My Host Mom

Since I'm going to be here a second year, I asked to live with a family to improve my Italian. It's Anna F. with her host kid from this year on the right Drew C. and her host "kid" for next year on the left.

Spring Break 2010 Wrap Up

After Ravenna was Padua to visit the Scrovegni Chapel. From the outside, again nothing much. The story is that Enrico Scrovegni's family were money lenders and therefore, not allowed into heaven. Enrico wanted to get his father into heaven so asked Giotto to paint him the most beautiful chapel in the world. Inside, it is. Painted between 1303 and 1305 it was a major break from Byzantine art and can be claimed as the first major work of the Renaissance. (Art History CHECK)

I LOVED Padua, for some reason it captured my imagination. I didn't get a picture of the huge elliptical park, but here is a war memorial to those Paduans who perished in a battle with modern day Ethiopian, a former Italian colony.

Padua is home to the huge University of Padua. It was founded in the 1200's as an alternative, more free-thinking institution than those more religiously based. A famous former faculty member? Galileo. These posters are posted around by the friends of graduates and are kind of "this is your life combined" combined with a roasting of the graduate.

St. Anthony, the great orator, was from Padua. Here's a totally Romanesque church in his honor. I do have to inform you all that his TONGUE and VOCAL CHORDS are preserved and on display. I saw them.

Next stop, Lyon

My former student and friend, Yalie K. met me there and we spent a BEAUTIFUL spring day walking around the city and having lunch at an outside cafe.

Yalie has been teaching English in a town called, Clermont-Ferrand, which is located in the Massif Central of France. This part of France is formerly volcanic and very mountainous. Pictured is "Puy de Dome", an extinct volcano right outside of town.

Yalie's cute house, in the small town of Royat in the hills outside of C-F.

The gothic church of C-F isn't dirty, it's just made out of the dark volcanic stone that is in great supply locally.

Jambs, archivolts, post, lintel, typinum (sp?), it's a gothic portal.

Yalie and I spent an afternoon watching the ASM Clermont rugby team play against Stade Francis of Paris. ASM has been to the Superbowl of French Rugby 10 times and lost all 10 times. Clermont lost this day, but I'm now an ASM supporter.

C-F is the home of Guided Light Rail. Notice it's a tram with only one rail. The advantage is that it can be on the track and THEN go off track and be driven like a bus.

Because it is like a bus, one can enter and exit on street level. But, there have been problems with snow and erratic movements when the driver has to steer off the rail when someone jaywalks across the rail line. Other small issues have arisen so Bombardier, the maker of GLT, has disbanded the project.

Clermont-Ferrand's biggest claim to fame? It's the home of Michelin tires.

The Michelin Man's official name is Bibendum, Latin for "let's drink".

Yalie and I took a trip to the Michelin museum.

I am a huge fan of Bibendum and now have his key chain!

Ravenna

For those who live in the Seattle area, Ravenna conjures up the beautiful tree-lined boulevard that runs north of the U-District. For the rest of the world, it's the site of the seat of the Western Byzantine Empire between 402-476 AD and is the location of some of the most beautiful mosaics in the world.

So from the outside, the Galla Placida Mausoleum exterior doesn't seem to be that interesting. It's got four cube like extensions covered in basic brick.

However, inside, it's is laid out in the shape of a cross and the cubes hide the barrel vaulted interior with beautiful early Christian mosaics. Here we have St. Lawrence burning in a spit fire.

Over the door, the mosaic shows Christ as the Good Shepherd. Note the lack of facial hair. Also note how the shepherds arm and staff form a cross. Christianity as a religion was becoming dominant at this point in the mid 5th century.

Next to the Galla Placidia is the Basilica of San Vitale. The church was financed by Julias Argentarius and constructed by Bishop of Ravenna Maxentius in tribute to the Emperor Justinian.

The apse of San Vitale with God sitting on a globe and the gift of the Basilica being given as a gift (to Justinian I think)

On the left wall is the famous panel (seen in Art History CHECK) with Justinian, Maxentius (who had the balls to have his name written above his head) and Argentarius between the two). The figures are in a V formation. Note the lack of bodily detail and the feet being splayed out. This is Byzantine art to the core in that realism is out and representation is in.

Opposite the Justinian mosaic is one dedicated and dominated by his wife, Theodora. Instead of the V shape of the Justinian mosaic, here the women are in a procession.

Above the left amubulatory is a scene of the sacrifice of Isaac. Note here the more classical bodies, we see skin and musculature. This is interesting directly in contrast to the Justinian mosaic which is placed next to it.

God and 14 apostles? No, it's still the 12 apostles, but the other two are Vitale's two sons.

I love the fact that the sign for the school for mosaic restoration in Ravenna is itself a mosaic.

The Arian baptistry (I got a 92% on an essay about this mosaic) with an iconography I can even read. Although what was more important in my essay was the discussion of Byzantine flat figures and the golden background.

The major Basilica's in Ravenna have a tower similar to this one. What's cool is the lower windows have one section moving to those on top having three.

Augustus, my man, what are you doing here. This statue was placed here during Roman times when the Ravenna area was known as Classe and Augustus had a significant port built here.

The apse mosaic at St. Apollinare in Classe. Note the clear presence of the cross as Christianity was clearly the religion by this time, the mid 6th century. The lambs represent the faithful of the leader, St. Apollinare. (Yup, another CHECK for Art History!)