of time thanks to 76 entryways, which were consecutively numbered.  People would bring their ticket to the door number stamped on their ticket which was then clipped.  Four main entryways did not have numbers.  These were reserved for the dignitaries.  Bathrooms and drinking fountains were also installed in various places in the ground level.  Thee were at least 50 drinking fountains along the circumference of the building.

        On special occasions a great awning  called a velarium would be lifted in place to protect spectators from the heat of the sun.  It was formed of several independent segments of colored linen canvas each of which slid along rings in order to be spread out or gathered up depending on the weather conditions.  Cords secured to segments to masts fixed in brackets placed inside the attic of the edifice.  The ropes were fastened to travertine blocks which circled the amphiteatre.  Sailors from the imperial fleet were the ones chosen to lift the  velarium.

Today looking at the colosseum you have to use your imagination to see how spectacular the events were for the people of Rome.  The main event were the gladiator spectacles that can be attributed to the Etruscans.  The spectacles were organized and regulated by the Leges Gladiatores.  To recruit combatants, the editor(game organizer) went to the owner (lanista) of the gladiator troops who were criminals condemned to death, slaves, and free men who wanted to get rich quickly.  Angela pointed to the barracks which were linked directly to the colosseum by an underground tunnel. There were sixteen types of gladiators:  Galli, Murlmillones, Oplomachi, Simnites, and the Secutores.  These fuought with  heavy equipment. the Thraeces fought with light arms, and the Retiarii fought with nets and tridents.  The Eques fought on horse back and were held in high esteem. The gladiators and their supporters gathered on the eve of combat for a great banquet (cena libra).

        Combat began with the sound of music.  The audience participated with bloodthirsty enthusiams.  There were two types of combat:  The sine missione in which one or both died. and the missio if one of the two contenders was felled or wounded, he laid down his sword and raised his index finger of his left hand in order to ask the sponsor for grace.  Angela showed us her thumb up to live, down to die.  She also said that two fingers across the neck would indicate death.

          Gladiators would also have to fight wild animals in the arena.  This type of combat took place in the morning.    It was very popular and gave rise to great enthusiasm in the Roman people because of the great variety of animals involved such as: lions, tigers, panthers, leopards, water buffalo, bears, even elephants.   the number of animals to hunt and kill grew with time and after the conquest of new territories.  Even exotic animals were added such as: crocodiles, hippos and rhinos from Egypt.
     The animals were kept below in cages.  When it was time for them to fight, they were goaded out of their cages and made to enter rudimentary lifts activated by counterweights.  Then they ran up into the open air by means of a wooden ramp where the gladiators or hunters were waiting. A strong wire net around the arena protected the spectators. 

The martyr of Christians in the Colosseum is still a matter of debate.  Despite of written testimony it is logical to assume that the martyrdom of Christians was also carried out.  As time went on when Christianity became the core of life in Rome plaques and crosses to commemorate martyrdon were placed in the Colosseum.
 

Painting by Jean Leon Gerome of Christian martyrs

Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the arena to the Christian martyrs in 1740

     After the sixth century AD spectacles ceased to be important.  By the tenth century the Colosseum became a condominium with apartment units rented and sold.  Some of the inhabitants were artisans, metal workers, cobblers, etc.  It also became a place for storage of goods.   In 1231 and in 1349 the Colosseum collapsed in two terrible earthquakes.  The marbles and travertine rock that had been demolished was carried away to built other buildings.  In the 14th century the hospital and Church of St Giacomo were put inside.  Under Pope Nicolas in 1451 wagon loads of material was confiscated to build St. Peter's Basilica and the walls around Rome.  The northern part was deliberately left intact in order to serve as a majestic backdrop for the passage of papal processions. The last act of vandalism was by the Nazis during the Second World War when they used the monument as an arms deposit. The Colosseum is now listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is listed as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
     We leave the Colosseum and follow Angela outside to the Arch of Contsantine, the Temple of Venus on the right and the Arch of Titus at the end of the street. 

We approach the Arch of Constanine decreed by the Senate and the People of Rome after the General's victory over the Emperor Maxentius in 312AD.  It is the largest preserved of the arches in Rome. 

The arch served as the finish line for the Marathon in the 1960 Olympics.  It is decorated with friezes on the side showing events from Hadrian, Trajan, and Aurelius periods of the history of Rome.

We then walked towards the Tiber River.

We continue to walk along the bridge heading for the Vatican.  We would take a break for lunch and the spend the rest of the afternoon at St. Peter's Basilica!

The Uffizi Gallery

        We were walking pretty fast following Francesca's map when we saw the Pinocchio display at a shop selling children's toys.  John could not resist putting his face in the Pinocchio puppet chair.  It cracked me up, and I had to take a picture!

The Uffizi is in a horseshoe pattern.

       We arrived at the Uffizi entrance in plenty of time and noticed the long line of people waiting to get in.   Since we still had time, we looked around at all the statues of famous people in the alcoves of the Uffizi.  It was like the Renaissance Hall of Fame!

Lorenzo de Magnificent - Art patron and power broker of the Medici family.

Giotto - First great modern painter, architect - designed the Duomo Bell Tower

Donatello - worked in bas-relief - sculptor, carved the statues in Bell Tower

Jean Battiste Alberti - Wrote On Painting mathematics of perspective

Leonardo Da Vinci - Scientist, engineer, musician, painter

Michelangelo - sculptor, painter, poet, architect

Dante - Father of Italian language, wrote Devine Comedy in Florentine dialect

Petrach - Father of humanism, Poet, sonnets became model for lyrical poetry

Boccaccio - Wrote Decameron  read widely during the bubonic plague

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Macchiavelli - Historian, politician, diplomat wrote The Prince  -  End justifies the means

Americo Vespucci - Rep. of Medici Bank, map maker, explorer, game name to the Americas

Galileo- Invented Telescope, established that Earth revolves around Sun, Discovered moons of Jupiter

        When the time came for our appointment, we entered and paid for out ticket. We had planned to use Rick Steve's download on our IPad, and it stated the tour on the 4th floor.  So we hiked up the steps to begin.  John usually does not like museums and would be just as happy to sit outside while I venture forth for a few hours taking it all in. On this trip however, we had gone through the Rick Steves' tour in a virtual state using the IPad and now we were ready to do it for real.  I was surprised when John took the IPad, and led on like "taking the Bull by the Horns!"

        I taught him some Italian words that would help us get by if we needed help:

               please - per favore    and  where  - dove (with the accent on the e)

       So off we went to start the tour of Medieval painting described by Rick as "medieval times when art was as flat as the world!"  The first room is filled with large paintings used as altar pieces.  Artist gravitated to the church which was the only place that would fund artist for their work.  Artist filled the alter pieces with many pictures of the life of Christ as a way of informing the non-literate people about the great events in the bible.  It was like a Power Point lecture when the priest would give a sermon, he would refer to an event by just pointing to the painting that would explain what happened.  Many of the paintings are almost generic, placing the subject in the middle and balanced on each side. The aim was symbolic rather than realistic. The face of the Madonna was plain and there are angels on both sides placed there like wall paper.  The Madonna is seen with a halo, and she  holds the baby Jesus in her left arm.  In this room there are three alter paintings that show a similar format but the third one by Giotto attempts a bit more perspective by placing the angels in the front of the pedestal and the prophets behind.  Mary is more realistic also showing the roundness of her breast and the folds of her tunic.

Madonna and Child by Duccio circa 1300

Madonna Enthroned by Cimabue circa 1300

 more of a Byzantine style

 

Madonna by Giotto 1310

       When we came to the next painting, we had to go to room three.  We looked around the room to find it.  We searched all around and found it on the other side of the room.  By then the recorded speech on the IPad had already passed knowledge of the picture. So we waited until we were directly in front of the painting and started where the information began.  Since we didn't want to use ear phones, we let the sound up as high as it would go, so we could both hear it.  By the end of the explanation, we had a group of people listening in.  They were all curious about the download, and we had to explain how they could get the app on their of IPhone.  This time we stopped the app so we would be ready for the next entry.

This Simone Martini painting is an example of teaching work depicting the angel informing Mary that she will become the mother of Christ. She doesn't seem too excited about the whole thing.  Though Mary does not have a halo, the symbolism of the dove as the Holy Spirit and a vase of lilies to show Mary's purity are all that is necessary.  This is enough to get the message across.

The Annunciation by Simone Martini  1333

     We looked at other paintings in the room all done in gold backgrounds with similar messages about the life of Christ.  We then were sent to the next room, and we had to remember to stop the audio while we looked at the painting on the IPad and tried to find the similar one on the wall.  When we finally found it we rejoiced and stood right in front being careful not to butt people out of the way.  Then we turned on the audio again.
       The Adoration of the Magi bu Gentile da Fabriamo was amazingly rich in detail.  The focus was off center, but balanced with the three Magi's in beautiful, rich, clothing in the center. Their retinue of horses and their support staff and finely dressed people follow to come and greet the baby Jesus born in a cow's stable.  This piece also attempts to bring three dimension with the background of the castle.  In the background we see the Magi's departure, some what in a time lapse sequence. The picture is busy with detail that lets your eye wander all around finding interesting living beings all about.  This is an example of the Gothic style popular in the 1400s with the aristocratic class. Notice also the decorative frame around the painting and how it adds to the richness of the painting.

Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano  in 1423

          We are directed to the next phase of our viewing by entering into the Early Renaissance paintings two doors down.  John spots a pretty docent sitting by the door and shows her the IPad picture of the next painting we are to see.

     "Per favore, dove this?" and he shows her the picture.  She answers in English, "Two doors down to your left."  OK ,so we go out of the room into the hall and look for the second door down.  On our way we see lots of students in the hall with paper and pencils all writing things into their note books as they look at statues and write things down from the plaques.  This group of students were all speaking French and comparing notes.

      We find the room and look for the large paintings of a battle scene. The 1400 graphic arts began to use the element of perspective to create more realism in pictures. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are drawn smaller in the background and foreshortening when an object is often not scaled evenly. This distortion for instance occurs when a circle often appears as an ellipse and a square can appear as a trapezoid when seen from a distance. In showing perspective there is usually a vanishing point on the horizon where ever that may be placed on the canvas. It is like looking at railroad tracks showing parallel lines coming together at a point on the horizon.

       Perspective was not a new concept for it was Euclid, the father of geometry, that introduced perspective in his writings of the Elements on 500 B.C. It was not until the resurgence of the Greek and Roman culture in the Renaissance that perspective in painting became more important as it defined realism more clearly.

       In Uccello's painting it looks like he was trying to achieve the notion of perspective, but it is obvious that he was not quite clear as to how to approach this element to give clarity to his painting.  For instance, he does not show a vanishing point and the spears are all pretty much the same size.  Some semblance of foreshortening is apparent with the sizes of horses, but some of the men and rabbits are much too large to seem far away.

Battle of San Romano by Uccello  in 1450

        After gazing at the battle field and looking at large rabbits, we were sent to the next room looking for the painting of the Virgin Mary by Fellipo Lippi.  John in full possession of the IPad sped along like someone on a treasure hunt. This is exactly how he would like to go to a museum.  As for me, I would have like to look at other paintings in the room to see if I could see any signs of perspective.

       We were in the hall again and noticed a whole row of students writing in their notebooks comparing notes.  This group sounded like they were from Germany!

Madonna and Child by Fellipo Lippi 1465

       This Madonna does not have a halo in this picture, but she does not need one because she is absolutely beautiful!  Beauty is a Renaissance concept and showing it in the Virgin Mary is the optimum of beauty.  Fra Fellipo was a friar who lived with a nun who bore him many children.  His quest in life was to find the most beautiful women that he could paint as the Virgin Mary.  Lovely ladies passed by his studio on a regular basis to sit as his subjects. His children in his paintings were also very cute!

        I had to keep up with John as he sped out the room once more,  looking for a painting by Pillaiuolo.  He disappeared into the next room and looked at all the walls and could not find it.  So John went back to find the cute docent and asked her.  She said that it was not on the wall, but behind a glass box in the center of the room.  So we went back and finally found this little painting that you could put on your bedside table.... well actually you would not want to wake up in the morning to see it starring you in the eye!

       It is a picture of Hercules attacking the Hydra from the labors of Hercules.

     

Hercules Attacking the Hydra by Antonio del Pillaiuolo 1475

Hercules and Anaeus By Antonio del Pollaiuolo 1475

       These paintings took us by surprise after seeing the lovely Virgin Mary.  What we were most impressed with was the paintings of the human bodies with all the anatomical muscles bulging out.  Rick Steves talked about the fact that the Catholic Church would not let artist or doctors dissect the human body. It was a desecration of the body, the temple of the soul.  But artist such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci. Pollaiuolo and others found ways to get cadavers and dissect them to learn how the muscles actually work and form the human body.
      Next we entered into the Botticeli room to see the flowering of the Florentine Renaissance. It was the year 1485 and life in Florence was full of optomism with a flourishing middle class. Society was primarily democratic and could speak about their ideas in public.  They were a secular society powered through trade and supported by a banking system that promoted business.  It was a republic that was not dependent on the church.  They looked to ideas from the Golden Age of Greece and the strength of ancient Rome.
     The leading figure in this society was Lorenzo de Medici the head of the largest banking house in Florence.  Their family made their money in textiles and now in banking. He was also an athlete, handsome, charismatic, intelligent and a  poet as well.  One of his favorite pastimes was to gather his friends together to discuss great ideas. These were the artists, writers, philosophers, architects and politicians of the day.  Among this group you would find Sandro Botticelli and a teenager by the name of Michelangelo that became part of his family.  They felt that they had the world in the palm of their hand.  They looked upon Beauty as part of God's creation and emphasizing it in every way became their aspiration.

Primavera by Botticelli circa 1478

       The focus for the Florentines was on Venus and the natural world.  Primavera by Botticelli takes us back to the age of the Golden Age of Greece and Rome.  The focus of this painting is the coming of Spring. The setting is a citrus grove.  The orange is a symbol of all that is good, and this setting makes this fragrant grove one of the gifts from God.  On the right we see the winds that bring the warm weather ushering in Flora sprouting blossoms as she throws petals and seeds. To the left are the thee graces and Mercury dancing. The graces may symbolize three kinds of love, Beauty, Love of People, and Sexual love, essential to propagation of man. In the center is Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love.  Just above her head is cupid getting ready to let his arrow fly.
       This is the Renaissance, Venus is in along side of Madonna.  Celebrating the naked body a form of glorifying the beauty of God's creation, things of the flesh are not looked upon as sin emphasizing the innocence and joy.

Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli

         As we moved over to the next painting, we see the Madonna again in the adoration of the Magi, but we are told that Botticelli placed some of his favorite friends in the picture!  Lorenzo the Magnificent is in the far left standing in a contraposto  stance and the fellow in the far right in the yellow robe is Botticelli himself!
       Now we were ready to see the most awesome Botticelli painting, The birth of Venus!  We had to work our way into the center so we could be right in front of the painting.  As usual we had to wait until a group of students wrote into their notebooks and then scurried off to find the next painting on their scavenger list. 
       The Greek myth tells us that Aphrodite was born from the sea and came to shore riding on a sea shell. Now I am sure she would be riding a surfboard! Her pose is the same as that of classical Greek statues with an "S" curve and one hand over the breast.  The use of the aquamarine pastel colors offers a soft and airy likeness with the wind blowing her lovely red hair and the flowers being blown by the wind gods as they float to the sea. The maid on the right unfurling the cloth adds to the flowing movement in the picture. Botticelli is proclaiming the beauty of the human body as an example of  God's creation on earth.

Birth of Venus by Botticelli circa 1485

        We scoot over to the next painting which again is in the same room.  It is a more somber scene showing that nothing last forever.  The economy was faltered and Lorenzo has died at a young age.  In this time of uncertainly in came the monk Savonarola.  He preached damnation to all those who idolized wealth and the pagan spirit of the Greek and Romans.  He prompted people to save their souls by getting rid of their wealth.  He presided over a huge bonfire in the Piazza della Signoria where people would throw their lovely clothes, books, paintings scultpuresl, and gold jewelry.  He wanted to have society return to the Dark Ages.
        In his painting, "Slander," Botticelli shows the stately arches of Renaissance architecture but beneath them are a common group of people that look like beggars and executioners who have taken the law into their own hands.  The spirit of truth in the far left seems to be looking up and exclaiming how could this be happening to humanity? Many Renaissance believers left and went north to other places in Europe and Florence was never the same.  Eventually, the Medici organized an insurrection and Savonarola met his due and was burned to death in his own bonfire.

Slander by Botticelli circa 1495

       We now were done with Botticelli and had to leave the room to find works by Leonardo da Vinci.  We went next door, and we were back to the Virgin Mary.  Leonardo was a true Rennaisanace man. He was an architect, scientist, engineer, musician, and painter.  He often worked on projects to satisfy himself so some of his projects never got done.  The Annunciation is complete as we see the stage being set for Mary as she sits in surprise while an angel appears and bows down to her.  Leonardo balances his painting using colors of brilliant red and royal blue of the clothing.  He also shows that he knows about perspective. If you look at the bricks on the side wall you can see that would converge at a focal point if extended to the horizon.  The realism depicted by this subtle point of perspective gives the painting a balance of form.

Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci 1475

        The Adoration of the Magi is an unfinished work by Leonardo.  If you look closely you will find that it is quite agitated.  He never finished this commissoned work and left it when he went to Milan.

              Along side was a painting by Leonardo's teacher, Verocchio.  Leonardo painted the angel in the far left when he was only fourteen.  It is said that when Verocchio found out that a kid painted and angel better he could, he never painted again!

  

Baptism of Christ by Verocchio

Wow we had finished all the pictures we had hoped to see on one side of the U building.  Walked onto the hall at the bottom of the U to see the sculptures of the Greek and Roman era.  These were the ones that gave inspiration to the Florentines.   The first sculpture was called Venus de Medici.  This was the model that gave form to Botticelli's Venus. Notice the S curve and the position of the arm.

Venus de Medici First century BC

The counterpart is Doryphorosmy by Polycleitos standing in a contraposto stance like the David.

Doryphorosmy by Polycleitos fist centruy BC

Apolino  circa first century BC

The next group of statues were from the Helenistic Greek era.  They show great emotion showing situations of great strife, longing, and anger.

       John was getting pretty tired and I thought he would simply say that we were done until he saw the pictures of Adam and Eve.  So we ventured forth into the second section of the Uffizi .

     When the Monk chased everyone out of Florence, many went north and their ideas were met with enthusiasm.  Adam and Eve are painted nude by painter Albert Durer.  He traveled to Venice and enjoyed the paintings displaying the muscular features of the human body.  He came home to his studio and painted his Adam with a muscular body and Eve with full breasts and round tummy in all innocence.

       The following painting is also done by a German named Lucas Cranach.  He paints his Adam and Eve in a more sultry fashion as Eve presents her apple with half closed eyes and Adam contemplates the offering stretching,  being very macho.

Adam and Eve by Albert Durer of Germany1507

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Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach 1528

        Another painting by the German artist Lucas Cranach was German Monk Martin Luther who was causing quite a rumble in his neck of the woods because he thought the Holy Roman Emperor was not living the "christian" life. He was the first "born again Christian" being excommunicated after accusing the Catholic Church of corruption. So he was on the run as a hunted outlaw.  He preached to the peasants and caused them to riot against the Holy Roman Empire.  To make the teachings of the bible known to Germans, he translated the holy book from Latin into German.  He also wrote hymns and held meetings with other reformists.  Cranach paints Luther in his forties which would be about retiring age then.  He settled down by donning the wardrobe of the common man, buying a house, and marrying a nun. 

Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1523

Katharina Von Bora , wife of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach

   

        Catherine von Boren was 26 years of age when she left the convent and chose him as a husband. In 1525 Martin, 46 and Katie 26 were married.  They had six children and adopted eleven more.  Martin turned over his paycheck to Katie who also ran the family farm.  They had loud gatherings of friends in their home discussing their favorite topic: the corruption of the Catholic Church. 

Hallway full of sculptures and frescoes on the ceiling.

       We were then led out to the sculpture gallery once again.  From the beginning Uffizi Gallery  housed many sculptured pieces from the Greek and Roman collection.  These sculptures were the most important objects to view in the eighteen and nineteenth century.  Young people would flock to the Uffizi Gallery to look upon these sculptures for inspiration.  European aristocrats made sure the coming to the Uffizi was part of the education of their children.  Today we see the same is true for all classes of people as the whole room is flooded with young people admiring the sculptures and writing important information in their notebooks.

         Entering  the first room on the other side of the gallery we see paintings by great artist of the high Renaissance.  The fist one that catches our eye is the round painting by Michelangelo.

The Holy Family by Michelangelo circa 1506

        This is a painting done by a sculptor with a brush.  Michelangelo set up three statues and put clothes on them.  In the background are nudes like the ones we just saw out in the hall representing the pagan life.  The Holy Family in the foreground represents the coming of Christianity.  Mary takes on a whole different pose in this painting.  She is seen like a hardworking mother showing a muscular arm as she turns to gather a rambunctious baby Jesus.   He places his figures in odd angles so you could see the tension of muscles and interesting body poses.  Michelangelo used brilliant colors in the folds of the clothing. Michelangelo left Florence and did most of his work in Rome called for by the Pope to help adorn the Vatican.  The Sistine Chapel is an example of the use of brilliant colors.

         We had to look for the next painting by Raphael. we searched everywhere and could not find it.  We asked one of the docents, and she said that it was downstairs on the first floor because it was going to be restored.  We were warned by Rich Steves that sometimes paintings are moved to different rooms.  So we took to the stairs to find the painting of Madonna of the Goldfinch.  We were told that all the Raphael paintings were not available as they were sent out for restoration.  So we just sat on the stairs and enjoyed Rick Steves commentary of how Raphael brought down the Virgin Mary to a garden setting by the woods.  The pose is arranged in a pyramid with the babies below and Mary at the top. There is also a sense of balance on both sides of the painting which is pleasing to the eye.  She is seen with baby Jesus and John the baptist as they play with a small goldfinch. It is a natural looking piece showing perspective with the mountain in the background.  He also used brilliant reds and blues in the foreground and soft pastel colors in background scene as a framework.

Madonna of the Goldfinch by Rafael circa 1506

        We still had two more paintings to go and time seemed to be running out.  Luckily our two last paintings were on the ground floor also getting ready to go for restoration.  The first one was another Madonna painting called  Madonna with the Long Neck by "Parmigianino" or the little one from Parma.  His real name was Francesco Mazzola.  He was known for being in the Mannerist school of painting.  These artist exaggerated their subjects by elongating parts of the body.  He shows his Madonna with a long swan like neck. Although her pose is like the Venus de Medici, her fingers are super long over her breast.  She holds the baby Jesus in a stylized lengthening pose. Parmigianino went beyond realism by giving his painting a sense that the baby is sliding down a satin robe as others look up the the Madonna.

Madonna with the Long Neck by Parmigianino circa 1540

          The last painting on our list is by a Venetian artist nick named "Titian".  His painting is called Venus of Urbano.  This painting did not reminded us of the two Venus' we saw as standing figures. This Venus looked like she was in a bordello.  She seemed more like a beautiful courtesan of the time when Venice was in the height of glory.  The Venetians took the pagan spirit of the Renaissance and followed it to a level of hedonism. Set on their own island paradise, the floating city had its own code of morals. The city state was ruled by the Doge or "duke"who ruled about ethical matters with his council of ten.  Courtesans were an important part of society and this model could very likely have been one of these ladies.

Venus of Urbino by Titian circa 1538

       We were done! I took the IPad quickly and closed it down.  We checked our watches and saw that we had time to take a leisurely walk back to the Piazza Santa Croce.  We set a good pace as we followed Francesca's map back to the square. When we got there, no one was around so we went into a gelato store and got two large gelatos.  As we licked contentedly, we read the writings of Georgio Vasari on the wall.  A rough translation goes like this: ...If you can live in your state of happiness, my house is here for your benefit....  The world has reclaimed this beautiful art for you to see....

    
         Vasari is known as the Father of Art History. He was the first to write autobiographies of great artist of the Renaissance in his book, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.  He himself was a mannerist artist who painted many works for the Medici family. He was also an architect who built the secret corridor and other great buildings.
     
       We waited until all were gathered and Francesca called out our names to make sure everyone was accounted for. Then we got on the bus and drove back to Livorno.  We were sad to leave all the history of the Florentine Renaissance behind.  We said good by to the lovely city of Florence.

John saying good-bye to Florence with a tear in  his eye....