Getting Back My Soul: Voyaging to Parma and Florence

This week has been spectacular, but also incredibly stressful.

It started out like any other - school and classes every day - but, on Wednesday, I had the first of three tests for my Italian 101 final. If I didn't pass it, I would not make it into my Italian 102 class (in case you were wondering, I did, in fact, make it - I got the news today). I had a presentation on my family and hometown, a written exam, and then a final oral presentation on a piece of artwork by Correggio in Parma, the Camera di San Paolo - in front of my Italian professor, my art history professor, my art history class, the Advanced Italian class, and the artwork itself.

It was a little stressful.

Despite my stress, I woke up on Friday morning eager to see what Parma had to offer. We took an early train with our whole class to the city, which stopped along the way at several cities (including Modena, home of balsamic vinegar). Once we arrived at the station, our art history professor turned to us all and said that we would start the morning the Italian way - with coffee and a brioche - before we began presenting.

I'm pretty sure we all cheered.

We walked into a small cafe and ordered, sitting down and relaxing momentarily before we began the morning. Then, leaving the cafe, we walked to the Camera di San Paolo, but not before stopping before the former palazzo of the Farnese and learning a little more about the history of Parma.

Parma has always been an important city because it falls in an area making it ideal as a capital. During the time of Paul III (who commissioned The Last Judgement from Michelangelo), the city was taken from its independent spot in Italian politics and brought into the Papal states. Paul III granted the area to his family, the Farnese, who promptly began to build a palace in the city. It was never completed - mainly because the male line died out and the family was replaced with the nearest male heir, Charles Bourbon, the King of Naples (and a Frenchman). Napoleon later plundered through the area, actually planning on taking the Camera di San Paolo with him to a prepared room in Paris, but before he could remove it, he fell from power.

So, with that in mind, we went to go see Correggio's great work.

The room is part of a series of rooms commissioned by Giovanna da Piacenza, the abbess of the Benedictine order who lived there. The sisters were all noble women, well educated, and acted as such. They weren't forced to live in their habits every day until after the Council of Trent took place, so their appearance was very much that of any noblewoman of the Renaissance. Unlike other noblewomen, however, they were cloistered, meaning that they could never have contact with the outside world. The abbess commissioned a new set of rooms for her use, and the first of these was painted by an artist named Alessandro Araldi, a Renaissance painter heavily influenced by the work he witnessed in Milan and Rome. However, the second commission went to Correggio, who painted a brilliant green ceiling filled with lunettes, putti, and mythical allegories.

Camera di San Paolo, Correggio

The room was lost to the art world until its rediscovery in 1774 by Anton Raphael Mengs, a German artist and art historian at the end of the Baroque era (but if he was asked, he would say he was Neoclassical) who studied Correggio's use of chiaroscuro - a technique perfected by Caravaggio that balances light and dark. With Mengs' discovery, the popularity of Correggio soared - in fact, of any artist, it is probably Correggio who had the most influence on the Baroque movement.

The room is inspired by scenes and stories from Greek and Roman mythology. Diana adorns the fireplace, not only because she is a chaste goddess (and chastity is a vow of the Benedictine order), but because she is the goddess of the moon, and crescent moons were in the crest of Giovanna da Piacenza. The putti, or little angelic figures who line the second row of figures, all hold symbols of Diana - hunting dogs, weaponry, even a stag's head (from her interaction with Acteon). The lunettes around the room are more difficult to decipher, but the first two walls (the North wall, with the fireplace, and the East wall) have been decided upon, for the most part, based on the iconography available. The other images are unknown.

Camera di San Paolo, Correggio

After presenting on the Camera, we went across the street to the Teatro Farnese, where we listened to the Advanced class present on the history of the theatre. The Teatro was built by the Farnese as a display of their wealth and power, and was the site of horse parades and mock naval battles. It is also built on a sloping stage model, so the further up the stage we walked, the more angled the boards were - allowing for the audience to see every action on the stage. It was the first time that I had been on a stage built that way, and so I was incredibly excited to see what it was like.

Center stage, Teatro Farnese

From the Teatro Farnese, we left for a quick lunch break, and then headed to the Piazza del Duomo, where we met up with our classmates and professors again to discuss more Correggio. We visited first the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, where Correggio painted a lunette of St. John the Evangelist, the dome of the church, and an image of the coronation of the Virgin (which is now a copy). The dome contains an image of the Ascension of Christ, with all of the Apostles watching in awe. In the bottom, from a certain angle, you can see St. John peeking up - whether we're seeing his vision at Patmos or he is viewing the Ascension, art historians are not sure.

San Giovanni Evangelista

Our next stop was intended to be the Duomo of Parma, but our professor told us that, unfortunately, the Mass schedules had changed, and we would not be able to go in as a group and see the Assumption of the Virgin that Correggio had painted on the dome. We could, however, sneak in and wander towards it, if we wanted. We walked into the church, but Mass was going on - and being said by the Cardinal, no less. Instead of trying to see the dome (which you can't, unless you're right under the altar), I turned around and left. We met up outside of the Church (but not before I picked up a small vial of violet perfume, which Parma is known for). We then headed to our final church, Santa Maria della Steccata.

Piazza del Duomo (l-r: Diocesan building, Cattedrale di Parma, baptistry)

Unfortunately, we managed to all walk in in the middle of Mass at the church. We waited until Mass was over, and then walked to the front, where a painting by Parmigianino - his last - is over the altar. It portrays the story of the wise virgins and the foolish ones. Once we left, we were free to do whatever we wished and catch whatever train we wanted. A couple of my friends and I tried to go back and see the dome in the cathedral again, but there was a group of people doing an evening rosary, so we had to leave again. We grabbed some gelato on the way to the train station, and then they left for Bologna while I waited for a train to Florence.

Santa Maria della Steccata

Once I made it into Florence, I met up with my mother and grandfather, who had come to visit me for the weekend and the one after. We walked back to our hotel (actually a convent) from the station, and then I collapsed in bed.

We woke up early the next morning, for our visit to the Galleria dell'Accademia. The Accademia, among other things, is home to many priceless works of art by Michelangelo, including his most famous: The David. Because we arrived so early, there was no one there, and I was able to take photographs all the way down the gallery with no tour groups in front of me.

David, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Galleria dell'Accademia

The David is really quite striking in person - photographs don't do it justice. There's a pensive anger to his gaze that has always spoken to me. It's as if Michelangelo captured the quite strength of someone who knows exactly what it is that he has to do, and who knows that he is justified in doing it. There is a regality to this David that is not in any of the others of the period, and I think that it comes from Michelangelo's focus on the expression and not on the stance.

David, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Galleria dell'Accademia

Also in the Accademia are Michelangelo's unfinished Slaves for Julius II's tomb, his incomplete St. Matthew for the Duomo of Florence, and an incomplete Pieta that may or may not have been done by Michelangelo. We also had the chance to see the plaster cast for The Rape of the Sabine Women and, in the adjacent Music Museum, a Stradivarius owned by the Medici family. It was a pretty exciting morning.

The Rape of the Sabine Women, Giambologna, Galleria dell'Accademia

After the Accademia, we wandered down towards Piazza della Signorina, and looked for a cafe to kill time until we could enter the Uffizi. After some coffee and a snack, we walked into the doors of the Uffizi and began our tour of Italian Renaissance art. Almost every famous work you can think of is in this museum - Botticelli's Primavera and Birth of Venus, Leonardo's Annunciation, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, works by Paulo Uccello, Filippo Lippi, and Giotto line the walls. Classical statues fill the hallways. Caravaggios and Titians fill the lower rooms. It's an art lover's paradise.

After the Uffizi, we walked to a small local restaurant that my grandfather had visited on his first visit to Florence with my mother and ate dinner, then walking to Grom, a gelateria near the Duomo, for gelato. We returned to our hotel and crashed into bed.

The next morning, we woke up for Mass at the Duomo, and then walked to the Bargello. All museums run by the Italian State are free for the first Sunday of the month, and we took full advantage, visiting two. The Bargello houses Michelangelo's Bacchus along with both of Donatello's Davids and his St. George. Every room is chock full of items that showcase the history of Europe.

David, Donatello, Museo del Bargello

After the Bargello, we made our way across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti, where the Medici under Cosimo I and, later, Napoleon's sister Pauline Bonaparte and her husband lived. The royal apartments (the real draw) were closed for the day, but we did get the chance to wander through the Palatine gallery, where Raphaels are placed next to Titians, Tintorettos, and Boticellis in one of the most jaw-dropping family art collections in Europe. Apparently, the Medici also collected the portraits of European royalty, because I saw members of almost every single European royal family on the walls of the Palatine gallery, casually looking back at me as if to ask why I was in their presence in a t-shirt and leggings.

After the Palatine, we made our way up to the Boboli Gardens, built on the hills behind the palace. It offers stunning views of both the palace and the city, and also houses a collection of feral cats. We saw one of the cats while we were there, but it just kind of stared at us all, before disappearing into the bushes.

Florence from the Boboli Gardens

After a quick lunch, we made our way to the Brancacci Chapel. Painted by Masolino, Masaccio, and Fra Filippo Lippi, the church was damaged by fire and some of the works within it were lost. The Brancacci Chapel, however, was not. It remains as striking as it was to those who first viewed it - and also less heavily trafficked by tourists, because it is across the Arno in a local church. Its frescos also influenced the work of Michelangelo, who practiced his drawing skills by copying the figures in the Tribute Money.

Tribute Money, Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel

We returned to our hotel, and then ventured out for dinner by the Church of San Lorenzo, at a place that I had visited with my family on our trip to Italy. After an enjoyable dinner, we went back to the hotel, exhausted.

The next day, we walked to Santa Croce, to buy leather goods from the Scuola behind the church. We also walked across the city to Santa Maria Novella to look at their perfume shop. After eating lunch, we stopped back at the hotel, picked up our belongings, and walked to the train station, so I could return to Bologna and my family could head towards Rome.

Most of what I was thinking about while in Florence was the E.M. Forster novel A Room with a View. So many of the places I visited were ones that played crucial roles in the story (Santa Croce - although I didn't have or need a Baedeker; Piazza della Signorina; the Arno; the city itself). There is a quote from the novel that quite summed up how I feel about this trip to Italy, and that I think sums up what I'm hoping for from this journey:

"Italy was offering her the most priceless of all possessions - her own soul."