#ouinarezzo

[drewraderplc]

19 May - Michelangelo Had My Jaw on the Floor(ence)

The sculptures and pieces of art we had the privilege of seeing today were ones for the books.  They took my appreciation of art to a whole new level. We focused on the masterpieces of Michelangelo today, one of the very first modern artists.  He sculpted his most famous piece during a span of three years from 1501 to 1504, which was David.  This massive structure sculpted from one enormous piece of marble.  Many unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo surrounded this incredible piece that honestly blew my mind.  Kirk went into the anatomy of the muscles of David as well as his blood flow to his hands and things of that nature.  It was very intriguing the amount of knowledge Kirk had on this topic (but when is that not the case).  

As you can see in my artsy-ish photo taken this afternoon, it is a very prominent figure in the Acedemmia of Italy.  The hallway filled with sculptures ends with the masterpiece of David who, in my opinion, is standing victorious on a field of battle.  Kirk had very good reasons to believe that this pose was sculpted to display David as he sees Goliath across the battlefield, but even though his diaphragm is sucked in he still seems to be in a relaxed state, which conveys a since of a hard fought battle.  The lighting in this display was nothing short of perfect.  The sunlight on a quite sunny day was adequate to shine a gentle light on the magnificent figure.

We also visited the Uffizi, which is a museum started way back by the Medici family in the 16th century. which was amazing as well.  the paintings inside were done by artists like Giotto, Da Vinci, and Raphael.  Our tour guide gave us great examples of how artists like Giotto had apprentices who took after his style with certain ways to paint fingers and ways to show perspective. 

I wish we would have been with Kirk during the explanation of The Birth of Venus because of his vast knowledge of the history of it and why certain things were painted how they were.  Our tour guide basically just gave us a quick summary of the characters and what their names were, not really why it was painted.  Kirk seemed a little upset that we didn’t go deeper into the subject of why it was painted.  The painting was done by Botticelli and was very amazing in itself.  This was one of the most valued paintings in the museum and was covered by glass.  I had seen this before when I would go to written competitions in junior high and take humanities tests.  I remember studying Botticelli and seeing The Birth of Venus as one of his most important.

Tomorrow we have our first exam of the course.  I am unsure as to what to expect but I’m sure I have enough material to make a great essay.  We finally get our tour of Arezzo in the morning which I will write about tomorrow as we spend our last day in this incredible place.  It has been my favorite place so far and it will be tough to leave, but Rome and Sienna will be up to par I’m sure.

Best,

Drew Rader

[drewraderplc]

18 May - Art in the Flesh

So, today was extremely tiring.  Florence is such a bustling town of commerce and culture, covered in tourists, and (maybe just today) extremely hot.  This past weekend, which I didn’t blog during if you hadn’t notice, was a couple of free days that consisted of a great hike in Stia, Italy, and a brief look around the quaint town of Cortona.  I have a ton of pictures that I could post in this blog from those experiences but I don’t think this wifi will allow it, so I’ll have to share them later!  

The main reason today was so great was because of the actual pieces of artwork we had the privilege to see in person as opposed to just mentioning and hearing stories about them.  Yes, today we entered the Duomo of Florence which is arguably the most fascinating piece of architecture I have seen in my life, and also the Basilica di Santa Croce, which is also beautiful in its own way. one of the greatest parts of the Duomo was the facade.  Beautifully decorated and sculpted, the time and effort put into this place is jaw dropping to say the least.  Our tour guide on this section of the tour, Daniella, was extremely knowledgeable on the dates and sculptors of each door on the baptistry and on the structures individually which was just cool to see.  

What I mainly focused on today was the history Kirk had to tell us about the Renaissance culture in this beautiful city.  The importance and expression of individualism is an important aspect of this era and it was clearly shown in what we saw today.  Kirk shared with us the history of a clash between the two major political parties in the early 1200s: The Ghibellines and the Guelfs.  The Guelfs, or the “Party of Merchants,” shifted the power into their own hands because of the strong merchant presence in the Florentine population.  Slowly but surely, the Guelfs would edge out the Ghibellines almost completely.  The Ghibelline party would continue on to die in Arezzo.  Because of the division of the ideology in the city of Florence almost 25% of the population never went across town.  However, after the Guelfs finally take over, the party unifies the city with one tax, one currency, one people.

One of the churches we got to see today but not go inside was a church believed to be founded by the great Charlemagne.  Kirk enlightened us, however, that this legend is mainly believed by the locals even though it was considered not true soon after.  The theme of this era was death because of the very high death rate.  50% of children would pass away between the ages of 1 and 5.  These children were buried under the ground of the piazza in front of the church as it was believed that the closer you were buried to a church related structure, the more likely you would be given the opportunity to go to heaven being unbaptized.  I think this is a little crazy and believe that maybe this was just a slight superstitious way of thinking on the peoples’ part.

Today we also went into the work of Giotto, who would begin to inspire the western world of artists with his work.  We got to see his painting in a cathedral that was much more simple than the others but exemplified the Proving of the Cross at the front like many Francescan churches around Italy.

I realize today’s thoughts were a bit short and that might be partly because I’m not able to post any pictures tonight due to the awful wifi.  It seems to have gotten even worse, which I didn’t think possible.  We return to Florence for more touring tomorrow and we have our midterm on Wednesday.  I’ll be sure to take some great notes but also try to get some pictures on here if I can.  Excited to see what the rest of the trip has in store!

Best,

Drew Rader

[drewraderplc]

12 May - Italian Art & Governmental Contrast

For our first class session here in Arezzo, Kirk Ducleaux, our art historian/professor here at the OU campus in Italy predominantly touched on the appreciation of art.  It seems he was asking us along a trail of ideas concerning the concept of art and helping us realize how modern our take on art is because of how we are socialized back home in America.  One of the obvious displays of our modernity was the way we questioned art in general; we asked why the artist did this or who did he do it for and what is the meaning behind the image? Kirk explained how this process of questioning the art would be absolutely unheard of during the Italian renaissance.  I feel he’s right about this because, first of all, I trust his judgment being the art genius that he appears to be, but also because it seems that in that time of “rebirth” it wasn’t just art for art’s sake but each piece contained a certain interpretation as opposed to our modern view of everyone having the privilege to interpret it personally.

“The essence of being a great leader is creativity.” - Kirk Ducleaux

Creativity was polled as the number one answer when 60 CEOs were asked what the main attribute is that they look for when choosing a person to fill a leadership role.  Honestly, if I were to guess, I would’ve said attributes like confidence, wisdom, or maybe even honesty would be near or at the top.  Creativity in my opinion seems a bit childish at first -- then you think about it.  The software industry, inventors, scientists, engineers; these professions are just a few that rely heavily on a sense of creativity.  People who have unique ideas that stand out from the crowd like making something more efficient or finding a more interesting way of doing things are coveted by companies around the globe because with such a fast-paced society, that’s what we need.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is someone that Kirk admires in a very serious way.  One of the first modern artists, Michelangelo was a man of great variation in his style and a very famous artist even today.  However, his use of art isn’t the only one by a long shot.  Today we went into categories like Political Critic art, Anti-War Demonstration, and Art as Communication.  Many students spoke on the importance of the way not only the artist communicates what the goal of the art was but also how we as viewers communicate what we see.  The many perspectives of a single piece of art are definitely a modern take on viewing the beauty.

Dr. David Ray, the Dean of the Honors College at OU in Norman, spoke to us this afternoon about the similarities and differences between the vastly different United States Government and the Italian Government.  Dr. Ray’s portion of the course focuses on the idea of “Activism.”  This non-governmental change in society portrays routine politicians as artisans and activists as artists.  Mateo Renzi, the current Prime Minister of Italy, is quite young to be at such a high position in the government but Dr. Ray seems to be quite interested in him as a person and a government official.

One of the main points we discussed in this section of class focused on self-centeredness.  Dr. Ray touched on the general idea that the practice of being completely self-centered in everything you do is universally considered the “wrong” way to live.  The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer, one of the books we read to prepare for the course, talks about how the right way to live involves giving to others in a very generous way.  As this isn’t a post about the book, I just wanted to touch on how that specific part related to the discussion today.  Dr. Ray also related the self-centered way of living to the economy in the U.S.

“The U.S. economy seems to work in a way that says: ‘Pursuing self-interest will produce the greatest results for the greatest numbers.’” -Dean David Ray

While this may sound like a great plan for the higher-ups, to me it seems like a plan that pretty much says, “This is probably the best we can do, so let’s just stick with that.”  I’m extremely excited to go deeper into this discussion about how the government works here in Italy compared to in the states because I’ve always wanted to learn about different ways of running a country: the processes, the outcomes, etc.

Other than class, today was absolutely gorgeous.  After a quick lunch at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place, Parker, Jack and I explored the northeastern side of Arezzo and got quite a few great pictures.  The scavenger hunt was pretty short but we got to see some great architecture in the plazas and fountains.  Dinner was at, as Kirk claims, “the best restaurant in town.”  With a three course meal to end the evening, he might be right.  I’m excited to see how tomorrow plays out because we are having the opportunity to meet with an activist group to see what it’s really like to fight for a self-motivated cause in such a governmentally different place.  Hopefully all of my blogs won’t be this long, but I appreciate the read!

Best,

Drew Rader

[uofoklahoma]

The famous Italian Frecce Tricolori flying high to kick off "Italy Week" in Norman! Be sure to check out @ouinarezzo for more Italy Week activities! Boomerissimo Soonerissimo! #boomersooner #ouinarezzo #italy