Firenze!

Ciao!  Yesterday we made our first full day trip to Florence (Firenze)!  After traveling from Spoleto to Florence by bus, we first experienced the city from above at Piazzale Michelangelo.  Here we were able to see Florence’s most well known buildings including the Ponte Vecchio and Duomo.  From this overlook we could also see our two destinations for the day, the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella and the Museo di San Marco.  Once we took in the impressive view of the heart of Florence, we reconvened on the bus and made our way to Santa Maria Novella.

Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

While Mr. Muti led us on a tour through the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, he described the 13^th century church’s rich artistic history.  During our visit we saw beautiful examples of fresco artwork exemplifying Florence’s presence in the transitional period between Medieval and Renaissance art. 

 

Mr. Muti explains Masaccio's Holy Trinity

Next, we walked through the streets of Florence to the Museo di San Marco, a 15^th century monastery that exhibits the frescoes and paintings of Fra Angelico.  The monastery is renowned for its 43 cells in which frescoes painted by Fra Angelico depict religious symbols in the developing Renaissance style. 

One of Fra Angelico's decorated cells

After we completed our visit to the Museo di San Marco, we walked over to the Piazza del Duomo where students were given free time to eat lunch, to shop, to barter in Florence’s famous leather market, and to explore the city.

The Duomo

Not only did this excursion allow students to experience an Italian city other than Spoleto, but also it directly related to their Arts and Idea and Arts and Architecture courses.  As Mary Beth Immediata, Arts and Ideas teacher, summarizes: Students in Art and Ideas opened their study with a wide ranging discussion attempting to flesh out the beginning of an answer to the question "what is art?" on Sunday afternoon in the convent courtyard.  Monday in class they applied some of the criteria identified in that discussion and formulated their first aesthetic responses to Giotto's frescoes in an exercise that recreated their Saturday experience in the basilica of San Francesco.  Standing beside "their" frescoes students identified both form and content that spoke to them. Our Wednesday excursion to Florence gave them an additional opportunity to relate the selections from Alberti's 1436 "On Painting" and Leonardo's "Notebooks" to frescoes by Massaccio, Ghirlandaio and Filipino Lippi in Santa Maria Novella and by Fra Angelico in Convento San Marco.  In class Thursday students shared ways in which the readings had informed the change over time they had observed from Saturday to Wednesday of this first week.

Morning Arts and Ideas class

Afternoon Arts and Ideas class

A piu tardi!