Rome - page 10
May 25nd
Pamphili, Pamphilj, Pamphilij
It had been my casual objective of the past week to scope out the best deal on leather shoes in the city (Rome is known for its leather goods). So far, the Trevi fountain area still looked like the best combination of quality and affordability (remarkably!). I bought some shoes and was on such a roll I let the salesman help me find a belt. Turns out my suspicions were confirmed – they don’t make belts my size. Even with an expert helping me we couldn’t find a single dark belt that fit me. There were a few that were too small and a few hundred that were too big and one that was just the right size but the color of a number two pencil.
I didn’t have much planned for today, hell I didn’t have much planned for the rest of my trip. I walked across town to the Palazzo Doria Pamphili museum. The palazzo is typical of the wealthy families that once owned Rome. It is a ridiculously ornate palace converted into a museum so the family heirs can live someplace more livable and at the same time feel good about giving something back to the community. I was mostly here because I wanted to see Velasquez’ painting of Pope Innocente X (Innocente was a Pamphili and this museum had started as his personal collection).
For a museum that forbade photographs, I’m surprised they didn’t have anyone watching over their most prized masterpiece (not even a security camera).
Pope Innocente X
I was surprised at how ‘rough’ this painting appears up close. If you back up a few feet it blends together nicely, but after a week of Renaissance and Baroque perfection, this actually seemed sloppy by comparison. That’s not to say it isn’t a very good painting. The thing that always struck me about this work is how evil Innocente looks in it. I always wondered how he could have possibly allowed this to be painted and then publicly displayed. Thanks to the museum’s audio tour I learned a lot about this guy. Apparently he was a bit of an asshole but he was also a big supporter of the arts (the reason the collection is so intact was that in his will he forbade a single piece from ever being sold). When Velasquez showed him the painting Innocente was understandably concerned with what he called the ‘realism’ of it. But I suppose he was a fan of art above politics and he did have a Velasquez so he went ahead and hung it on the wall. I mean, really, everyone already knew what kind of guy he was anyway.
Lynne Cheney’s idol
According to the audio tour, Innocente was getting a little action with his dead brother’s widow and this woman (Olimpia Maidalchini) was one mean, power hungry bitch. I was pleased with how candid the audio tour was, especially considering that it was the Pamphili heir who was narrating it. I think the story goes that once he found out she was seeing papal guests without his even knowing, Innocente flipped out and punished her. I don’t know how exactly because ever since the Velasquez painting I had been beguiled by a particular female patron and at this moment in the audio tour I was engaged in determining the possible transparency of her white pants.
The only other photo I took in the museum was of this painting done right onto a piece of stone, which I found interesting because the artist incorporated the stone into the composition.
painted marble
I counted at least three paintings of girls with severed men’s heads in the collection. I think two of them were Judiths.
When I got out the churches were still closed so I figured I’d go get a photo of Castel Sant’Angelo. In at least one old painting I saw, the castle was surrounded by a moat cut out of the river. Too bad that’s not the case any more. I’ve always wanted to see a moat.
Me, the Ponte Sant’Angelo and part of the castle
If you wish my head wasn’t blocking the shot, you can take a look at the link above. But I’ll warn you, it’s not exactly a fancy castle. In fact, it wasn’t originally even a castle at all. It was actually emperor Hadrian’s tomb but, from what I hear, it made for one hell of a fortification in the middle ages.
I didn’t feel the need to go inside, so on the way back to the hotel I stopped in on 4 or 5 churches.
Ok, so after sifting through the guide book and retracing my route that evening, and just now, spending a few hours on the internet, I finally pieced together just which church was which. The first church I visited, pictured below, was Santa Maria in Vallicella (aka Chiesa Nuova).
These measly little paintings are Rubens’ and referred to collectively as altarpieces even though the one on the left isn’t really part of the altar!
You see those red tapestries? The whole church is decorated with them. From what I’ve gathered (including the Pamphili audio tour and the Vatican museum) old tapestries and velvety wall hangings are worth a ridiculous amount of money. I figured the fact that this is the only church I’ve seen with so many rich, well preserved hangings would be enough to identify it. Apparently not. The Rubens altarpieces are from early in his painting career and look very little like what I associate as Rubens.
A church that impressed me was the beautiful Sant’Andrea della Valle, which turned out to be a church I had already visited near the beginning of my trip. There are three huge paintings above the altar. They looked more like Rubens than the altar pieces at Santa Maria which was ultimately one of the reasons I spent hours of internet searching before I was able to sort the damn churches out. To set the record straight they were painted by Mattia Preti and they depict St. Andrew (Andrea) getting nailed up, crucified and being buried.
Saint Andrew’s Crucifixion
The massive altarpieces are very crisp and ‘read’ well, even from the other side of the church.
Here’s a wider picture I took the first time I ‘found’ St. Andrew’s:
The whole interior seemed to glow with gold. The precious metal was really put to good effect here, as it doesn’t come across as gaudy but instead looks really clean and balanced.
The next church I visited was Il Gesu. Historically, this was an important church as it was the first model for the counter reformation movement and is the mother church of the Jesuits. The counter reformation was a response to the emergence of the Protestants. The architectural strategy was to be more splendid and visually exciting than ever before. At this point I was pretty jaded on churches and all the gold and ornamentation didn’t do much for me, but the ceiling was simply amazing.
A heap of people are being thrown down out of heaven on the right, but how did he manage to make those clouds look like they are below the ceiling?
I must have spent ten minutes looking back up at this ceiling and walking around trying to figure out how he got such convincing shadows. The artist is Giovanni Gaulli and he was something of a protégé of Bernini’s. According to his Wikipedia entry, this ceiling incorporates stuccoed figures and architecture, which provides the answer to how he was able to create those shadows on the gilding.
The little deli next to the hotel has a delicious darkened meat – kind of like prosciutto with some spice to it. I’ve been eating it with fresh mozzarella on a roll. Very tasty. I think I walked more than 10 kilometers today just getting from one location to another. My legs were killing me. While playing with my new shoes I realized there are many different ways of lacing a pair of shoes. I developed a ‘technique’ with no external crossing – I’m very proud of it.
May 26nd
Winding down
My plan for today was to wind down and see if I couldn’t locate some sort of local nightlife (today was a Saturday). I didn’t want to hang out with a bunch of drunk American collegiate fools so I had ruled out the Piazza Navona area. There was supposed to be some places to the south of my hotel so I set out to see what I could find. Immediately, it seemed, I had stepped back into Chinatown (some evidence suggests ‘Koreatown’ might be more accurate). Literally every doorway here seems to lead down into a narrow clothing store with a middle aged couple sitting in the back. Sometimes they have a few friends visiting or a kid running around. There are also a number of black people with something of an Arabic edge wandering around. I found a Radisson where the first club was supposed to be. The neighborhood was still a dump. I continued a little further and discovered a wonderful indoor/outdoor market. I remember spotting one of these in France. They are very exciting. It made me wish I had a kitchen so I could buy something. The prices all seemed to be half what they would be in the US and everything is perfectly fresh: fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, breads, cheeses, sacks of exotic grains and spices (it’s kind of like a farmers market only ten times more chaotic, ten times more variety and not a hippy in sight). I watched a guy expertly chop a couple pigs legs into tiny rounds for a nearly salivating Korean man. The crowd was extremely diverse – a good mix of Asians, blacks, and Italians in perfectly organized chaos.
I continued on a little further until I encountered an old man pissing on the sidewalk while his dog waited. I decided to turn back and explore the area to the north of the train station.
Getting hungry and faint I stopped to rest in the entrance garden to the Baths of Diocletian. An extremely ugly Italian woman admonished me for thinking about laying down (was I really?). I guess they have problems with gypsies sleeping there or something but I can’t see how that involves me considering I was, A: sitting upright, B: not a gypsy.
Clearly not laying down
I went back to the hotel to put on some pants so I could go inside the churches. They have dress codes, some more stringent than others. The major churches require that shoulders be covered and shorts not be too short – now before you question my shorts I’ll say that these rules are basically in place for the women, I felt as a man it just wouldn’t be right if I was wearing anything less than pants. A few of the most popular churches even hand out modesty scarves at the door, so immodest women can cover themselves. I noticed one of these scarves snuck into a picture I took back when I was in Maria Maggiore:
That’s not a stylish green skirt
I grabbed myself a doner kebap (still as gross as I remembered) and came back to the baths of Diocletian site. In the Renaissance, the remaining bath house was converted into the church of Santa Maria Angeli which is kind of interesting because from the outside it still looks like a ruin. Inside it is quite spacious and impressive.
This used to be a tepidarium, one of the four major rooms of a Roman bath
Michelangelo was put in charge of designing the church, so I found a bust of the artist in the back commemorating him.
This is what Michelangelo looked like
I happened upon a private tour in English. The tour guide was really loud so it wasn’t very hard for me to listen in while she explained some of the astrological curiosities I was noticing in the church. There is a little hole high up the wall near one of the corners that lets in a pinpoint of light. You can see it to the right of the windows in the picture above. It was pointed downward and on the floor below it was this cordoned off line, known as a Meridian Line:
The line represents the course of a year and there were marble images for each of the zodiacal signs running the length. You’ll notice my sign, Taurus.
The sun aligns with the hole only once a day and projects a beam of light which marks the date on the line. Fortunately for me I happened to be there when it occurred. Unfortunately for me the proud tour guide was hopping around in such close proximity to the point of light that she ruined any potential photographs. In less than 60 seconds it had faded away again. She also pointed out the angel making a ring of his hand.
She claimed that on a particular night (winter solstice?) you can stand on any one of the stars on the floor and look up and see the corresponding star or planet through the fingers. Now I couldn't confirm this, but the angel making a circle of his hand is peculiar
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