Museo Dell'Opera Del Duomo, Battistero e Cripta (art history field trip)

This is Duccio's Maesta made for the Duomo. It was the high altar piece but is now in the Museo. We got to see it but I couldn't take pictures. The front is the virgin and child on throne. I don't even reach baby Jesus. Above the front there used to be the panels of the Virgin's life and on the bottom would have been the panels of Jesus' life. The panels were on another wall. The other picture used to be on the back and are all scenes from the Passion. Each of those tiny squares is about a foot or so. These were on the back for the priests and choir to view and contemplate, while the Virgin and saints on the front are simple and labeled for the average illiterate person of its time.

First more Practice Palio pictures

My friend has a really cool camera that was able to take this shot.

And back to our field trip, these are the pictures I was able to take inside.
Moses, these sculptures used to be on the facade of the Duomo but they were damaged by weather, taken down and replaced.
Duccio's stained glass window

Mary, moses' sister. Her gestures are over exaggerated so they appear normal to people from below.
Goblets used for the Eucharists
This is the skull of a pope from Siena. Creepy? Well they used to bring it out during ceremonies and put his hat back onto the skull.
Angels
Before the black plague they were expanding the Duomo but once it hit they ran out of resources and people with money to donate to the project. We were able to climb up into the part that they had started to build. These are the pictures from the top.





These are the stairs we had to climb up. It was extremely slippery and tiny and long.



Locked Tyson in the upper building
This is the tower to the top... so picture those tiiiiiiny slipery stairs...all the way up there. And when we wanted to go down we kept having to wait or climb back up because families were coming up. There was only one way up and down.


Saint Catherine is from Siena. One story of her is that she almost had a sinful thought and decided that she would rather die than have one. So she jumped out of this window.

She landed on the marble steps below and miraculously she lived, which proved to everyone that she was a Saint not a sinner. They marked the step she landed on with this cross.
The Baptistry. This black square under the image of the virgin marks where the main altar in the Duomo is. The Duomo is dedicated to the ascent of the Virgin into heaven. My teacher believes that this tunnel up into the Duomo may have been used in a religious theatrical ceremony where they pulled a woman dressed as the Virgin through this tunnel into the Duomo.








And that was the end of our field trip. We also got to see the crypts which had a bunch of relics in them. One of them had a huge gold jewelry box looking thing that had a glass crown onto with Saint Francesco's tooth inside! And under it was a vase with his other remains...

Very Indiana Jones, underground looking at relics. I was in my version of heaven.

Best day of my life so far

So today started off with class as usual. We got out at 12:15 and went straight to the campo where they were randomly selecting the horses to race. Only ten of the 17 contradas race and they were already picked out.

Each contrada walked into the campo singing loudly and proudly. The men in the costumes in front of the rest of the parade are the men who take care of and protect the horse that the contrada gets. Everyone in the contrada came up and kissed them on the mouth for good luck (for getting a good horse).
The horses are chosen and their numbers are put up on a chart. Then they randomly choose a contrada and a horse number. The three best horses were 2, 17, and 23. A man named Gordon was explaining everything that was happening and was patiently waiting to see if his contrada got a good horse as well (his contrada is the seashell).

We waited and waited. Finally we were down to the final three horses. The unicorn and seashell contrada had still not been assigned a horse, and the two fastest horses and a medium horse were left. Unfortunately the unicorn contrada got the medium horse, but Gordon's contrada got the best horse.
The flags of the ten contradas that are racing.
Corrie and I.
Gordon explaining everything to us.

When Gordon's contrada found out they had the best horse they all rushed up to kiss it then parade it back to their contrada. Gordon invited us to come with the parade, and Miguel and I joined him.
The parade back was crazy, people were extremely emotional. Everyone was hugging each other and a majority of them were crying with happiness. Everyone was singing the contrada song and cheering behind the horse.

We finally paraded all the way to their contrada fountain where the horse will stay. Everyone came up to bless it and touch it and praise it.
They even let me =)

Gordon then invited me to the celebration lunch with the rest of the contrada, I sat with him and his friends (aka me and the "old timers"). The woman all called me cute when I tried to speak Italian and they all told me stories about living in Siena and their families and the history of Siena (they are still extremely passionate about the war when siena LOST to florence ... in 1555...)

I then went home and Michelle and I walked around for two hours (that will be a different blog).

At 7 she and I and a group of other friends walked to the campo to see the first trial run. The Jockeys race the horses around to see how they do on turns etc.
When we were on our way to the campo we passed Gordon. He had been so happy to find someone who would ask him questions all day that he invited me to sit and watch the trial run from a balcony!










The owl's are the unicorn's enemy in Siena, and when our horse was being paraded back to the contrada one of them spat at it, so all the men from our contrada started throwing punches at them. Apparently fights are extremely common and the police let them fight it out if it is two enemy contradas.