Wednesday, March 15, 2017

On The Trail of A Great Master

Having experienced the thrill of analyzing the work of a great artist of the Florentine Renaissance during my research for Raphael, I ventured a bit further by trying to do the same for Botticelli. His work was overwhelming in numbers and although my initial inclination was to abandon the idea, I stayed with it, did a tremendous amount of research and still came to the conclusion that this was too much to accomplish. I tried to narrow the scope to just the work in the Uffizi, but that great museum had a tremendous number of Botticelli paintings. Then it struck me. Although most people who visit the Botticelli Rooms in the Uffizi gawk over the Birth of Venus and Primavera and rightly so, I have always been taken by the painting just to the right of Primavera, the Adoration of the Magi. In addition to its being a beautiful work, the historical significance of containing in it some of the great Florentines of the 15th century was overwhelming. After all no fewer than six Medicis were depicted, plus the donor, the humanists who created the Medici Academy, and none other than Botticelli himself. The latter being the only self portrait he did, and indeed the only existing "realistic" likeness of the great master himself. I therefore decided to first talk about the difficulty in creating a show around this theme, summarize the prodigious number of paintings that existed throughout the world, focus on my inability to visit a museum without finding a Botticelli quite by accident, give a biographical sketch of Botticelli, analyze a few of his work, and then finally to do an in-depth analysis of the Adoration and my own "theories" of who's who in this great work. What at first seemed impossible began to flow quickly once the plan was set in my mind.

The editing process held no great moments as I have become adept at correcting mistakes by cutting and pasting fresh voice-overs. Other than that nothing special occurred. My friend Ric suggested a desire to do a show soon about an obscure Ancient Roman site in Central Tuscany named Carsulae, which we will do soon. The advent of a ferocious snow storm with two feet of snow keeping everyone indoors helped to give me the time to get the show accomplished quickly. My next show will focus on the "perfect" tour of Venice, LOL, and that's that.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Driving in Italy Confidential: The True Story

Well, laboring through Ed's death, my own time constraints, and unending editing, I finally finished this show that I have been desiring to do since I started Alan's Italy back in 2011. Not wanting to focus too much on the traumas I experienced during driving, I spent about 1/3 of the show talking about my wonderful experiences traveling through Tuscany, Umbria, the Dolomites, Cinque Terre, and Lake Como. The show was so effective in helping me to remember the extraordinary moments Laura and I shared during some of these amazing car rides, that I am actually thinking seriously about renting a car and doing it all again!!!! OMG! I must be crazy; well, I know that's true anyway. The show focuses on three aspects of driving, some basics that everyone who will drive in Italy should be aware of, my own great moments, and a list of some of the strange and awful things that occurred. That's the gist of it.

I was slightly displeased with the final product. I videotaped several different segments, and apparently kept changing the camera angles, causing different visual perspectives, and changes in lighting. The latter was probably more caused by the fact that the taping took place over several hours during which time the lighting kept changing. Even during one segment the sun kept fading in and out, thus the disadvantages of not doing the show in a studio which is completely windowless and always the same camera angle. There is no happy medium, and I cannot have it both ways - either I do the show at home in my living room or in the studio. One way to solve the lighting difficulties would be to do all the videotaping at night when there would be no sun issues. Of course I have most of my time to do these shows in the afternoon; I would have to change that. I also was a little less than pleased with my manner of speaking. I liked the relaxed and easy manner of presenting in that chair for the 40 minutes total, but there is something I wish not to indicate because probably most people wouldn't pick up the problem unless I pointed it out; or perhaps they would.

Anyway, here it is, my total driving experience from 2003 until my last drive in 2014. I will now think seriously of renting once again and of course will keep you informed.