Second day of classes: 2 more new classes (and another museum)

Yesterday I went to another museum, the Museo Diocesano. I did not enjoy this museum as much, and thus will not go into as much detail about it. I was unable to learn as much because this museum was only in Italian. This museum spanned from about the 1200s (with some stragglers) up until present time. The place was fairly big and not very well organized. Many times we would hit a dead end at the end of an exhibit and need to turn back, while other times we had 3 directions to go; 2 would be deads ends and one would continue, but with no indicators. We wandered a bit. Additionally, it was not sorted chronologically at all. We started at paintings from the 1700s (not pictured), went to a single installation of a man in the 1930s, then suddenly we were in the 1200s, and the hallway next door was the 2000s. The rooms were lit with spotlights, so it was hard to catch flat artworks without a glare. All in all, strange decisions were made.






1) From the church next to the museum, a lion protecting the entrance. There are tons of them around the city, and there was one in my Verona video, but I think they look interesting so I included another.
2) This was the art style of the artist from the 1930s. He scribbled, scratched, and crosshatched his depictions, adding just tiny splashes of colors. Certain ones looked very interesting. The component that was interesting to me was the subject matter: biblical stories. I'm starting to see that this is a very Italian and not very American subject matter. This is near to their hearts, most all Italians must grow up around these churches learning the stories. This one (you may have figured out) is of a young David playing his harp for King Saul.
3, 4) from the same collection as 2, I especially enjoyed the way the individual lines came together to make this mass of a man. I believe it was Elijah? I'm not sure. However more line work went into this than most of his other pieces.
5, 6) Obligatory illuminated manuscripts. Slightly less interesting than the ones found in the other museum, I believe these were in a giant songbook. The 6th pic shows how a medieval hymn might be written. These pages were very big, probably just under the size of a newspaper.
7) I thought this one was kinda funny, it caught my eye. From sometime in the 1600s I believe? That reminds me, this museum was also not a fan of putting dates on artwork. Many I had to guess. This is clearly renaissance or later, but it did not tell me dates. But look at those buff babies!
8, 9) A very cool, very large painting I want in my room. THIS ONE I'm pretty sure is from 1600s. It depicts an army of dead being reawakens by a female diety figure on the top right, and being commanded to sack a poor city. The skeletons are attacking with torches and lighting people on fire. Perhaps this is a depiction of Revelations, when the dead will rise? Is the female figure an angel of death, or a horseman? Your guess is as good as mine. The painting was the size of a wall.

Not quite as cool as the last one. This museum wasn't a city-funded museum, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

As for my classes: My first class today was visualization and layout design, run by Guido. He ended up being my professor who spoke English the best. He only asked about one word (flatness?) and paused for only short periods of time. He seemed more German than Italian, but what do I know. His name was Guido after all. This class is about drawing, but more specifically, I believe it will be about composition setup. We started off talking about a scene with two students talking in a courtyard. He asked about how the viewpoint can be altered to give off different 'emotions'. For example, bringing the viewpoint far far out away to show the whole empty courtyard would instill a sense of loneliness. Showing the viewpoint of watching the two from inside a window would give the sense that you are spying on a secret conversation, etc etc. His class was fun and I look forward to it next week. I have to draw two scenes creatively for homework: A job interview and a homeless man under a bridge.
My second class was Italian Design History with Massimo Matignoni. He was in my Verona video starring as our tour guide. He seems very, very knowledge about Italy and its culture. He has taken a liking to me after we talked several times on the Verona trip. I believe he knows me as the huge Beatles fan that wants to go to Liverpool. I'm glad to talk to him about my trips because he can offer me ideas of where to go specifically inside a city. He used a powerpoint to show us Italian Icons of art; that is, any product that is distinctly from Italy. A few different cars, plastic furniture, mopeds, and strange form-over-function furniture pieces were shown. He begged us for questions and clearly wanted a discussion in class. Hopefully discussion will soon pick up. Several times in class he commented on and asked me about the Beatles: pretty much any time something from the 60s was mentioned. "These chairs were shown in advertisements to reflect a laid-back, care-free lifestyle. Like the Beatles! You could listen to... ah, what's a good Beatles album Austin?... Sgt. Pepper? Haha yes! Listen to it in these chairs!" That sort of thing. He's cheery and knowledgeable (he writes books, and articles for Italian Vogue). Though drawing was more entertaining, Massimo is probably my favorite teacher.
Italian was like class on Monday. The teacher figured out that we had taken Italian previously and asked us about it (in full Italian of course). I originally thought she may speak English very well when she did, but now I am beginning to think she barely speaks it at all. She can comprehend it well enough, but she has avoiding English so much it is suspicious. What a mysterious individual.
That's all for now! Branding is tomorrow at 2pm (8am EST). I don't think it can top my classes today, which were much better than Monday. I just hope the professor can speak English.