Day 13: Wednesday
I failed at waking up early to work on my paper this morning. I didn’t wake up until close to 10am, but I spent a couple hours working on it and wrote about two pages. Then I decided to take a break and upload my pictures from last night. Around 1pm, Elli and I decided to start getting ready to go to Galleria Borghese and eat lunch. We looked up how to get there online before we left, and we were even successful in finding the bus stop. The bus stop, however, was on a tiny street we doubted a bus could fit on (but it is Rome), and the sign was “Bus 116” written on a piece of paper and taped to a pole. We waited for a while, but, doubtful a bus was coming, decided to opt for plan B and find a cab stand. We arrived just in time at Galleria Borghese, met up with Tobin and our tour guide, and she began to tell us the history of the museum. The property of Villa Borghese used to be the private property of the Borghese family, and the Galleria was a residence that was used to display the family’s art collection. The owner of the residence was an heir to the Pope, and they also had connections to the Napoleon family later on. The museum was private up until the 20th century, and currently it’s restored to how it looked during the 18th century, minus some missing things, thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte stealing them and the French never giving them back. We went inside and our eyes were assaulted from floor to ceiling with mosaics, busts, sculptures, architecture, and frescoes. The scene on the ceiling and some paintings on the walls were trompe l’oeil so they appeared 3D. One of the most interesting things I found about the entire museum was its spacial ironies, in that it was put together by religious figures and connected to the Pope, yet it was full of pagan mythology, depicting mostly Roman gods and goddesses. At the center of the ceiling in the first room is Jupiter Best and Greatest, and the fresco depicts a relationship between him and the Borghese family. In each room there’s a sculpture in the middle with other sculptures and paintings around it and frescos on the ceiling. The sculpture in the first room was one of Napoleon’s sister Pauline posed topless with a sheet draped around her lower half, which apparently quite the scandal. The next room held one of my two favorite sculptures, both by Bernini: Apollo and Daphne. It depicts the story of, obviously, Apollo and Daphne. Apollo, the god of prophecy, falls in love (or lust) with Daphne, a nymph, and pursues her. She resists and runs away, and just as Apollo is catching up to her, she begs her father for help, and he turns her into a tree. The sculpture captures the moment as she’s turning into the tree, and Apollo is right behind her. I loved the way her toes were beginning to turn into roots and her hair into leaves, and the terror in her face is amazingly captured. It’s really impossible to describe, you just have to walk in awe around it over and over again. I really tried to find a good picture, but none of them do it justice at all.
I failed at waking up early to work on my paper this morning. I didn’t wake up until close to 10am, but I spent a couple hours working on it and wrote about two pages. Then I decided to take a break and upload my pictures from last night. Around 1pm, Elli and I decided to start getting ready to go to Galleria Borghese and eat lunch. We looked up how to get there online before we left, and we were even successful in finding the bus stop. The bus stop, however, was on a tiny street we doubted a bus could fit on (but it is Rome), and the sign was “Bus 116” written on a piece of paper and taped to a pole. We waited for a while, but, doubtful a bus was coming, decided to opt for plan B and find a cab stand. We arrived just in time at Galleria Borghese, met up with Tobin and our tour guide, and she began to tell us the history of the museum. The property of Villa Borghese used to be the private property of the Borghese family, and the Galleria was a residence that was used to display the family’s art collection. The owner of the residence was an heir to the Pope, and they also had connections to the Napoleon family later on. The museum was private up until the 20th century, and currently it’s restored to how it looked during the 18th century, minus some missing things, thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte stealing them and the French never giving them back. We went inside and our eyes were assaulted from floor to ceiling with mosaics, busts, sculptures, architecture, and frescoes. The scene on the ceiling and some paintings on the walls were trompe l’oeil so they appeared 3D. One of the most interesting things I found about the entire museum was its spacial ironies, in that it was put together by religious figures and connected to the Pope, yet it was full of pagan mythology, depicting mostly Roman gods and goddesses. At the center of the ceiling in the first room is Jupiter Best and Greatest, and the fresco depicts a relationship between him and the Borghese family. In each room there’s a sculpture in the middle with other sculptures and paintings around it and frescos on the ceiling. The sculpture in the first room was one of Napoleon’s sister Pauline posed topless with a sheet draped around her lower half, which apparently quite the scandal. The next room held one of my two favorite sculptures, both by Bernini: Apollo and Daphne. It depicts the story of, obviously, Apollo and Daphne. Apollo, the god of prophecy, falls in love (or lust) with Daphne, a nymph, and pursues her. She resists and runs away, and just as Apollo is catching up to her, she begs her father for help, and he turns her into a tree. The sculpture captures the moment as she’s turning into the tree, and Apollo is right behind her. I loved the way her toes were beginning to turn into roots and her hair into leaves, and the terror in her face is amazingly captured. It’s really impossible to describe, you just have to walk in awe around it over and over again. I really tried to find a good picture, but none of them do it justice at all.
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| Apollo and Daphne |
In the next room was my other favorite sculpture: The Rape of Proserpina. This one also depicts a lustful man pursuing a reluctant woman. The man in this one is the god of the underworld, Pluto, and the woman is Proserpina, the daughter of the goddess of grain and Jupiter. Pluto was luckier than Apollo in his pursuit because he gets to keep his woman for six months of every year. This sculpture also depicts the moment of capture, just as Apollo is picking Proserpina up. The amazing thing about this one is the way Apollo’s hands indent into the skin of Proserpina's back and thighs, and the way even her toes seem to express her distress. From her cheek runs a subtle tear, hard to notice at first, but moving once you do.
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| Rape of Proserpina |
I strongly encourage googling pictures of both sculptures to see different angles and close-ups of different parts. The rest of the museum was not very impressive compared to those two pieces, but there were some interesting parts, such as an Egyptian room and Caravaggio paintings. Another aspect of the museum I found interesting and in contrast to its ties to the Pope was the amount of nudity in almost every painting and every sculpture. Our tour guide told us apparently there’s a moral lesson as you travel through the rooms, such as don’t lust after women because nothing will come of it, but I thought that to be somewhat of a stretch. After two hours inside, my feet were hurting and it was time to leave, so we quickly bought some postcards (pictures of the Berninis since we couldn’t take pictures inside), and began to make our way through Villa Borghese. We somehow found our way through, back toward the Machiavelli statue and out by the Spanish Steps. We made our way down the steps, and as we began walking we noticed some conspicuous-looking blacks cars that were far too large to be European cars. We noticed the Washington DC license plates, then the sign on the window of one that said “Dr Biden.” We Madison-geeked out for a couple moments, then pressed on, being hungry and having papers to write. I did, however, research when I got home whether or not Joe Biden really is in Rome for some reason, and it turns out him and his wife are here for the celebration of the founding of the republic tomorrow. Once we finally made it home I collapsed on my bed and finally took my shoes off. Then we made dinner, which was some risotto from a bag that we found at the store and decided to try. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either, it really just didn’t have any taste. After a cooking/jamming to N’SYNC session, we decided it was time to get serious about our papers, but as soon as I began to read, I fell asleep. I woke up some time later, and decided to shower because of my headache. We were hungry again, so we made some eggs, then had another jam session with Kari in the kitchen and exposed Breanne to the greatness that is “I Just Had Sex.” Then finally we retired back to the room to for real work on our papers, and I wrote down some quotes and wrote a little more. I am now at three pages, and it has to be four to five, so I can definitely finish it tomorrow. I was supposed to read another 40 pages of Livy though, but that’s not happening. Tobin assigned us the most amount of homework on the day of the national celebration so we can’t even enjoy the celebrations! Oh well, only two more days of class and then Naples!
