Leonardo Da VInci, in all his Pixlr'ed iterations

I spent a Saturday recently scanning in old travel photos. I found this one and I'd forgotten to write the caption on the back, but I knew it was Italy. After scanning and enlarging it I saw that the man atop the base was labeled Leonardo, so it was an easy matter to Google Leonardo statue Italy and discover it's a famous statue of Leonardo Da Vinci in Milan.

The statue of Leonardo da Vinci is located in Piazza della Scala, prominently displayed in front of the international temple of bel canto. The monument offers a solemn and austere image of the scientist and at his feet are four of his pupils. The statue is made of white Carrara marble, whilst granite from Baveno was used for the base.

Ah, yes, now I remember. I'd gone to the Galleria and took this photo on the way in. The Galleria is one of the world's oldest shopping malls, built in 1867. Though Providence's Westminster Arcade was built in 1828 and is Nationally Registered Landmark. I have a photo of that one, too, somewhere...

Notice the photo of the base, the hexagonal shape with each panel artfully carved in bronze in 3-D relief. Amazing work!

I like statues. I like granite and marble, so that stands to reason. I played around with the Leonardo statue on Pixlr-O-Matic. This is an online version of Pixlr, a free photo editing app I'd downloaded to my desktop. There are several versions of Pixlr online for free, too. The O-Matic automatically places several filters atop your picture. I couldn't decide which ones I liked most so I saved several. You decide, lol. First is the original untouched, then an original version cropped. Then all the Pixlr ones.

Pixlr-O-Matic:

The Italians are certainly impressive in their creative statue making. All over Milan, Florence, Rome, and else where are impressive fountains, statues and art of all kinds. There's an interesting story that combines the Italians' love of beauty with confidence in their abilities. They began re-building the cathedral in Florence in 1296. The dome that would be built atop the structure was so large, the architect had no idea how t would be built. He designed it,and the powers that be said, well, that's going to be a few hundred years from now when we get to building the top of it, so let's just wait a while and worry about that when we get to it.

And they did! I'm drastically collapsing the story but it's captured both in a National Geographic article and in a good little book called Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King.

I love all the Italian statuary and art. I wonder if they ever imagined that photography would be invented and we'd take photos of their work and then monkey with it by adding filters and gizmos. I wonder if the ancient artists and stonemasons would be impressed and delighted, or offended and angry. Oh well, art marches on.