Today was the most intriguing day of them all in my opinion. We went to the Galleria dell'Accademia. This is where the well known famous statue of David that Michelangelo created is- not the copies but the original one! The entire 17 feet tall statue. I was blown away-- every detail, every crease, wrinkle, defined part of the body is all there--Incredible. The diligence that it would take to create such a beautiful work of art is what intrigued me the most. It was much bigger in person than what I expected. Being able to see the proportions of David was the most mesmerizing of them all because when it comes to creating bodies of work in large scale sizes I tend to struggle- something may be too small, too big or not even. Creating an anatomy of bodies where you want it to look realistic can be a challenge. We couldn't take any pics inside but some people were still sneaking and taking pics anyway. After being mesmerized by David, we went to the Galleria degli Uffizi. My favorite piece was The 6 Virtues by Paillou. It really drew me in solely because of the fabric, yes something as small as the fabric caught my attention. There was series of 6 different paintings; each painting showed a female who basically portrayed each virtue. I can't quite remember each one but I will update it when I do. Each painting had similar poses but the each told a different story!- gave a different message. I fell in love with the fact that each type of fabric that the female wore you could tell just by the way that it was painted that it was a different texture- just by the way the wrinkles formed, fell and the way the shadows and highlights were captured. AMAZINGGGG... SILK, COTTON, VELVET, ETC. Capturing texture that distinctly in one series is extremely difficult but this artist, Paillou definitely succeeded. It was so recognizable and easy to differentiate it from the others. After literally staring at it for quite some time, I began to try and pick out this characteristic in detail I found in Paillou's in other artwork I came across the rest of the gallery. The Galleria degli Uffizi was sooooo B I G. It took us forever to find the exit. We didn't even finish looking at all of the artwork because we missed lunch looking at the artwork and lost track of time. After finally getting out, we grabbed a quick bit to eat and waited on the rest of the group and headed to an Art Store in Italy. I was so excited! Rumors say that the famous Michelangelo bought some of his materials he used to create his masterpieces from this exact Art Store. That's how long it has been in business. I bought a few things that I will keep forever. The rest of the night we just relaxed because it had been kind of a long day. I didn't take many pics today because every museum made us put our cameras away and the rest of the day was spent shopping, who needs a camera for that?
