This morning we toured the Accademia Gallery in Florence. I fell completely in love for the second time in my life with the same man -- The David. We had a guided tour of the museum with a charming women from Florence named Anna. Her passion for the art was completely contagious. We did brief preview of a couple of pieces but quickly got down to the reason for coming. Michelangelo's The David. It was every thing that I remembered it being from the last time I saw him circa 1970. He hadn't changed and of course I hadn't either! The sheer magnitude of this piece and the attention to detail are incredible. Even more amazing is the fact that the artist was in his 20s and allythe statue in only three years.(I stood there thinking how many pieces of paper I throw away trying to write one thing. Can't exactly do that with a chunk of marble!) He was created in the early 1500s -- now there's an older man I could really go for!
In the afternoon we toured the Uffizi Gallery again with a local woman whose passion enriched her knowledge of the wide variety of artists represented in this museum. The building was originally a palace for the Medici family. It now houses a wide collection of world famous artwork including the work of DaVinci, Botticelli, Carravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rembrandt. I don't think that 500 years from now anyone will have anything comparable to these pieces to view from American art. I think the most impressive piece here (but still a 2nd by far to The David was Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. One feature of interest was the portion of the museum that was originally built to be offices. It has been seen in numerous movies including A Room With A View. The decorated ceilings and walls were amazing.
Tomorrow we head to a tour of Tuscany!
