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Florence Baptistery

The Florence Baptistery (aka Battistero di SanGiovanni) was built between 1059-1128. The baptistery is in the shape of an octagon because the number eight represents the six days of creation, the day of rest, and a day of re-creation through baptism. It is so special because of its three sets of bronze doors. The north and east doors were sculpted by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and the north one was done by Andrea Pisano. Andrea Pisano was recommended by Giotto to design the first set of doors on the south side in 1329. There are 28 tiles on these doors. The first 20 are about the life of John the Baptist and the other 8 show the 8 virtues ( hope, faith, charity, humility, fortitude, temperance, justice and prudence). In 1401, Lorenzo Ghiberti won a competition to design the north set of doors. It took him 21 years to complete these doors. The north doors had 28 panels too and the first 20 showed the life of Jesus and then the other 8 panels showed 4 saints (Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine). Then after completing those, the church offered for him to do the east set of doors in 1425. It took him 27 years to complete these set of doors. The east side had 10 panels and they showed the stories of Joseph from the Old Testament. These doors impacted the famous artist Michelangelo, and he described the east doors as the Gates of Paradise. The panels we see now are replicas because they wanted to preserve the original in 1990. The Baptistery has a mosaic ceiling that took a century to create. The upper zone of the dome has the hierarchy of angels painted on it, the Last Judgement on three parts of the dome,and the mosaic above the chapel. The Last Judgement shows Christ and angels with the instruments of the passion at each side, the saved leaving their tombs joyous, and then the punishments of the damned. The lower zones show stories from Genesis, Joseph, Mary and Christ, and John the Baptist. A lot of Florence renown elites were baptized there like Dante and the Medici family. During the 20th century excavations of the baptistery, it showed that there was a 1st century roman wall that ran through the piazza with the Baptistery. The baptistery could have been built on remains of a Roman guard tower. This connects to our course because we talked for a very long while about the doors of this Baptistery and who created it and who it impacted.

It matters today because it is just so full of history and beauty from the Renaissance and the time leading up to it. We study it and protect it because it influenced so many people of its time and still today. It was the art piece that always captured and sculpted the mind of Michelangelo. It is so important because it was such an important piece in getting us to the Renaissance.

I chose this place because when I walked in I couldn’t help but realize Jesus staring into my soul from the ceiling. I think that was definitely their point in making such a large Jesus and then you couldn’t help but see the scenes beside him. I take art classes and it shows how you need this strong focal point to pull you in and then everything around it needs movement and a good flow to keep you looking at it. That is exactly what this ceiling does. It pulls you in by the big Jesus looking down on you and then all the scenes that just glide together and tell so many stories.

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The Basilica of Santa Croce

The original structure is from 1212 when Saint Francis of Assisi visited Florence and chose this location to build a church. In 1294 Arnolfo di Cambio rebuilt Santa Croce for the Franciscan order. It is the largest Franciscan church in the world. To represent Saint Francis,the floorplan makes into his symbol: the Egyptian or Tau cross. What is so special about this basilica is that it is the burial place for the great and good in Florence. Michelangelo, Foscolo, Rossini, Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei are buried there. A memorial to Dante is there, but it is actually empty because he was exiled from Florence. This gained it the name the Temple of the Italian Glories. There are also paintings done by Giotto in the Bardi chapel and other chapels, which shows scenes of Saint Francis and Saint John. The Annunciation by Donatello is on the south nave wall. The wealthy families of Florence had chapels built and decorated in their family's honor and would then dedicate it to a saint of their choosing. There are sixteen family chapels. Some of the chapels are from the Medici, the Bardi, the Castellani, the Baroncelli, the Peruzzi, the Alberti, the Rinuccini and the Pazzi families. The Chapel of the Noviciate was built by Michelozzo around 1445 for Cosimo de Medici. It was and is a great place of art and a memorial of the greats in Florence, which they knew during their time and is why they wanted to be a part of it in any way they could. Honestly what connection does Santa Croce not have to our course? The connections are endless, from Saint Francis, the Franciscan order, Michelangelo, Giotto, the Medicis, the Pazzis, and all the way to the Baroncellis (their son stabbed and killed one of the Medicis).

My choice matters today because look at all the people that are buried there and all the people who contributed to building a whole bunch of the church. Humans like me go there to see the burial place of the great Michelangelo and Galileo. We want to go see all the beautiful work done by Giotto and Donatello specifically for this basilica. All of these things make it so important to us because it is one of the many homes of great art.

It matters to me because I almost didn’t even get to go to this place. Two of my friends and I just happened to meet someone on our last full free day in Florence who told us about this place. I would not have even known this place was here without meeting those people and getting to go in and just being amazed by its quietness and beauty. There were just a handful of people there and at the time my group and I had no idea how much this place would tie into our class. We were just in awe. I know I wish that I knew all of these things when I went there so we could have appreciated it more. I also wish it would have been required for all of us to go there because my group was the only one from our main group that went there. But now after these lessons, I’m so thankful for the day where we had no idea what to do and just happened to get to go here. I appreciate this place so much more.

From this picture you can see how happy we were to be at such an awesome place and me just looking at the beautiful green grass and wondering how many dead people were standing on top of (underneath us there was a whole hallway of tombs).

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Pompeii was created in the 8th century B.C. by Greek settlers. Pompeii was an independent town but Rome soon conquered it in the 2nd century B.C. It soon became a vacation attraction for the wealthy in Rome.It represented wealth. Pompeii became a town for the elite and one of the best resort places. It was full of all these lavishing homes that everyone of every social level wanted to be a part of. It was believed that there were 12,000 people living in Pompeii when the eruption happened and just as many in the surrounding region. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius happened in 79 A.D. and people from hundreds of miles could see the ash, rocks and gases from the blast. There was plenty of time for most of the Pompeiians to flee, but there were some who stayed. Those who stayed were greeted with a surge of superheated poison gas and lava pouring down the side of the volcano taking everything in its past. It took out about 2,000 Pomoeiieans and also 14,000 from surrounding islands. People tried to come back to recover things from their home but there wasn’t really anything left. It ties into our course cause Emperor Titus went out to Pompeii to be with all the people it affected. It made him one of the most liked emperors because it showed how much he cared about the people in his empire.

People didn’t go back to Pompeii until 1748 because they were looking for ancient artifacts. They were quite surprised to find underneath it all, the city was still almost just like how they had left it. All the human remains were still in the place that they had fallen and died. The excavation of Pompeii was actually the key in the neoClassical revival of the 18th century. The artifacts that were found showed the architectural trends from when the city was thriving. And they are still excavating it today and learning more and more about this lost city, and people are allowed to go there today and see the remains of the village and the people it left behind.

I chose Pompeii because when I went there, I was just in awe. I was hit by just a wave of sadness and it was so overwhelming. It’s the one time that I was completely silent somewhere. The whole time I just couldn’t get a word out because of the immense amount of emotions that I was feeling while I was there. To think of standing in a place where people who stayed and suffered and died, and to just know the amount of fear that they were in when they died.. It just broke my heart. I’ve heard about Pompeii all my life in class and just how much of a devastation that was and I could see how that kind of natural disaster could have helped the fall of Rome.

Also that is one of the dogs of Pompeii.. I named him Steve.

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The Colosseum’s construction started in 70 A.D. in Rome, Italy by Emperor Vespasian. The emperor wanted it to be the largest amphitheatre in the world to show how great Ancient Rome actually was. In 80 A.D. It was finally finished and opened by Vespasian’s son, Titus. Titus wanted it to be the place to come for all your entertainment needs, and for its grand opening he hosted 100 days of shows. One example of the shows that were put on is wild animal hunts that consisted of bears, bulls, cheetahs, crocodiles, lions, and tigers. Roman wanted to show just how powerful they were by having these hunts. They also had gladiatorial games and battles between charioteers, which the people loved because they were so fascinated by death. The Romans would also bring prisoners there to be executed in front of everyone so people would see why not to commit crimes.

Today the Colosseum is one of the most traveled to and well known places in the world. Historians are still learning so much about Roman culture back then from the Colosseum to this day. It shows them how they possibly lived and just how powerful and downright cruel they could be just to show people not to mess with them and their empire.

I chose the Colosseum because when I went there you could just feel the history just flow around you. I also could finally just see how ginormous this structure actually was and why people would have even come there back in the day just to see its beauty and its complexity. When I went there though, I was kind of saddened to think of all the people slaughtered there just for entertainment and it sent chills up my spine just thinking about it. But that’s what the history is for the Colosseum so it was still amazing to see and how even to this day it is still a staple to how powerful Rome was and the place that everyone still wants to go to.

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Cologne, Germany

This is the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne Germany. I honestly loved this place so much because the time of day that we went, the sun was shining so pretty through the pretty stain glass windows. It created this pink and purple light on the columns inside the Cathedral. I loved how small I felt when I walked in there because of how high the ceilings were in there. We also climbed all the way to the top of the tower and even though our legs were quaking from fatigue, it was well worth it.  From all the way up there, you could see all of Cologne and its interesting architecture.