Vatican Museum: Raphael's 'Expulsion of Attila'

For me, the experience of seeing the piece I had studied in class up close was an amazing experience. As a few others have said, seeing the art piece up close in person has changed my views since only seeing it in our textbook. Raphael's large fresco 'Expulsion of Attila' captured my impression of the scene in an entirely different way. Seeing the scene and it's figures in detail allowed me to notice aspects of the fresco I had not seen before. In my initial research of this piece I had discovered a discrepancy in the portrayal of Pope Julius II. Claims in several of my sources stated that the pope had often grew out or shaved his beard, making it difficult to tell whether the figure was truly Julius or whether his face had been painted over with the portrait of Pope Leo X after Julius' passing. Seeing the fresco up close I realize the inclusion of both figures. Pope Leo X is on the left side as a larger figure and Pope Julius II appears to almost be hidden in the crowd on the right side. Now the question seems to be whether one of the figures was painted in later. Viewing this fresco in person allows me to see differently and ask different questions I wouldn't have necessarily formed from the textbook alone. A few other aspects I collected were the variety of colors used and the great sense of motion. Altogether I thoroughly enjoyed studying this piece and seeing it up close was an experience I will definitely remember.

Another piece I enjoyed seeing up close was the panels for the first set of doors in the Baptistry in Florence. I had read about the competition for the design panels between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, but in person it was much easier to see the differences in rendering and design. The scene on the panel was meant to depict the sacrifice of Isaac.Ghiberti's design stood out from Brunelleschi's in it's greater sense of composition and motion throughout the scene. Although Brunelleschi's piece seemed to really push the boundaries of the panel in it's three dimensionality, it couldn't surmount the tactile flow and clarity of Ghiberti's portrayal.

The experience of seeing both these works has given me a new understanding of the idea the artist intended to get across and also gave me a new perspective on their work. Doing the studies and then seeing them in person connected my thoughts to physical facts.

Shannon Sutton