Go view the Botticelli exhibit at the Muscarelle Museum. If you’re a lover of renaissance art (particularly Italian), this is most likely the only opportunity you’ll have to view one of the great masters’ works, short of a three (and sometimes five) hour drive to the National Gallery in D. C. Sandro Botticelli studied under the Florentine School method, the same home of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Lippi, Masaccio, and of course…Michelangelo. You may have heard of some of Botticelli’s works: Primavera (depicting the growth of spring with whimsical figures in a garden surrounded by fruits and flowers), and The Birth of Venus (with Venus standing in a giant clamshell along the Venetian coast). My undergraduate institution had a museum, which paled in comparison to the Muscarelle, and only exhibited regional and state artifacts. While the Muscarelle is not intended to serve a huge population, such as the National Gallery in D.C., or the MoMA in New York, it’s a great resource for students, as well as the general Williamsburg community (and of course, it’s something to do other than read/study). You kind of have to wonder how an artist like Botticelli painted some of his pieces. I think for now I’ll stick to misshaped stick figures.
