The Priest, My Professor

During our orientation he was described by the director as an excellent teacher, and a character. The director was right. Professor Verdon teaches “Women in Florentine Art,” an art history class focusing on the different roles which women have taken in the paintings and statues of Florence.

The first day he walked in with a kind, elderly face that has held up pretty well to age. He has a classic old man’s head – bald with white hair in a thick rim around the sides and wispy on top, and large round glasses perched in front of alert eyes. And he has added an additional, unusual detail to this image of your stereotypical old man – a white band tucked into his collar that marks him to the world as a man of God.

His voice is loud, carrying his inflective and expressive tones easily throughout the classroom to the thirty students seated, watching his slides flick by on the board. This impressive projective ability is essential, as half our classes take place outside of the Stanford Center and in front of the original pieces of artwork here in Florence. As a class we have gone through the Loggia del Bigalo, il Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, and the Uffizi, listening to him as he tells the historical importance and the intriguing characteristics about the fresco or the statue in front of us which defines an important aspect of the feminine as it was seen here in Florence.

It is quite an experience. In public places we always gather a scattering of intrigued listeners who subtly tag along in the back of the students, and as we walk through the museum our group slowly snowballs, picking up those around us. My favorite moment so far was in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, which houses the artwork of the Duomo which has been removed to that location for its preservation. We stood as a class, arrayed against the back wall, as Professor Verdon lectured about the statue of the enthroned Mary and baby Jesus before us. The statue was meant to be in the tympanum above the main door to the Duomo, according to the original façade design, which covered the front of the Duomo with statues. Verdon says this was to emphasize the physical body of Christ and therefore his humanity, which was popular in the religious beliefs of the day. The interesting aspect of this statue, as was immediately obvious, was that Mary’s eyes had been covered with glass which reflected the light and immediately drew our attention to them. The effect as we looked at it was literally a glassy-eyed and rather stupid looking Mary.

Verdon noted this unfortunate effect but then went on to explain that this statue was designed not to be seen at eye level in the bright lighting of a museum, rather as seated high above street level in the ever changing light of the sun. So, in order to replicate this original perspective as faithfully as possible, he said we should all lie down on the floor of the museum and look at Mary that way. After a second of glancing around to see if we were really going to do this the thirty of us, laughing, put down our bags and our notebooks and lay down on the floor of the museum. Verdon was definitely right. As he continued easily lecturing from his new position, his back on the hard floor, he explained how from this perspective Mary appeared to be looking off into the distance. Instead of seeming stupid and empty-headed, she now seemed visionary and intelligent. This unusual depiction of the intelligence of Mary and of women in general was common here in Florence in part due to the influence that this very statue had on artists of the city for more than a hundred years. Trying to take notes from my horizontal position on that cold floor, I was impressed by how striking this different effect was and how much it changed my perception of the statue.

I was also amused to watch the reactions of the other visitors to the museum. Some, who had been surreptitiously listening, looked around at all of us and then joined us on the floor to note the effect themselves. Others walked into the room to be surprised with some thirty five people lying on the floor of the museum and gave us, justifiably, very weird looks. I wonder what they think of us Americans now.

It was a great lesson. And so far, they have all been that good. I am loving the class.