I guess I'll start with last Thursday. Art history classes here function a little bit differently because a lot of the artwork that we're learning about is actually located in Rome. On Tuesdays I have a lecture, and on Thursdays we have "excursions" where we go to museums and churches to view artwork on site. This particular day was special because we went to the Vatican museum & I got to see three of the most amazing works of art EVER.
1. Laocoon: my absolute favorite sculpture.
A little history: it was discovered in a man's back yard during the Renaissance and after they excavated it the Pope bought it. Michelangelo was actually there during the excavation.
2. The rooms of Raphael: amazing frescoes that cover the walls of the Popes quarters. The School of Athens is the most famous one. In the center is Plato and Aristotle and they're surrounded by poets, mathematicians, philosophers, and artists. The man in the center left is actually a portrait of Michelangelo. But it was so impressive! For some reason I had the idea that it just covered a small 5'x5' area, but the figures were almost life-sized.
3. The Sistine Chapel. AMAZING. It was so much information to take in at once, and I think I had a little bit of an advantage because I've studied it a lot so I knew what I was going to be looking at. I actually expected the space to be bigger and the ceiling higher, but it was still incredible nonetheless. My teacher told us that during the restoration he got to go up on the scaffolding and see the ceiling up close. That gave me goose bumps! Unfortunately you can't take pictures in the chapel, but they wouldn't really have done it any justice anyway.
The morning was a little bit of a sensory overload, I felt like I needed to decompress after. So we went to Old Bridge (the BEST gelato place and really close to the residence) and got gelato. :)
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