Siena Museums

There were a few small museums in Siena that I went to.  The best was the museum in the Duomo.  The most memorable part of the museum was Duccio's Maesta.  There are two sides to it, and I'm posting various pictures, so you can get the entire scene and also see a bit of detail.

 My favorite scene from the above collection:

Also in Siena I went to the Pinocateca of Siena, where again I saw many cool things, most of which I can't remember at this point.  Here are two that are notable though, Madonna with Child and Saints by Guido da Siena and St. Lucy by Beccafumi:

Vatican

I wasn't uber impressed with the Vatican.  Well, I was awed by the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, of course, but it was kind of hard to appreciate because it was soooo crowded.  The line was insane to get inside as well.  The rest of the Vatican Museums was kind of boring.  And I did not like St. Peter's Basilica at all.  It is perhaps the only church building of any denomination that I have been in that I felt the Spirit leave as I walked in.  I have spent time in many duomos and cathedrals in Italy and even Paris, and I always felt a sense of reverence for God in them.  But definitely not in this one.

Michelangelo--Pieta, Sistine Chapel Ceiling 

Anubis

Djet-Mut

Queen Tuya

Sekhmet

Pitti Palace and Duomo of Firenzi

Another absolute favorite part of Florence was the Pitti Palace.  It is a must see for sure!  It had so much, from paintings to bedrooms set up as the Medici's would have had them, to the beautiful Boboli Gardens.  Loved it!

Here are the most notable of the paintings I saw:

Giorgione--Three Ages of Man

Lippi--Madonna and Child

Titan--Portrain of a Gentleman

Caravaggio--Sleeping Cupid

Sarto--Holy Family

Rubens--Four Philosophers

Also a lovely stop in Florence was the Duomo.  I adored Michellino's painting La Divina Commedia of course!

Uffizi and Accademia

When I blogged about my trip to London and Paris, I loved that I had pictures of my favorite paintings, and I wished that I had done that with other places I've been, because when all is said and done, I've seen a massive amount of famous art.  So I decided to try and remember my favorites from the places I've been, starting with the great Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy.

First my favorite painting of all time, The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci:

I also really loved the Botticelli paintings a lot more than I thought I would.  They are so impressive in person!  First is The Birth of Venus, and then Primavera

The rest are in no particular order:
Raphael--Madonna of the Goldfinch

 Durer--Adoration of the Magi

Titan--Venus of Urbino

Lippi--Madonna col Bambino e due Angeli

Sassoferrato--Madonna in Sorrow

Michelangelo--Doni Tondo

I also went to the Accademia while in Florence, and clearly the most important thing to see there was Michelangelo's David.

I was impressed by quite a few other sculptures while there, but I can't remember what they were.  Perhaps my favorite part of this museum though, was the section of musical instruments.  It was fantastic!!  I got to see the oldest piano in existence, created by Cristofori himself!  There was also an old Stradivari violin!  It was a beautiful part of the Accademia museum!