Thursday, March 21, 2013

Mrs. Festini's Breakdown, parts 1362 - 1365



 1362. Nevertheless she loved perspective as a thing in and of itself, and, as I said before, she elevated the concept in her mind to almost a spiritual significance. As a rule she kept her feelings about perspective entirely to herself, because she realized that she was considered a little strange for giving it such importance, especially when no one else at the museum was interested in it in the least. 


1363. She had first offered to teach a class just in perspective, concentrating on one point in the spring term, going on to two point is the fall, and then following it up with a class for special problems of perspective for the advanced students. This never happened because not one single student signed up for her class, and she was forced to take on the sculpture class instead, for which she was not really prepared having never done any sculpture herself.


1364. The entire time she was telling us about the cathedral and its Dome, and how smart Filippo Brunelleschi was I couldn't help but feel that the real subject of the lecture was the treatment of Filippo by the council, and how he had become heated in the discussion and had to be thrown out of the meeting, and was later made fun of as a fool, even though he was the only one with the knowledge to solve the problem of how to build the dome.



1365. There was a rumor I had heard about Mrs. Festini having gotten into trouble with the museum director about something or other and her having made a scene in his office. I had no idea if this rumor was true or not, but the very fact that she chose to tell this story from Vasari made me think that something unpleasant had happened in the past, and she had a desire, even after several years, to justify herself.

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