Elizabeth Huff’s Blog

I am now back at Mary Washington busy with all the forums that I have to prepare for, doing research for the numerous papers I am writing this semester, and working on a fair market appraisal for a portrait by John Singer Sargent. It is so hard that less then a week ago I was wondering around the streets of Venice– it seems a world away from Fredericksburg, VA (granted the scenery is vastly different)….The last leg of my trip was otherwise uneventful. I caught the train from the train station in Venice to Milan. The trip was about three hours long. My hotel in Milan was literally right next to the train station so that was convenient, but I was there for less then twenty-four hours. At 6am I got the bus, which leaves from the train station, to the airport, which is an hour outside of the city. Now that I really have time to reflect about the trip I am realizing how absolutely surreal it was to see those paintings in person. I had seen them before three years ago but seeing them again like this gave me a whole new appreciation for them. It was so cool to be able to stand so close to them and look at the details closely. It was also interesting to see the actual condition of the paintings. Another thing which I loved doing was seeing Carpaccio’s paintings at the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavonni because I had never seen those paintings before. Seeing those paintings really helped to show me how Carpaccio’s style and technique matured over the years from when he painted the St. Ursula cycle.