Rome, you're glorious.

Today I was inspired to visit the Capitoline museum, and then walk around the forum… not go in it, just walk around it.  I needed to be in awe, truly in awe.  And of course, Rome delivers in that category.  The Capitoline Hill is a true palimpsest and exploring the area is so amazing.  From the Temple of Jupiter as a start….

To Imperial Rome in all its masculine and muscular splendor….

To the Christianization of the Empire, thanks to Constantine who even in bits and pieces is quite impressive….

To the Risorgimento and the bravissimo country of Italy, created in 1861….

 

The ground floor of the Capitoline museum is full of treasures, so many gems like this bust of Socrates:

And this super cool Medusa:

And Commodus dressed as Hercules:

And on the first floor (re: second floor to us) is an exceptional collection of religious paintings.  A remarkable thing, though, was that there were several small groups of individuals with vision impairments who were being taken through the exhibit. And, there was going to be a lecture for them.  I know this because I happened to look into one of the lecture halls and I saw that they were setting up for a presentation for some society for the vision impaired.  But get this, in front of many of the paintings were these brail reproductions of the paintings that the ‘viewer’ could feel.  This is the one in front of Caravaggio’s St. John the Baptist:

This makes me believe in love and humanity, big time.  

Rocky Roberts, everyone.

 

I learned this song during one of my Italian lessons.  It's fab.

To Visit and Revisit ~ To see again

Today I wanted to see how difficult it would be for me to walk to the Stazione Termini from my apartment because I leave on Saturday morning for Puglia.  It’s really no problem at all, even with luggage so that plan is done!  Anyway, Stazione Termini is my old stomping grounds, the hotel I like to stay in for short visits is right there and so it made me think about this time 6 years ago when I was in Rome, on my way to Viterbo, as a FIDA.  So magical.  I was reflecting on that time as I visited the churches and museums around there and I remember being SO captivated AND so grateful. 

And I still am!

How can one be unmoved by Santa Maria della Vittoria and its exquisite Ecstasy of St Theresa by Bernini?

How can one walk through the magnificent Palazzo Massimo, one of the National Museums of Rome, and not be gobsmacked by the aesthetic of Roman sculpture?

And the countless faces, some of famous people and many of just anonymous Romans?  All those faces.  It is said that Rome had more statues than people.  Forse, si?

And then to head over to the Diocletian Baths because maybe this year, maybe, they might be open.  Alas, no.  However, right next to it is the glorious Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.  Massive, huge columns, and seems to be full of a golden mist. 

According to legend, in 1541 a Sicilian monk named Antonia del Duca had a vision of the Archangel Uriel among the ruins of these roman baths.  We love it when Archangels drop in because it’s usually with such awesome style.  Apparently Pope Pius IV thought it was v v groovy so he commissioned a church to be built where this vision occurred…. And he got the big guy, Michelangelo, to design it. 

But one of the super interesting things to see is this ‘meridian line.’  During the 18^th century, Pope Clement XI caught that 18^th century fascination with gadgets and science and astronomy and he assigned Francesco Branchini to build a sundial of sorts.  The Pope wanted to ‘check the accuracy of the Gregorian calendar, and to have a tool with which to predict Easter with serious accuracy.  Every day at noon, the sun shines through a small hole and casts its shadow on the line.  Too fabulous.  There is another one of these at Santa Maria Novella in Florence. 

 I am so inspired!  The human imagination….. wow.

My dinner was not really imaginative, but it was buonissimo. Pappardelle with pesto and zuchini.

The Roman Ghetto

 

Today was dedicated to spending time (and some money) in the Roman Ghetto.  Such a fascinating place.  There are parts that are quite ancient and the history of the place is remarkable, poignant, terrifying.  When one remembers that the deportation of the Jews out of this ghetto and to concentration camps happened only 80 years ago…. That level of inhumanity is so very recent.  What humanity is capable of both in terms of wretchedness and courage.  I don’t know. 

In order to see the synagogue, you have to sign up for the guided tour.  The area surrounding the synagogue is policed 24 hours a day, every day.  So these are just snippets of what I remember from our guide.  It is the home of Europe’s oldest Jewish community, the first Jews coming here from the diaspora in the 2^nd century.  The Roman Ghetto was established via a Papal Bull by Pope Paul IV entitled Cum nimis absurdum (and I looked this up) which translates as “Since it is absurd and utterly inconvenient that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery….” (what a schmuck)  What Pope Paul IV decreed was that Jews were to be subjected to various degradations, restrictions on owning property and practicing medicine (among Christians), the wearing of yellow hats and scarves to identify themselves, only being allowed to do unskilled jobs (pawnbrokers included) and they had to live within a walled section of the city, next to the Tiber which flooded constantly.  Thousands stuck in a few square miles of icky real estate.  AND there was to be a wall built around this slum that the Jews had to pay for. 

The word ghetto most likely comes from the Italian word gettare, which means ‘to pour’ and was a verb used in foundries.  The earliest usage of this word for a segregated area comes from 16^th century Venice, the home of another chapter of Jewish history in Europe.  The word evolved to mean, ‘slum’ or a place that is apart.

As you walk through this extraordinary place, you just ponder many things:

I had lunch at a kosher restaurant Ba'Ghetto, which was a real joy, a fabulous and delicious moment. 

I started with an artichoke prepared alla Judea (?) :) and then had lamb with perfect roasted potatoes and a salad of puntarelle with anchovy paste and then a pistachio torta for dolce. 

The synagogue is splendid, so beautiful and every single part of it has meaning:

After the tour of the synagogue I visited a tiny museum dedicated to the deportation of the Jews during the 40's.  Sobering.

 

Today is Sunday and I thought that after going to the COOP to buy some groceries I would just take a walk along the Tiber:

What is more lovely and inspiring than crossing Ponte Sant'Angelo and marveling at the beauty of angels carved by various students of Bernini, each angel carrying instruments of the Passione:

I think this is the angel with the sponge, ... referring to the sponge with vinegar..

I just kept walking toward the Vatican.  I knew that today was a big day because Pope Francis was going to canonize 10 new saints and that was something I wasn't sure I wanted to attend.  So as I neared the long avenue toward Saint Peter's, I just got sucked in to a VORTEX OF GLORY.... sucked in.  I just kept walking and before I knew it, some fabulous Italian polizia was going through my purse and corralling me through the metal detector, then before I knew it I was like some kind of migratory bird in a gaggle of nuns taken in by some force, and then before I knew it, the crowd was roaring Sand I saw in the distance the Pope Mobile!  I took a picture, which is not very good because as he neared, I got a bit overwhelmed.  

I just kept walking toward the Vatican.  I knew that today was a big day because Pope Francis was going to canonize 10 new saints and that was something I wasn't sure I wanted to attend.  So as I neared the long avenue toward Saint Peter's, I just got sucked in to a VORTEX OF GLORY.... sucked in.  I just kept walking and before I knew it, some fabulous Italian polizia was going through my purse and corralling me through the metal detector, then before I knew it I was like some kind of migratory bird in a gaggle of nuns taken in by some force, and then before I knew it, the crowd was roaring Sand I saw in the distance the Pope Mobile!  I took a picture, which is not very good because as he neared, I got a bit overwhelmed.  

I couldn't help it and I just started crying.  I thought, "Am I crying?"  And I couldn't stop.  Then I thought, "Wait, am I sweating or crying?"  I was crying and sweating.  The only thing that redeemed me was an enormous Spanish family next to me that was ALSO crying and giving each other high fives. There was nothing else to do but go into one of the nearby stores and buy a bunch of rosaries, holy water and various medals blessed by the pope.  Molto fantastico!

As I made my way toward home, I happened upon the Museum of Napoleon.  Stupendo!  It features endless marble busts and paintings of this egomaniac.  Molto bello.  Including many famous paintings of him and his family by David!!

And some outrageous gowns:

By the time I got home, I had sweated and cried and spent molti soldi and the only thing left to do was:

A presto!

It's all about flesh, baby....

 

Picking up on the theme of Jesus as the ultimate combo of human and divine, I have to say something about …. The penis.  And I’m sorry, but this just has to be said.  There are BOOKS written about this in art history and it is all very interesting.  The difficulty for the medieval artist in depicting the Christ child is just that: how do you render ‘God made man’ and still hold on to both categories: the human and the divine?  So, in the history of art, there was much discussion and controversy surrounding the penis.  There were issues with complete nudity, frankly, because it was considered just TOO pagan, i.e., it harkened to the art of pagan Greece and Rome. So many artists chose to sublimate the human nudity of the Christ child like this:

 

Giovanni Battista Salvi. "Virgin and Child". Early 17th century.

And from the same time, you have this:

This "Virgin and Child," by Carlo Dolci, practically features the penis, and it is not just for kicks.  It is important because it speaks of Christ's total humanity because what is more 'ground zero' than the ability to reproduce? which is what the 'reveal' is all about.  It is part of the miracle, and an interesting way of revering the human, the flesh, the potential and the potency.  

Featuring some works from La Galleria Borghese (the most beautiful abode in the world thanks to Cardinal Scipione Borghese), let's consider the beauty, the fragility, the exquisiteness of the human body:

Bernini's "Rape of Proserpine" marble at its most breathtaking....

Ruben's "Suzanna and the Elders"... unmatched in glory and beauty.......

A stunning collection of Roman marbles.......beyond fab.

And then, the most, absolutely fabulous and marvelous belly button in the world:

Ponder it and ponder YOURS... this is the locus of your existence.  This was your mouth.  From this point, you were created and nourished.  It is so very marvelous:

Enjoying Il Giro d'Italia tonight.  Perfetto!

A presto!

Sono ritornata in Italia!

 

Benvenuti!

I arrived in Rome a few days ago after a pleasant trip and absolutely NO issues at passport control.  All the documents I prepared they were like, “meh,” in a very stylish but disinterested Italian manner.  Che bello!  I am staying in an apartment in the Via Veneto.  It is in a 19^th century building, molto bello, and with plenty of room, all mod cons and Italian TV.  I have discovered that Italy is mad about the American TV show “Blue Bloods” and I have been watching it, dubbed in Italian, and enjoying it v v much.

There is an exhibition at the Palazzo Barbarini that is concise and so well curated.  It takes one through developments in art, featuring Italian artists of course, from the Middle Ages to the 19^thcentury.  Tracing the ways that philosophical and theological shifts are rendered in the arts, it takes you (AND several groups of Italian teenagers) through a marvelous journey of glory and beauty.

The exhibit begins with a quote from St. Paul (of course, like it would begin with a quote from RuPaul which would have set a different tone altogether…).  Saint Paul wrote, “Christ crucified was unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks, foolishness” (1 Cor 1:23).  What does that mean?  Well, as we all know,  Saint Paul’s big task in life was to make Christianity make sense because, frankly, much of it did not make sense.  How can God be eternal and die?  And such an ignoble death… crucifixion was how they executed criminals, lunatics, hooligans.  Paul would have been stunned to see how the cross would become such a potent and well-loved symbol.  These painted crosses that populated Italy’s churches in the 12^th and 13^th centuries captured the seemingly irreconcilable inconsistency between the humiliation and the glory of death:

The next room features another theological problem to wrestle with: the baby Jesus, which is actually the baby God, which is another issue altogether because how can God have been born if He is the original "unmoved mover"?  Oh dear.  It's complicated.  But for the medieval artist, how could one capture the vulnerability of the baby, the very human love between mother and child, and also the glory of the Divine?  Early depictions of JC are oftentimes rendered like so, he looks like a grown man in miniature:

OH, there is so much more to think about and contemplate.... but really, lunch.