My Florence (5): The Town Seen from Above
One of the best places in Florence to take pictures is Piazzale Michelangelo: the view is incredible great, you just need a good camera (a big zoom is a must, this is why I had to set aside my D7000 with its 16-85 mm and take a point-and-shoot camera with a 15x optical zoom). The pictures were shoot in two sessions over two years (pictures 0, 1, 4, 5, and 7 were shot in May 2010, while pictures 2, 3, 6 and 8 were shot in February 2011). Enjoy!
A wonderful Florentine, general picture:
Below, a picture with Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo (The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore):
We cannot forget about the well-known bridges; in front of the below picture you can see the Ponte Vecchio:
Below, three pictures with the Duomo (The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore):
And of course here is Palazzo Vecchio, situated in Piazza della Signoria:
A general view of the great Basilica di Santa Croce (but there are also wonderful pictures with its façade, I will be back to this in another post):
Finally, no one can forget about the Great Synagogue of Florence:
Point & shoot camera (Nikon Coolpix L100) & photos worked in Gimp.
My Florence (4): Some Problems in Christian Art History
In Florence I have learned for the first time that angels are actually like normal people – that is, they are either men or women – well, they are of course men:
But this is not all. Even the sweet Lord Jesus has a penis – well, it’s for the first time in my life that I see something like this…
The picture above is from the Accademia di Belle Arti E Liceo Artistico, via Ricasoli, Florence, Italy. What follows is a close up:
And this is the whole picture:
Disclaimer: I am not trying to make fun of Christian religion. I am just asking how come some religious painters and the people that asked for such a picture thought that this image could really be a ‘normal’ one in the Christian art history… Or who knows, maybe there are some differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism that I am not aware of; however, the way I knew this was that angels (unlike saints) are asexual, spiritual beings. Moreover, representing the baby Jesus naked in an Orthodox Church would be a capital sin…
My Florence (3): Women’s Secret
I was saying in the last post that one of the problems I am struggling with in the case of statues from the Roman and Greek antiquity is that while men’s penises are extremely well represented, the depiction of women’s vulvae is strikingly missing: I was not able to find any such representation in Florence’s statues. Since breasts are of course very well represented, it is strange that at the imaginary level they are more important than the vulvae. If for the Roman and Greek imaginary man’s sexuality was represented by his penis, woman’s sexuality was represented by breasts but not by the vulva.
In some cases, the lack of depiction directly transforms itself in prohibition:
But this was the only case. In rest, the rule is ‘breasts are fine, vulvae are not’. Furthermore, the interesting thing is that there is no case of very big breasts: all the instances I was able to photo depicted quite small breasts:
Two different cases require special attention. The first shows woman’s sexuality as extremely important – but not through depicting the vulva, but on the contrary through multiplying the pair of breasts:
The second case is coming from our days, and shows that in order to emphasize the importance of a piece of cloth, sexuality is extremely important – but as in the Roman and Greek days, women’s sexuality is, again, represented only by breasts:
Point & shoot camera (Nikon Coolpix L100) & photos worked in Gimp.
My Florence (2): The Flags of Our Fathers
The second episode of My Florence is dedicated to The Flags of Our Fathers. Curiously indeed, most of Roman and Greek statues of men must undeniably show the wealth of flesh their models possess. However, there are four problems I am struggling with.
The first problem regards the fact that all the penises I could photo are flaccid, not a single one being erect. Of course, this is not necessarily true for all Italy, since in the ninth picture below you will see a postcard named ‘Piselii Italici’ where at least in four instances the penises are erect; however, I could find no such example in Florence. I would be very interested to know why: were the statues with erect penises destroyed under the Catholic Church’s orders, or simply Roman and Greek sculptors were just not interested in creating works with erect penises? If the latter, why?
Of course, colours and dimensions are different according to the model, the carver and his intention:
The second problem is that, as you can see in the fourth and fifth pictures, some penises are depicted in a very non-realistic, rather mythical manner: they are not only pierced, but their upper bodies are cut and resemble the body of an octopus… Both pictures are taken in the Piazza della Signoria, and the penises belong to two statues (satyrs?) from the Fountain of Neptune in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Interestingly enough, the pubic hair has also a remarkable variety of forms and dimensions:
Below, the first and fourth image belong to newer statues, made by contemporary artists; however, they are not that different from the original ones:
Below, the difference is not only in the specific, quite different form, but also in the artists’ choice of colour:
The colour and the material (stone, bronze, metal) are continuously changing. However, it is also interesting that the weight of the body introduces a very amusing stance (see the last/fourth picture below):
And of course, after a last example of an ancient work of art, we can pay attention to more contemporary items like postcards or pants – quite expensive and, to tell you the truth, not very… sexy!
The third problem is rather least interesting, but it says something about the way sexuality has been regarded and depicted over the centuries: very close to one of the bridges (Ponte allla Carraia), there is the statue of a person (probably Amerigo Vespucci from the 14th-15th centuries, but I’m not sure). Strangely enough, even when the depiction of penises was prohibited, the practice still remained, although in more hidden manners: the penis of the statue can be seen very well under the pants (last picture of this post)
Finally, the last problem is related to the depiction of women’s vulvae: I was not able to find any such representation in Florence’s statues. Since the breasts are of course very well represented, it is strange that at the imaginary level they are more important than the vulvae. If for the Roman and Greek imaginary man’s sexuality was represented by his penis, woman’s sexuality was represented by breasts but not by the vulva. I would really like to know why (the woman’s sexuality will be the subject of a special post, on Monday).
Point & shoot camera (Nikon Coolpix L100) & photos worked in Gimp.
Mangalica Festival
5th February 2012, the Mangalica Pig Festival (at -17 degrees Celsius). Budapest, Hungary
Budapest: rally’s portraits
I have decided to make a separate post for the portraits I shot at the pro-government rally on the 21st of January. Some faces tell a whole story. Below, a child doesn’t know anything about the European Union and the Orban government, but it is clearly impressed to see all those people in the street:
This guy was actually crying while singing a Hungarian song:
Budapest, Hungary, 21st of January 2012 (Hősök tere - Andrássy ut - Bajcsy-Zsilinszky - Báthory utca – Kossuth tér).
Budapest: Pro-government rally
After the anti-government rally on the 2nd of January, pro-Orban journalists from Magyar Nemzet organized a rally on the 21st of January. Organizers’ intention was not only to show the huge number of Orban’s supporters, but also to send a strong message to European and international institutions which lately increased their pressure on Hungary to reverse anti-democratic laws. Hundreds of buses brought around 400,000 people from all over the country (the information is taken from The Contrarian Hungarian, who is also offering an excellent text report on demonstrators’ claims and feelings; read also Andor Jakab’s report). People gathered at 4 PM at Hősök tere (Heroes Square); maybe not quite surprisingly, most of them were of an old age, exhibiting great deference towards medieval nationalist dresses and symbols. Here’s my photo report (click on photos to enlarge):
I’m not sure about how exactly protecting the Orban government is also protecting Europe, but people seem to think so:
Since the organizers are pro-governmental journalists, it is not hard to understand who are considered ‘responsible journalists’ and who are not so labelled:
The huge crowd (maybe the largest in the last decades) is marching on Andrássy Avenue, heading to Bajcsy-Zsilinszky. People are generally quiet, however some groups are singing and praying in a low voice.
The crowd is quietly marching on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky:
On Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, two anti-government activists are defying the crowd. However, the old people are already tired of walking, so beside some swearing and whistles nothings is heard:
Old women really care about their sovereignty:
The crowd is already on Báthory utca, heading to the Kossuth tér.
The below poster’s intention is to show that Hungarians have always supported individual freedoms, while Western powers are the real anti-democratic countries:
People want to show where they are coming from:
On Kossuth tér, in front of the Parliament’s building, the crowd is listening to two or three short speeches. They acclaim and cry ‘Viktor we are with you’:
Not everyone can get into the Kossuth square, so many stopped on Báthory utca.
Some claim there is no difference between the European Union and the Soviet Union:
They think that while in 1956 Hungary was attacked by tanks, now it is attacked by banks:
Now below is quite a strange claim, since Viktor Orban nationalized the pension system:
Candles for the heroes dead in the 1956 revolution against the Soviet occupation:
Wherever Europe and the world is going to, it seems Hungary is heading to the opposite direction:
The buses, previously parked in the huge parking lot close to Városliget (City Park), near Hősök tere (Heroes Square), are now on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky prepared to take the already tired old protesters back home. The rally was over around 6:30 PM.
Budapest, Hungary, 21st of January 2012 (Hősök tere - Andrássy ut - Bajcsy-Zsilinszky - Báthory utca – Kossuth tér).
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