M12 Photo Safari

I am taking a journey through time and Europe to see some of the greatest works of art, architecture and inventions of the Renaissance and where they are currently being held. We will travel to some of the centers of the Renaissance such as: Florence, Italy, and Paris, France.

Da Vinci's robotic knight was never actually built by da Vinci. But in 2002, it was built by NASA scientists off of the original blueprints drawn by da Vinci himself. The design techniques were incorporated into NASA's robots. The knight can move both arms independently, it can lift it's visor, wave and walk.

Michelangelo's The Last Judgement was painted on the altar wall in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. One of his rivals named Cesena was but in the painting as the evil king Minos, judge of the underworld, he also gave him donkey ears which indicates foolishness. 

 The statue of David by Donatello was built in the 1440s, was the first unsupported bronze casting of the Renaissance. Because the statue was commissioned by the Medici, they thought that they could try and hoard the then symbol of Florence and put it in the courtyard of their palace. This caused a feud and the Medici were banished from Florence.

The Florence Cathedral was built by the genius of Brunelleschi with the sponsorship of the Medici family dynasty. The Medici hoped that building this would help to continue their legacy. He used a technique derived from the Pantheon, the building of a dome of that size had not been attempted since the Roman Empire and the recipe for concrete had been lost for generations.

Thank you for reading my Photo Safari, I hope you learned a lot.