Sarah had originally planned to go on the Carrara trip with me, but in the end she decided that she needed to get some work done before her class spill session the following Monday. So I left our apartment around 7 to get to the Piazza Savonarola in front of Syracuse by 7:30. There I met Sean, Luke, Clark, Prof. Hatfield, and about 50 undies. We boarded our bus and were off, probably leaving a few stragglers behind. Actually, a few of the students on our bus were supposed to be going on another trip to Assisi but they just missed their bus and got on our's instead.
We actually went first to Pietrasanta, a town on the coast about 7 miles southeast of Carrara. It has a thriving art community, as it has since the time of the Renaissance. It, as well as Carrara, have always been important for their marble quarries. More on that later.
Pietrasanta is a pretty small town. When we got there it quickly became obvious that they have access to marble. There were quite a few marble sculptures and facades around the main piazza. Their Duomo, the Cathedral of St. Martin, has a marble facade and a lot of marble on the inside. The bell tower was also supposed to be covered in marble but they probably ran out of money somewhere along the way. So it kind of looks like the front of San Lorenzo in Florence, which was also intended to be covered in marble.
Here are two of the marble statues around town. The lion in the background is important because it shows that this area was once under Florentine rule.
Here you can see John ___ lecturing to the class. I forget his last name. He lives in town and is a sculptor and instructor. He is from Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England. I'm sure that you all remember Huddersfield Town F.C. as the team that Herbert Chapman managed (winning two league titles and an FA Cup in the 1920's) before moving on to manage Arsenal (where he also won two league titles and an FA Cup). Anyway, you can also see Prof. Hatfield just behind John ___.
The interior of the Duomo.
More of same.
The Columbian artist Fernando Botero also lives in town and he painted two works for a smaller church down the road. Here is his depiction of heaven. You can see Mother Theresa (kind of) in the bottom left corner.
And here is his depiction of hell. Note Hitler popping his head up. That skeleton is not fat. It is big-boned.
Here is an artistic portal at the end of a row of shops and two undies that got in my way.
We walked around to an artists' workshop where sculptors, bronze workers, and mosaicists were in action. The computer is telling me that I spelled mosaicist incorrectly, but I'll be damned if that's not the proper way. Anyway, here are some lovely piles of scrap marble. We were allowed to take little pieces that were too small to be made into anything. I couldn't pass that up! So now I have a random piece of marble sitting around the apartment.
Here are some of the random finished products that were sitting around the yard.
An earthquake opens the ground between Clark's feet but he can't be bothered while telling a story.
John show's us how it's done. We all got a chance to sculpt a work of art. I made a squiggly line.
Here are some of the materials that will be used in a mosaic. There were people just sitting around putting little scenes together. I couldn't tell if they were all working on the same piece or on separate works.
Here is one of the almost finished products. We were told that it was going to Florida. We assumed that it would be installed in a McDonald's.
We also got a little lesson in bronze working, then left the shops. We had a little time for lunch before moving on to Carrara. I had lunch in a little pizza shop with Prof. Hatfield, John ___, Clark, Sean, and Luke. To be continued on the road to Carrara.
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