More of Wednesday

The Bottacin Museum -

So I think I said the third floor was the Bottacin Museum and contained Mr. Bottachin's collections of coins, sabers & such, and art work. He was a numismatist and I always knew they like coins and stamps, but not sabers.  But it shows he was well rounded I guess.  Anyway, the pictures sort of speak for themselves - the wood furniture pieces were beautiful and there were 3 I think like the one below - all different but all dressers with the white human figures going down the drawers.  On this first one I wondered if it was a drawer to sort of keep your clothing straight.  They all look like men somehow even though the top one has that thing on his head.  But that could be a night cap and maybe all the other ones sleeping gowns for him.

Below is a close up just of the center so you can decide what you think it's for.

I love the carving on this and the beautiful color of the wood.  Those round ball things are truly round ball things and how you carve something so truly round that small, I do not know.

And another whatever they're called.  Maybe they are pianofortes - just smaller than the ones that stood on legs.  Whatever they are they're beautiful and this one certainly is in better shape than the other I posted.

These waistcoats took me back to pictures I took of a bunch of them somewhere.  I feel like I was with Chris wherever it was...Sure is a morose looking gentleman in the portrait.

Pretty spectacular stitching!

These are Wedgewood from like the 1600's!

This was such a lovely statue - probably about 15" high or so and I'm sure it must be telling some type of story.  There's the rather stalwart woman and a younger girl playing I think with a dog who was actually carved with a kind of curly coat and then the man who looks like he's dressed either to go into battle or just got home from a battle.  Oh my gosh!  I just looked at it in original size and I'm pretty sure that's woman with a really weird hat on her head.  Anyway...

A portable desk on top of a regular desk...inlay, inlay, inlay

And I have no idea what any of this was, odds and ends I guess.  I'm pretty sure the 3 pieces in the back are probably ivory and the white pieces in the front could be too, but why are they in cases?

I just went and cropped the photo above so only the ivory was showing and the detail is just unbelievable especially the one that isn't in the case.  So this is a display or Oriental artistry.

More Oriental

Apparently he also liked watches and such...

And I have to say, I kind of wondered about him now and then as I saw some parts of his collection, including the one article of clothing in the whole museum.

Then there was jewelry - this first one which was a stunner was made in 1948  and the two below were made I think in the 1960's.  Very radical, I would assume.

And then came all these precious baby statues.  Whoever the artists were they really captured the delight of a child.

This little girl really tickled me such a sort of devilish look on her face.

I figured out that these are statues of the four seasons - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and here they are bigger so you can see I decided that's what they were.

I posted this painting to see if Chris will identify the subject matter.

And I found this painting delightful.  She looks like such a flirty young miss...

The next two are pictures of the very long wall that curves around some of the area where the Capella Scrovegni is.

THIS is the Capella degli Scrovegni.  I was glad that Chris pointed out that the picture I had posted as being the Capella was in fact the Eremitani Church with a monastery attached that you can see in the photo below with the strange but nice statuary in the grounds. The monastery is now the Eremitani Civic Museum. and that's where we go next.  This little chapel reminds me of the early, simpler churches in America.  But not once you get inside! 

I really loved these mosaic floors - they are so large and I wonder if they maybe are still working on them because in the blank spaces you can see the pattern etched into whatever the black stuff is that they've put on the floor.  If any of my petitpointers group sees them, don't you think they's make interesting rug patterns?

Below is the side of the Eremitini Church

And a portion of the elaborate wood ceiling.

The now plain brick walls except for a few frescoe scraps here and there.  I feel like at some point they may have painted these bands just to have some decorative effect.

An essentially complete frescoe on one side of the altar area.  The opposite wall is completely bare.

I don't know who these people might be - disciples maybe?  I hate being so vague on everything but not one single thing (except that sign I copied) told anything about what you were seeing in English.

So it's almost 11:00 so I think I'll end this and post it.  That still leaves the pictures from the Scrovegni Chapel but that shouldn't take too long.  I sure wish they had had an English version of the book I saw a woman looking at while we were waiting to get in because it looked like they described what was happening in each of the 84(!) frescoes and the symbolism in them, but apparently it was decided that English speaking people would have no interest in that.  Made me a little bit angry but then Padua did not impress me as a "lets try and attract tourists" type city and maybe they have the right idea.  Florence is SO full of tourists now - all year round.  But I'll still love it when I get there. :)

Buona sera!