Archive September 2008
Age before beauty
(09/19/2008)
by Michael DeMarco, St. Joseph’s University/Fairfield University in Florence
The beauty is older in Florence. New York is big but we never say it is beautiful. In fact, I can’t think of any American City known throughout the world as beautiful. Beverly hills might a place of beautiful people, but let’s be honest with ourselves—they’re made in china, Vero? Miami, maybe, but it is more widely known for the “beautiful” people that vacation there. We can’t take responsibility for the beautiful weather Miami is blessed with. I’m talking about natural classic beauty. I’m talking about humanistic beauty, what we can do.I was reading in the Piazza della Signoria, in the midst of those beautiful statues, when I came to this. But I did have the help of two fellow Americans. One guy was taking pictures and verbally expressing amazement to anyone who would listen. Then a woman started praising the works with the man.
“Its so amazing,” he said. “It’s like you can just come upon this as if it’s nothing.” I was sitting all the way on the right side of the wall, if you were facing the corridor from the middle of the Piazza. I looked up from my book and saw the beautiful sculpture of a nude woman high in the in the arms of a man. The two Americans started talking about her perfect figure and the definition of the man.
One of them said, “These will last forever.” That comment kicked me in the chest. I remembered immediately from an Accounting class long ago about a building is only an asset for 25 years, until is depreciates. Then I looked past the statue and the American. There I saw some fortress with a high tower probably 25 times older the average American skyscrapers.
It ‘s true you can walk around Florence or plop down in a piazza and just happen upon something beautiful. You can just happen on a beautiful Duomo, a beautiful old duomo. Florence allows its beauty to age, and get better before putting them under the knife. The cheese, the wine, everything you see in Florence is old, and beautiful.
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Archive September 2008
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