Bernini, St. Ignatius, and Conclusion

Hello, everyone.
Sorry about the lack of blogging. My last day in Rome was a very busy one. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I made it home safe with absolutely no complications whatsoever. There were no delays on my plane ride, lost luggage, or anything else that would put a damper on my going home. Let me tell you, after such an amazing experience in a far away land, it's so nice to be back home. :)

Alright, so I hardly had time or energy to discuss what we saw on the last day of the program, but here goes. We saw Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa, which was actually an artwork I've been wanting to see for a long time now. One of Bernini's greatest strengths was the fact that he could make his sculptures look alive. St. Theresa had a vision where an angel repeatedly pierced her with an arrow over and over again, though I have yet to read her writing on the experience myself, the professor described it as a very sensual recalling of the experience. Bernini was able to expertly make the statue look like nothing was supporting it, and the cloud the saint rested on really did look like a cloud. He also had the challenge of reflecting St. Theresa's possible emotions during the experience on her face as best as he could. It must have been a very difficult and limiting situation having to put a truly indescribable spiritual expression on an earthly medium. Unsurprisingly, his final product received scrutiny from protestants during the Reformation.

The last thing we saw was the Chiesa del Gesu (literally, Church of Jesus), which served as the birthplace and center of the Catholic Jesuit order for a very long time. The Jesuits have a code that prayer is meant to be used with all the senses, so church art, being able to use the sense of sight during meditation, was a necessity. Although, what was inside the church was truly something else entirely. There was an altarpiece of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order, speaking with Jesus. Then our professor turned on the machinery, yes, machinery, involved in the altarpiece. Over speakers, there was a recording of a choir and an orator going through a Jesuit prayer exercise with light focusing on each statue and painting, then the painting was lowered to reveal a gold statue of St. Ignatius.

Now, apparently, this was ancient machinery, not a new thing, and the painting was put in storage several years ago until historians discovered the old machinery in the altarpiece. This raised a lot of questions for me, what caused the machinery to function? Has it always been in working order, or was it just recently repaired upon discovering the painting's purpose? How has it been preserved for so many years? Of course then I have to remember this is an art history course, not an engineering course. So, the main focus was basically how extravagant the piece was and would St. Ignatius have truly appreciated this.

Before

After

Yes, art history is a very funny thing. Sometimes I have to wonder if those of us who seek the career path make up answers to the questions we simply don't know. This is probably why I'm attracted to art conservation. Interpretation doesn't matter nearly as much as simply using the best scientific techniques to restore and preserve art. This way, art can be kept surviving through the millennium, preferably as the artist intended it. There wouldn't be a need for interpretation because art, documents, and architecture are still there to tell us the answers. We would just know the truth. 

Hadrian and Desdes' Villas

Super tired, super weather beaten, and feeling lazy, then feeling bad about not going out into the city and taking advantage of all its wonders. Then I remembered that I went to Hadrian's Villa outside of Rome in the beautiful town of Tivoli. We went on a tour through the ruins with an insight to who emperor Hadrian was. He was the adopted son of the Roman emperor, Trajen. Unlike Trajen, who was a soldier and a conquerer, Hadrian was a philosopher who studied Greek and was enamored with the language and the philosophers,  according to our guide. Hadrian's villa was a very large establishment spanning over numerous structures including a library, two temples, a theater, fishing ponds, and a very large grove of olive trees. It was a very beautiful walk, and we even saw a large olive tree that was about 700 years old. It was a spectacular sight.

A very significant detail about this villa was that it was exavated in the Rennaisance period, and by excavated,  I actually mean plundered for its marble and statuary. A lot of the statues were transported to different parts of the world. The Vatican Museum has some, the Lourve has some, and some even made it to Russia. Some of the marble was stripped from the villa to be used for our next destination, Desde's Villa. The villa belonged to a Cardinal who lived there during the summer on his days off from his duties in Rome. The  tedious and fruitless moral debate on whether or not a church leader should have ever been allowed to have such an extravagant home in the first place aside, it was still a very beautiful place to visit. The mosaics on the wall and ceiling doubled as reliefs because there was such an intricate 3D design to the mosaics, like you could see the flowers coming out of the celing rather than just being nicely placed there.

Borromini and Leonardo da Vinci

Today mostly revolved around the rivalry between Bernini and Borromini. The first place we visited today was the Piazza Navona, where one of my roomates, Philip, gave his presentation on Bernini's Four River fountain in the middle of the plazza. He went into exemplary detail on what the fountain meant. The fountain itself represented the four continents that people believed existed with their best knowledge at the time. He described this knowledge of only four continents as Ignorance. It made me think about the very term of ignorance, and how in today's world, it equates with a very negative definition. This isn't necessarily the case. This reminds me of my studies in Chemistry, and how a hundred years ago, scientists' view of atoms and molecules deviates very much from our current knowledge now,  which will probably be disproven yeg again in another hundred years, yet we couldn't build our knowledge without the theories of findings from the alchemists of the past. Is art history any different? But, perhaps, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The next place we visited church of St. Agnes, which was amazing because it was probably the only church in Rome where the altar pieces were made up entirely of sculptures. Specifically relief sculptures done by Bernini's students. They were quite beautiful to look at.

Our journey as a group continued with a tour through Boroque Roma. We got to see several different sites where the general theme was the competition between the sculptor, Bernini, and the architect, Fracesco Borromini. Sant'Andrea della Fratte was the first chapel we got to see for this tour. It was cool to learn about the chapel's name, Fratte meant 'wood' because the chapel used to be embedded in a more sylvan environment. it had two copies of original Bernini statues of angels that illustrated the suffering of Christ. Fun fact: those angels could also be seen on one of the bridges crossing the Tiber.

Our tour concluded with a visit to Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. This was a univeristy dedicated to Theology, Medicine, and Law. The tour guide, Irene, went into detail about the importance of the architecture and mindset of Borromini, who was a bitterbrival of Bernini who reportedly tore down a chapel Bernini built. Close to his house. While he was trying to sleep. 

Thag was the end of the day for us as a group, but I wanted to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit before I left for home. Unfortunately, there wasn't any original art or sketches by Da Vinci himself, but the people behind the exhibition took Da Vinci's sketches and created models based on the various machines and military inventions. It was interesting learning more about the techincal side of a Rennaisance artist such as Da Vinci. The walls were also covered with enlargements of Da Vinci's anatomical sketches.

St. Peter's Basilica and Necropolis

I'm going to start this blog post with my reading for tonight. The next paragraph will be about my excursion in Rome, so if you are not grading this blog post, please feel free to skip on to the next paragraph. Our reading for tonight involved the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza and the many years and modifications it took tto to build this church. Construction on the church began 1644 after Pope Innocent X's commissioning the project after several concept sketches were made and were finally approved Pope Urban VIII. The church was finished in  1665 with the completion of the south portal. The significance of this particular church was the spiral tower and all the work that was involved inconstructing the spiral in a way that worked. There was a lot of engineering and pre planning involved in creating the spiral which involved tactics such as studying the Egyptian Obelisks.

We saw St. Peter's Bascilica today. Honestly, what can I say? To me, the church itself represented an example of the pinaccle of human engineering and artistic capability. The dome of the bascillica was amazing to look at and the way the light bled through it was gorgeous. Bernini's sculptural genius touched each sculpture in such a way many sculpturs couldn't even imagine before this time. The Statue of St. Veronica looked as though it really was running desperately to wipe Jesus' face. The statue of St. Longinus stood forever looking at the cross high up towards the dome as though he was forever reminded how he was the one who pierced the side of Christ, and it was fantastic, after so many years of learning and seeing photos, it was finally cool to get to see the actual Pieta of Michaelangelo.  I even spent ten minutes drawing a sketch and am happy to say I gained a small audiance of a couple fellow pilgrims myself. ^_^ There's something satisfying about hearing people from the far east try to tell your drawing is good.

It was also interesting to hear how the experience impacted my roomates. My experience was very positive, like I wanted to know if this is what humans could accomplish, and it's not even close to the Divine, then what could they accomplish. My colleagues had very mixed opinions, and it was interesting to learn about why, but we all felt something move inside us whether it was for better or worse.  I will not go into anymore detail because that is their business, not mine.

The final moments of the day ended with a couple of my fellow artsy associates visiting an art store that was about 180 years old, the company, not the building. I'm sure the building was much older than that. The art company is called Ditta G.Poggi, and there, I bought the most artistic of my younger sisters her own sketchbook. :) 

Weekend o' Fun and Carvaggio Day

Ciao my friendlies!

I hope you can forgive my lack of posting on account of this past weekend was more or less a free weekend. Saturday, we saw the amazing Vatican Museum. :D it was truly an incredible experience. I made sure that I saw the Sistine Chapel first, and then after that, my eyes were rewarded with marvelous treasures of the Catholic church as well as art from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. To me, this truly captures just how global the Catholic Church truly is, and even though the statues from Greece and Egypt were, I guess for lack of a better term, 'false gods', the fact that this art is displayed in tbe Vatican Museum shows how much the Church values these pieces as works of art and inspiration, as well as history that deserves to be preserved for future generations to enjoy. Apparently, there was also a contemporary art exhibit by artists such as Salvador Dahli and Francis Bacon. I totaly missed this exhibit and I really wish I didn't.  -.- I mean, contemporary art isn't exactly my field of interest, but I still believe it definitely would've been cool to see.

The next day was amazing!... for the most part. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures,  but early in the morning, some of my classmates and I hopped on the train and went to San Marinella beach for the day. It was amazing how the tickeg was only four euros for a twenty minute train ride to the coast. The free beach wasn't too crowded, especially when we got there in the morning. The water was warm, and the sand from the beach felt really nice. My skin is all smooth and rejuvenated from the Mediterranean environment. The downside to this excursion was that I got badly sunburnt and stepped on a sea urchin. XD

So, that was my weekend. Today, we went to St. Agostino, Madonna dei Pellegrini, the French church of San Luigi dei Francesi. I was absolutely blown away by St. Agostino. The church was so beautiful, it displayed a painting by Michaelangelo Carvaggio of the Virgin with Child and two people kneeling in adoration. We learned about how Carvaggio's art style was different compared to his collegues and rivals. While other painters strived for heavenly colors and perfect figures, Carvaggio prefered to paint from life. This caused the subjects of his paintings to be hyper realistic with details involving wrinkles and dirty clothes and skin. In his St. Matthew paintings, especially the painting of St. Matthew, The Inspiration of St. Matthew, Matthew didn't look like a glorified, perfect being, but a wrinkled old man that you might see on the street. This reminds me of the artist, Rembrandt, and how both artists could capture a certain beauty and quality in these everyday, ordinary, lowly people. 

The last thing we did was see the art gallery, Borrocco e Roma, which featured various Baroque paintings and sculptures as well as rough drafts of great works of art like Bernini's Habukkuk sculpture in a minature terracotta form. It was very interesting learning about how much these artists depended on the use of scale to get their art right. Before this excursion,  though, I went with my classmates to a restaurant and had seafood pasta where I had clams for the first time, and it was delicious.  ^_^

Catecombs, Chigi Chapel, and Borghese Museum

Hey, everybody. So yesterday, I went to the catacombs, and was not allowed to take pictures. It kind of sucks, but at the same time, I feel like there want a very strong feel to the catacombs either. Apparently, fifteen years ago, the Italian government got tired of jerky tourists taking little bones from the dead bodies, so the bodies all got moved from the second level of the catacombs to the lower third level, which is not open to the public. This was a little disappointing. A student who went on the trip before me told me there said there wouldn't be any bodies, but I don't know, I guess I didn't want to believe it. Now this isn't a bit if advice saying it's not worth checking out, it really is. The beginnings of Christianity as a more organized religion and learning about that was very fascinating, especially since the countryside it's just breathtaking.

Today, I gave my presentation on the Chigi Chapter, which is Agostino Chigi's mortuary chapel that involved numerous artists such as Raphael, Lorenzetto, Bernini, and other artists from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Apparently, I impressed my classmates with my presentation. Yay! It really was a crazy experience researching this chapel, then giving my presentation right on front if it.

I am super grumpy because I was two minutes late for our Borghese Museum exhibit, and I accidentally left my phone on my purse when I checked in my bag, so I didn't take pictures, nor did I have my pencil so I couldn't make sketches. The art inside was so beautiful. We learned more about Bernini and how his career I theater really reflected in his sculptures. We learned about what techniques Bernini used to make the stone look like flesh versus his bark, leaves, and stone in Apolo and Daphne.

No blog post today

7/2 Hey, guys, I'm really sorry about this, but I have my presentation tomorrow at the Chigi Chapel, so I won't have as detailed of a blog pist about how my day went due to the fact that I'm going to be doing last minute once overs on my notes, and making sure I have all my information organized in a cohesive speech format. I will have lots of pictures tomorrow though, because our journey today took place in the countryside and the catecombs of St. Callixtus and St. Sebastian. It was a beautiful experience, and I can't wait to share it. So please, bear with me!

St. Pietro Tempietto e Montario

Today, we didn't do as much stuff, we were able to have the middle of the day to do exploring and stuff. I tried Italian Shaved ice for the first time today, and it was delicious. It's basically a fancy, fruity snow cone. I will say this about Italian food,  it's way healthier than in the states.

That's what I did on my time off. We started doing our presentations today. Dylan and Shirleanne went today, and I will be doing mine on the Chigi chapel on Friday.  I feel somewhat bummed because I don't think I'll have time to see it before my presentation. Dylan did her presentation on Tempietto, which is a small, very column heavy shrine that was built by Domanto Bramante in the 15th century. Apparently, it was the supposed place of St. Peter's execution before people found out it was actually the place where San Pietro now lies. It almost made me laugh a little inside when I learned Bernini made additions to the interior in the 16th century, because that was the case for the Chigi Chapel as well.

Right next to it was the San Pietro in Montario church. Shirleanne was charged with educating us on a particular radiating chamber involving a relief sculpture of St. Francis of Assissi being accepted into heaven. It was planned by Bernini, but there's no evidence that his hand was involved inthe sculptures, but his assistants from his workshop. It was interesting learning that artists from that time period, very much like fasion designers of our time,  put their name to art, and the name alone guarantees that quality.

I'm super excited about tomorrow.  We're going to be visiting the Catecombs. Eeeee! I was required to read about it, and from what I understand trying the read this document in my exhausted state of mind, were originally dug by the Jewish people of ancient Rome then later used by Christians to escape the iron fists of the Roman emporers, who inadvertently contributed to the spread of Christianity by stirring up sympathy for the opressed Christian people, and drove them to this sanctuary underground.

Palazzos

6/31 So my last couple of blog entries haven't been exactly awesome, and I apologize for that. Of course, at this point, I've fallen so much in love with the city that I would rather be out and about inthehan hiding out blogging all afternohaveon. ThisAndll  whole trip has had a positive affect on me. For one thing, I feel like the loose traffic laws and crazy drivers have made me braver. :D

This blog will be a little more awesome though because we actually got done with our day a little early, so while I'm too worn out to do any walking, I'm not  falling asleep due to coming home late.  XD  

So, today we got a tour of Villa Farnesina, which was Agostino Chigi's (a papal banker) sort of vacation home. The interesting thing about this place was that it had a lot of old GrecoRoman mytholgical themes, such as the ceiling on the banquet hall telling the story of Psyche and Eros.

We also saw a couple of Palazzi (palaces) that belonged to Roman papal families. One was Palazzo Farnese and the other waa Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. Palazzo Farnese is significant because it was the home of whomever was the family of the pope for that time. Currently, it belongs to the French government, so I need to bring my passport there for some reason. Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne was funny because people at that time were not allowed to have elaborate portals along the road of the papal procession, so what the did was recess their portal behind Roman columns.

After that, I had lunch with my classmates, Thomas and Dylan. They actually went on this trip together as a couple. And they were kind enough to let me join them for lunch while the others had a more expensive lunch elsewhere. I had spagetti carbonera for the first time, and it was delicious. I couldn't finish it though, worse yet, it's very rude to not eat your entire meal in Rome. Thankfully, Thomas helped me finish it. Dylan thinks the mozerrela she had was buffalo mozzarella,  and it had a very chewy taste. It was weird.

I went on a mighty hunt for this gelato place that my one of my parents' World of Warcraft buddies, Jorge, recommended. I thought it was called Gelato Valentino, but I could find no such place. Per Jorge's instructions, I searched around the McDonald's a bit north of the Pantheon (man, that sounded badass for some reason XD) and next to the McDonald's (which, by the way, was still too crowded for my comfort). The closest thing I found was this place called Illy Creme. It was yummy though. :D Not sure if that was it. I have contacted Jorge with a request of confirmation on the matter.

Unfortunately, my excursion doubled with my lack of sense of direction, I got stupid lost and ended up about 15 minutes late for my meeting at Santa Maria del Travestere. Every local I asked for directions thought I was talking about a different church of a similar name. XD Lucky for me though, I didn't miss anything because they were having a mass not on the mass schedule. I went inside to take a look (as a fellow Catholic,  not a tourist, sitting in the pew and everything), and it looked like there was a small, intimate family mass of some kind. The inside of the church was absolutely gorgeous though. The golden mosaic ceiling just glittered brilliantly.

The last place we went was the bascillica of Saint Cecelia.  It was a beautiful church. There were white marble statues with drapery that was made in the 1920's, and the drapes looked like cloth instead of marble. It was so unreal.

The day ended with Andrew and I going to Santa Maria del Popolo in hopes to look at the art we would be doing our presentation on, but we got there too late and they closed up. It was sad. The Leonardo da Vinci museum was right next to the chur h, but closed 30 minutes early! XD oh well, we'll get it next time.

7/1 There were a couple readings we needed done for the class, of course, this is an eight credit class every bit as it has been an experience, which is very easy to forget now that im actually here. In relation to the events that will take place this morning, the required reading involved the Pallazzo Borghese was written by Patricia Waddy. In this segment, Waddy describes the purpose and functions of the papal palace throughot the fifteenth century starting with the fact that it was built Pope Paul V Borghese in 1608 in preparation for his possible visits in the summertime. The reading goes on to describijg a few key terms, such as QUADRO RIPRTATO the central field of ghe vault, SALA DEI PALFENEREI the guard room, RETROCAMERA service room, and PORTIERA or leather fabric hanging from the door, as these are some of the architectural and decorative elements  the visitors would see as they enter the palace.

It was also nice to read that even though the upper class who knew the family were probably given the best accomodations, people from the lower classes who dressed their best were still welcomed in the house, but since there were about two million Romans, and not enough space, Swiss guards were charged with keeping the house from flooding with guests.

As with a large multitude of houses and churches, the coat of arms was a prominant thing in this house as well. For instance, Antonio Barberni in 1653 inserted the coat of arms belonging to the King of France in order to gain favor with him.

And lastly, the most important thing about the place in my opinion; the art. Paintings by Carvaggio were displayed in the palace along with a multitude of devotional paintings and portraits of the papal family were displayed throughout the piano nobile in 1644. I cant't wait to see this art today.

Busy tour through Rome

Today was insanely busy. There was so much crammed into one day. Today was also the Feast of St.s Peter and Paul. Just about all the mom and pop stores were closed, but there were a lot more businesses open than I thought there would be. I had mele e porchette for the first time. It was very yummy.

After orientation, we hopped on the 46 bus to get from the Vatican to the Rome city center. Apparently, it's a hotspot for pickpockets, but at this point, I feel like it's no longer something to worry about. I have some advice for people wanting to go to Rome: just stay away from the Internet.  There's so many horror stories about pickpockets, but, honestly, just have a neckpouch, stay alert, and know where your phone and money is and you're fine. I realize I was way more paranoid than I should have been. XD

We took the bus to San Clemente basilica.  The reason why this place is so amazing is because it has just about every Roman era all sewn together, frome 2 bc to the Byzantine era (with the golden mosaics) to the Florentine Rennaisance period. We went down into the underbelly of the church where it showed the old Roman ruins from before Christianity. There was also an altar to Mithras, an old sun god that was worshiped privately. This was a religon that came from the east. The altar was Persian because the clothes on the figure on the relief sculpture were Persian.

Here's a link to a picture of it (I didn't take this photo. We weren't really allowed to take pictures)

http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/images/cimrm339_altar.jpg

There was also evidence that it might have been an arisocratic house, probably Clement's because of the pattern that wealthy people turned their homes into churches so that Christians could worship in secret during Roman persecutions. The early Christians must've appreciate the coolness of the underground during the hot days.

After that, we met with a tour guide who gave us a tour of the Old Rome. We walked by the gardens where Romulus and Remus supposidly founded Rome, the Collusuem, the old Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill. The tour guide showed us artist renditions of what they might have looked like before in their original glory.

There were so many other things saw too, like Bernini's Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi, the fountain of Neptune, and the Altalre nella Nationale. I fell in love in love with that last building, but apparently, the local Romans hate it for multiple reasons one of which I remember was that the marble hsed to buld it was from Milan, and not Rome.