Uffizi, 2022

April 28th we did the Uffizi, again. Art and art history have grown on us over the years, and the Uffizi has gone from obligatory tourist destination to highest-priority pilgrimage site. Holy ground. I have examined the posts listed below and commend them at least as light-hearted coverage of one of the greatest of art museums:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/uffizi-outtakes.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/uffizi.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/brancacci-chapel-2013-and-uffizi.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/uffizi-2017-reformation-works.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/uffizi-2017-botticelli.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/florence-uffizi-2017-renaissance-fun-1.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/florence-uffizi-2017-renaissance-fun-2.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/04/a-day-at-uffizi.html

As always, there are a few more items to post, some of which, I swear, we have not see before...

And in English too

"I said, bring us a shrubbery!"

In one of the Botticelli rooms

One of the many challenges of art photography...you get it framed,
focused, etc...and then...

In the cartography room, something we'd not seen before

Street scene

Imperial eye-roll

Wing-fitting gown on a Durer angel

Not happy with the scorpion on her forehead

Space available; your Renaissance paintings here

"You tell Him I said 'Mother of God' is fine, but I
want Queen of Heaven too!"

Weirdest St. John the Baptist yet; "gollum!
gollum!"

Never miss an Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun; 
she weathered the Revolution in the sunny south;
and other places; anywhere but France

Light-hearted Breughel-spawn Calvary, a copy
of Elder's famous Procession to Calvary, which
we'll see again, hopefully, this fall in Vienna 

"Thus always to body-shamers"

Interim Update #1,266: Another Removal!

Our time in Florence was up, wonderful as it was. Air Dolomiti and Lufthansa sped us north, via Munich, to Britland. For a night, we are holed up in an Ibis hotel at Heathcliffe. Didn't want to drive after dark in Kent, especially on the wrong side of the road and shifting left-handedly. But soon we'll be there, savoring the gardens. And spring, in Britland!

The lounge at Florence's Amerigo Vespucci airport was not well
stocked, at least by some standards, but, next to the battery of espresso
machines, it had just exactly the right ingredients for me, and for
my last few Negronis in Italy

The Ibis is right on the landing flight path for Heathcliffe; the 

soundproofing is amazing

Bargello, 2022

We went to the Bargello again, largely to see the "Donatello and the Renaissance" exhibit there. IMHO, it was largely a rearrangement of pieces already there with some added verbiage. Minor stuff from elsewhere. More of the exhibit was at the Palazzo Strozzi, a few blocks away, but by then we were too tired and unimpressed to visit. Besides, there was a long, long Renaissance staircase. In any case, the matter caused me to reflect that most of Donatello's work was either affixed to something else (a pulpit, a baptismal font, etc.), or too massive to move at all (e.g., the Gattmelata full-sized equestrian statue in Padua). So what was I expecting? 

Previous visits to the Bargello include https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/06/bargello.html and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/bargello-2013.html. But we still found a number of things worth noting.

The Bargello, formerly city hall, then police station, 
then jail, now one of Florence's great museums

Exhibit verbiage [click to enlarge]

Donatello's David Victorious; first full-scale nude
male sculpture since Classical times; still controversial

As Vicki noted, the face is that of a young man,
the body of a youth

Small model for a later version (from Berlin)

And another, unfinished, worked on by a disciple

Unusual dorsal view of Michaelangelo's tipsy
Bacchus

Michaelangelo's David/Apollo...unfinished because
the guy who commissioned it was beheaded for treason

The one new thing, to us, was the Dudley Madonna,
which normally resides in the V&A, a relief by Donatello,
which was the beginning of a genre...a genuinely tender
and touching representation

Thus

Disciple Desiderio de Settignano's version

Michaelangelo's version

Moving right along, a re-positioning of a fountain setting from
the Pitti Palace; the water squirts out from sorts of interesting
places

Nice pipe collection from the assorted knick-knack rooms

Holy fly-swatter

You don't believe me? Read the above...

Something very strange going on between Ledo and the Swan

Ognissanti, 2022

Our apartment was just a few blocks from one of our favorite churches, the Ognissanti (all saints), so we went there first, looking to see the Botticelli, Botticelli's burial, the Giotto crucifix, and most of all, Ghirlandaio's magnificent Last Supper, the one all the Renaissance biggies came to study. Of course, we'd been there before:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/ognissanti_16.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/ognissanti-2017.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/04/ognissanti.html

and you'll have to look at these to see the Last Supper, because, alas, the refectory where it is housed was closed, apparently for some time now, due to COVID staffing shortages. Major disappointment! But we did get to see a few of the other items of note.

Botticelli's St. Augustine

Ghirlandaio's St. Jerome

Botticelli burial (construction in the chapel)

Giotto Crucifix

Oh no!

Florence Apartment And Neighborhood

We arrived in Florence the afternoon of April 25th, made our way the couple blocks from the SM Novella station to our apartment on Via della Scala, and spent the balance of the day moving in and exploring the immediate neighborhood. Everything of interest to us on this visit is within a mile, so we'll be entirely on foot our eight days here.

Entrance to our building, which is in an inner part
of the complex

There are three external doors and locks to pass
through, the third of which warrants a movie, to
be posted someday

In the courtyard/parking lot; our entrance is the
wooden door on the far right

In the apartment, quite recently renovated and updated...the
sitting area

Dining, entertainment, etc.

Kitchen...all so far in a great room

View of the courtyard

Bedroom

Bath...all of it small but quite nice and very centrally located;
super quiet, air-conditioned, $100/night...not bad for central Florence

Via della Scala

The main nearby sight (and my favorite Florentine church), SM Novella

The entrance to its 13th century apothecary/perfumery two
blocks down on Via della Scala

Down the street and around a corner, an old
palazzo, the Pantheon of the Neoplatonic Academy;
the Italian Renaissance types, particularly the
Medicis, were into Neo-Platonism, a philosophy
I never could quite get a handle on; Machiavelli
lectured here too 

Despite some "new" buildings, it's a very
old neighborhood

A bit further down the street, the Orti Oricellari palazzo and 
gardens...similarly quite old, but open only by appointment,
so we'll probably not see