Laurentian Library

I woke up early today to sneak into Sara's class' tour of the Laurentian library, which was closed when I tried to go earlier in the semester but which is now open for an exhibition. It was impressive, more so since we had Sara's helpful TA giving us all the background on the design, construction, and its mannerist tendencies. The more I learn about Michelangelo the more I am fascinated by his genius and general weirdness. He didn't have any place for the library complex so he plopped it as a third story onto the existing monastery, and then built a staircase so massive that a similar one had never been constructed indoors. With a leftover space at the back, he was planning to create a triangular rare book room that was never completed. He also proposed to his papal patron the first ever skylights to illuminate the vestibule, but the pope nixed it on the grounds that it would take two monks working full time just to keep the windows clean.

The staircase was as elegant and different as I had ever seen in a book, but only standing there really brought across how compact the space is, compared to the impression given by this flow of oval steps. The reading room was also impressive, although with typical artistic disregard for practical use in favor of disegno, Michelangelo gave the poor monks practically no leg room in the desks. I could easily imagine Sean hunched over one of those desks with an old greek text in front of him, scribbling things furiously...what a monk he would have made back then!

I'm thrilled that I got the chance to see the library, one of those big things that is tucked away in a tiny Florentine corner. I feel like I've seen most of my favorite Michelangelo work now--the staircase, the Pieta, the Moses (albeit a copy), the Sistene ceiling--except for the David. How have I still not seen it, I know, I know...

Today is a beautiful day in Florence. Yesterday was pretty gross, and I'm grossly sick and sniffly, but Carla and I wandered in the rain, got gelato from Perche No? and wound up at Sara's studio, where she sized us for rings! Mine has a star, Carla's a moon, and both will say "primavera" because we were here in the spring.

Art is life is beautiful.