"the artist has one function--to affirm and glorify life."
- w. edward brown

Thursday, February 23, 2006

The first...

Ok, after a long enough delay, I finally figured out how to get a program that works that will easily hold my photos... the ones I have loaded already are ones Justin Jonker (my roommate on the trip and friend) took with his digital camera, though 'my' photos look very similar and should be coming soon... anyway, with no further ado, here are a few images of Italy to (hopefully) sustain you all for a while longer while I try to organize my trip into a narrative...



The coffered ceiling of the Pantheon... very cool to actually see in person...









Taylor and myself looking at an obelisk... there are numerous of these stolen from Egypt scattered throughout Rome... one of the biggest is in St. Peter's Square.








A Mosaic that was in the Vatican Museum of an early Christian (a very weathly one at that to have the mosaic made of her). There was a matching one of a gentleman who I assume was her husband since they wer done in the same size, style and bakcground... kinda cool to see all the tessera (the little tiles- some with real gold imbedded in them!) make up the larger portrait




"The Scraper" - considered to be 'the' ideal male form, perfect in all proportion... I believe that this is a Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze original. Not much of the oldest bronze statues survive, they were either melted down and turned into other statues, trinkets, or such, or turned into massive sculptures that are now in St. Peters (such as Bernini's canopy over the high altar)








The Fake David- after years in the plaza, the original David was moved to the Academy in Florence, inside away from things like pigeons and stupid tourists... cooincidently, now you have to purchase photos of the 'real' David as no photography is allowed in the Academy. Ironically, there are about a dozen other sculptures in this plaza, and the David is the only one that has been moved indoors; all the others are original and still outside!






Well, I hope this gives you a little bit of relief, knowing that I did indeed go to Italy and these things were actually seen by me and my group.
More to come!

3 comments:

B said...

Yeah! I'm so excited to finally see the pictures! You were really there! How cool is that? Can't wait to see more...

Katie said...

Very nice. You could put them all on Flickr and then just send us the address to go there instead of posting them all. Of course, then we miss the narative, so - bad idea.

MLE said...

Great taste to whet my appetite! Thanks for putting a few on. Bring more in two weeks when you come to my house!!