French & Italian Art Museums - May 2011

While visiting France and Italy in 2011 I was able to cross off several of my bucket list items. Our hotel in Paris was within walking distance of the Louvre Museum. We got there early and almost ran through the Porte des Lions entrance to find the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Davinci. It was protected and very small (2′ 6″ x 1′ 9″), and there was glass in front of her, so I couldn’t get a picture without my own reflection in it.

So much to see! Plan to spend several hours there. My daughter and I ran around the museum from room to room and were surprised by some of the works we encountered. Of course, we were using cameras then instead of cell phones.

Did you know that the iconic work (top left) by Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer is known as the Mona Lisa of the North? I used this graphic in my Vermeer lesson on the element of space, highlighting his painting "The Lacemaker".

My colleague who is the PTA's resident artist at the school where I volunteer taught my 5th-graders how to paint their own Mona Lisa. I enjoyed seeing how they drew her mouth as we all wonder, "Is she smiling?" But I digress. There was of course much more to see, and many of the works were huge floor-to-ceiling masterpieces. 

Except for driving a 5-speed in the roundabout on the Champs- Élysées near the Arc de Triomphe I loved Paris! If you could climb the steps to the top you could see the entire city. Windows in the Louvre also made for spectacular views of the city. Loved the Musée d’Orsay. Lots of art (100) by the Impressionists. We also visited the Palace of Versailles, Normandy, and Giverny, home of Monet’s gardens.

Rome, Italy was mostly about architecture and sculptures, statues, or monuments. It seems like we aren’t taught enough about 3-D sculpture, and therefore suffer from a lack of spatial reasoning.

Florence was my favorite since it is perhaps the international center of art. The Uffizi Gallery was amazing! Its halls were lined with statues and sculptures. At the Galleria dell'Accademia, you will find Michelangelo's David.

This is one of several bridges over the Arno River in Florence now, though not the famous Ponte Vecchio (the one with all the shops) which had been the only bridge until 1218.