Gate of Paradise…

Statues sort of freak me out a bit-I must say Italy has helped me appreciate statues more. I know I could stare at the David for an hour and I am amazed at the detail and the strength that glares through the art. He is a hotty!

Florence has a piazza of nothing but statues-each one with interesting stories.

There’s Bacchus-the Roman god of wine which was Michelangelo’s first major work-you can find him in the courtyard of the city’s town hall-the Bargello.

The rape of the Sabine Women is bizarre-I wonder what possessed Giambologna to carve that? You can find it in the Loggia in Piazza della Signoria.

The Grand Duke Cosimo I stands proudly in the courtyard of the same Piazza-he was ruler of all of Tuscany at one time-I guess that alone deserves a statue…Another Grand Duke..that of Ferdinando I has his own statue in San Marco’s Piazza Della Santissima Annunziata ( a block from the Accademia)-he also stands on a horse and is surrounded by monkey statues that totally freaked me and the kid out…they just don’t seem to belong??

The “copy” of David is in that Piazza-the “real” David was getting all wet and destroyed and moved in 1873-although this one is not near as grand it will do if you don’t have time to stand in line for the real one in the Accademia right down the street.

Of course there is also Neptune-This Roman God of the sea can be found in the same piazza or in the Biboli Gardens…the one in the piazza is HUGE and he is surrounded by lovley sea nymphs. Why wouldn’t he be?

My favorite is Perseus-also in the Loggia-This bronze statue reminds me of all the great lessons I learned taking Latin from Mr Hamlet. This statue has Perseus holding Medusa’s head and was to warn enemies of Florence of their fate if they messed with Cosimo 1! I love the story that Cellini, the artist , about burnt his house down while stoking the fire while sculpting…

But I really love one carving that is not a statue at all-it’s the East Doors of the Baptistry. Known as the Door of Miracles, Michelangelo dubbed it the Doors to Paradise. Carved from 1424 to 1452 by Lorenzo Ghiberti. He actually had won the commission to do all the doors in 1401 to commemorate Florence’s deliverance from the plague. He won over 7 artists and his work has been called some of the first of Renaissance style.

I love that the door’s panels tell a different story from the Bible. From Adam and Eve, to Moses, to the Fall of J and even Joseph’s tale…it is lovely. It is impossible to get a picture without people in front-if you are lucky you might can listen in on a guide giving more details about the story of the doors. The original panels are now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo but the ones hanging are stunning.

A new one I finally found this last trip was the bronze boar in the Mercato Nuovo-this fountain called Il Porcellino is a copy of the same you can find in the Uffizi but this one has a superstition that if you rub his snout you will return to Florence again someday…so I did!