Leonardo in Milano

This semester one of the classes that am taking in totally dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci and is taught by a famous author and Art Historian Dr. Rab Hatfield. It is a small class that is not centered around memorizing art, like most beginning art history classes are, but instead it is an advanced class about opinions: Dr. Hatfield’s, art historians, authors and scholars, but most importantly your own. Which means no tests! Whoot whoot! But we do have two papers in which we critique two different authors and an hours worth of presentations on different pieces of Leonardo da Vinci’s art and ideas.

My Leonardo class took us to Milano (or Milan) this weekend! Leonardo spent a large amount of his time in Milan, from the late 1400’s to the early 1500’s, working for Ludovico Sfoza (the Duke of Milan at the time Leonardo). Although not everything we saw was a Leonardo original. He influenced many with the work that he did.

Friday morning and on the way to Milan we went to Parma and had some Parmesan Cheese, Yum! Then we headed to Milan. The time we spend in Parma and Milan all day Friday was totally dedicated to going in and out of churches and museums looking at the art and architecture in each. We saw the Santa Maria Presso San Satiro, San Maria Delle Grazie, Brera Museum, Amrosia Pinacoteca, Duomo of Milan, and the Castelle Sforzesco (none of which should really ring any bells because they are not super famous but sometimes the none super famous places are the best). I saw some of the most amazing art work from the late 1400’s that I have ever seen, well in person at least! Everything was covered in detail, the type of detail that we no longer give to the things that are made now a days. A machine could Never produce the type of intimacy and connection that we experienced walking into these churches. They are beautiful! And it made me so happy that they were all so well preserved. The funny spiky looking building in the picture was recently cleaned and looks amazing! It is the Duomo of Milan. The inside was of course very beautiful but I had a lot of fun going up on the roof. I think it may be one of the only churches that you can literally walk around on the roof. It was not a very clear day but the detail in the architecture on the top of the building was cool enough that a view was not necessary, haha.

I think the best part of the day was the painting we got to see in the afternoon… you may know it. It is called The Last Supper. Have you heard of it?! It is by Leonardo da Vinci and represents the last supper when Jesus announced one of the people at the table would betray him. The picture that you see, well its not the real thing, sorry to trick you like that but your not allowed to take pictures while you are in the air tight, temperature controlled, high security room that the Last Supper is in. When I say high security I mean it! We only got 15 minutes to look at the piece and before you get in they walk you through 3 separate rooms to temperature control you. It’s basically a no sneeze, no cough, no breath room. All because the actual painting is literally falling off the wall. Leonardo had to be all fancy and try a new technique when he painted it on the wall. Simply put, the paint he used did not let the wall breath so it built up mold and literally started to drip about 20 years after it was finished. So what we have left today is less than half of the original paint. But even in the terrible condition it is in, it is still one of the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen. I think my life as an art history nerd is that much closer to being complete: I have now seen Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and Leonardo’s Last Supper :)

Saturday was a lot of fun too. A bit of exploring Milan and lots of good food. We took a train home around 7 at night and were all very ready to be back in Florence, we were sooo tired! It was a long two days. On the bus ride to our houses Maggie and I were sharing a bag of chips. A little 3 year old girl sitting next to us told her mom in English. “I want chips, mommy.” And when that didn’t work she said, “Posso averde chips.” Italian for ‘can I have chips?” Maggie and I looked at each other shocked, this little girl was bi-lingual at age three! We ended up talking to her mom, who asked us to talk to her daughter, Sophie, in English. Sophie’s mom talks to her in Italian and she goes to an Italian pre-school. The family normally lives in Australia. It was incredible to see this litter girl totally surpassing Maggie and I in her Italian to her mother, and then talking to us about her stuffed bunny rabbit in perfect English! Little kids minds pick up languages so well.

Oh and just an observation: so far I think Rome has a very New York feel while Milan has more of a Los Angeles feel. Milan has a lot of people and cars, with wide streets and tall buildings but not right on top of each other. It’s not the ghetto of LA, but defiantly has the hustle and bustle feel. And the smog smell.

Love and Miss you all!