nonparreill

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 4/17/2002 6:06:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> I have already been chided for my excessive praise of the Brera, and must 
> back
> way off; the hour, and excessive habitual Milanese partisanship, probably 
> both
> contributed to my absolutely unwarranted blanking on the Uffizi. It is a 
> small
> consolation that I will still be able to insist that Milan's Brera leaves
> Turin's Sabauda in the dust, and of course Charlie was correct that Milan 
> is
> unmatched as a center of fashion hots.

The original purpose of assembling the superlative art collections was about 
power and influence, I think, not about aesthetic or scholarship, so there 
was a competitive aspect to it as well as a historic one.  Both the Uffizi 
and the Pinacotecca are fantastic, but they are quite different places 
expressing quite different objectives even though both are treasure troves of 
art.  Also on that level is the Accademmia in Venice.  Out the door, though, 
you must admit the Uffizi is in beautiful Florence while Brera for all its 
charms is rather ugly as an urban landscape -- and for that we can thank 
first the Sforza, then a host of "visitors" including Napoleon, the 
Austrians, the bombings in WWII... it's not been easy.

Also in Milano and only a few minutes walk from the Pinnacotecca is the 
Castelo Sforza, possibly the gloomiest, ugliest castle anywhere.  It is the 
"political, historical" center of town and contains, itself, the huge, 
wonderful, exciting, and FREE museum of the Milanese commune, more art 
treasures, plus a museum of musical instruments and plenty of weapons.

Also in Milano (in Magenta, I think?) there is a smaller but also fantastic 
museum called the Pezza-Pizzoli (spelling may be a bit off).  This is where 
you want to go if you are interested in armor and weapons, or in its famed 
hortological museum (time pieces).

You could spend a museum month in Milano and one place that I think is tops 
(and has at least 2 Alfas) is the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Technology.  
This really gets to the heart of things Milanese that have led up to the 
culmination of Western civilization -- Alfas, of course!

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided