TV Reviewage - "The Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance"

[inulro]

Channel 4, last night.

I have no idea about the quality of the content - I know next to nothing about the Italian Renaissance or art history in general. In fact, both are subjects that can normally be guaranteed to put me to sleep in minutes.

However, it looked very nice, and the narrative was coherent & interesting. Cosimo had some seriously nice gowns by the end of his life. There was more emphasis on the art produced, particularly the construction of the dome of the cathedral at Flornce using techniques that literally hadn't been used for over 1000 years, than on the politics. Although I'm usually more interested in the politics, I suspect that in this format the audience (including myself) would have been left going "huh? Can you draw me a flow chart?".

It must have been successful - by the end I was itching to book a flight to Florence. There's three more installments, so I'll see how it pans out.

I've never seen Donatello's David before, that I can recall. It's absolutely beautiful, but good lord, how gay is that? In a good way, mind.

Time to go fall over. Apparently sleeping all afternoon yesterday wasn't enough. Blech.

Comments

[rjshook.livejournal.com]

The two weekends I spent in Florence were two of the best weekends I had all summer. I will take Florence of Venice any day. It is well worth the effort to climb to the top of the duomo in Florence.

When are the next installments on? I fly to Edinburgh tomorrow for the rest of the week. It would be nice to see them.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I think it's on at 8 on Saturday night. It looks like it's a weekly thing.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Florence. I can't recall if you know Lee or not. http://www.livejournal.com/users/ulfilias/18779.html