I mentioned this last week, but considering it's my last month in Florence I've been getting really excited about taking advantages of opportunities. This is difficult sometimes, especially at this point in the semester because I'm so comfortable with my group of friends, my classes, and my apartment. After traveling to Beirut by myself, however, I find that I'm so much more determined to get out of the house and take advantage of the beautiful inspiration that's so easy to find in all of Italy. I'm realizing that this really is a gorgeous country filled with artistic inspiration - and not just because of the art in Florence.
The past two days I was able to go on another overnight field trip and had the chance to see the house Raphael grew up in as well as Piero Francesca's hometown. These are two artists who were incredibly influential to the Early and High Renaissance. I've also been able to see Leonardo Da Vinci's birthplace as well as the beauty that is Venetian landscapes. The reason why seeing all of these places was so impactful for me wasn't just because I was able to imagine young Raphael playing with the tool his father used to crush pigments - it was because you could distinctly see the influences their hometowns had on their art and consequently (due to their powerful influence as important artists) all of art history.
One example of this is that the reason why many of the churches we saw in Assisi were patterned pink and white (as my professor pointed out to us) is because so many of the rocks were colored pink and white along the mountainside of the city! Leonardo Da Vinci grew up with tremendous landscape outside his front door (as seen in the view from Leonardo's house to the right!) which explains his fascination with exploring landscapes in his paintings. This is all true of the colors in Venetian artwork and many of the paintings Raphael grew up seeing every day. All of this art history talk is to say - the past few months I've been able to visualize the way these artists took advantage of everything they saw in front of them. You can tell they truly engrossed themselves in everything around them and I find this to be incredibly inspiring.
In addition to the overnight I also ended up attending the Cinema de la Campagna film festival which had a series of contemporary art films. What was interesting about this was getting to see more of the Italian art culture in Florence. You can tell they take contemporary art very seriously in addition to the historic art that can be found throughout the city. Most of the films I saw were in English with Italian subtitles and the theater would be completely filled with people dressed very nicely! The films themselves were very interesting - for instance there was one called "Witkin and Witkin" about a famous pair of twins - one being a photographer and the other being a painter. There was another about seeds in Lebanon with absolutely beautiful footage of the country - and this of course hit very close to home after my recent trip.
All in all this week was such a wonderful reminder of the never ending opportunities for art in Italy and how important it is too appreciate that while I'm here!
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