MARCH 18, 2016 - SECOND POSTING

Hello again,

Last Saturday afternoon we went to the Museum of Rome. It has been argued correctly that 
"ALL of Rome is a museum", 
but this one is very nice both because of its setting in a genuine palace at the south end of the Piazza Navona, and for its collection of paintings, busts, prints, frescoes about ROME itself, mainly in the 1600's to late 1700's, but also with some architectural fragments and other pieces from the 1800's.

(Four reminders: 
you can skip my blather by clicking on any photo and see just those; 
depending on what device you use to view this blog, there may be a tiny "SEE MORE" link part way down you can click on that to reach the end of posting notice;
you can leave comments;
the first posting should be viewable via a link in the right column at the top.


I'll start with three maps.

The purple oval is the area for this blog. North is up.

A closer in view. The numbers refer to places 
I took photos either of or from.
Number 1 is our starting point. 
I did stop for another small piece 
of pizza piccanti at Pizza Florida. 

Here's a Google Earth photo, 
mainly to show how densely packed 
this neighborhood is.
Note the red arrow, lower right corner 
for the scale of 50 meters or 55 yards.

Now I'll show you a few places we passed on the way to the museum, including one of Emil's many favorite cafes, literally two steps from the Pantheon's piazza. 

Its formal name is La Casa di Caffe, but the afficiandos call it "The Golden Cup" (Il Tasso d'Oro). Emil thinks they serve the best cappuccini in Rome. It is stand-up service only, and can be horridly packed or in a state of in-between tsunami waves of customers. There is a tiny restroom, but there aren't many free ones around here, so I usually wait a bit and, alas hold my nose sometimes (due to the poor ventilation often found in older buildings).  (n. 2 on the map)

Here's the "coffee machine". I don't know how it was possible that at this moment at least two baristas were not having it pump away and bring forth wonderful coffees.

Front view of the outside of the Pantheon.

 It has become more crowded these past years; it is a good thing for more people to see it, but I like the Pantheon better when it is very quiet. I am too lazy to be out and about early enough in the day when the hoards of tourists are not yet there. (red underline at center of map)

These two photos are from two years ago and barely convey the vastness of the spherical space inside. The Pantheon was erected as a temple to all the gods.  It was first built in 27 BC and rebuilt several times, most notably by the Emperor Hadrian ca. 125 AD. 

The height and the width of the interior are equal, both at 43.3 meters or 142 feet. The only light enters from the large front doors and from the oculus or eye shaped hole in the roof. 

This is one of the best preserved buildings from classical antiquity, preserved mainly because it was turned into a church in 609 AD.

Pantheon interior, view towards main door.

At the end I'll  give you a taste of the collections in the Museum of Rome. (I have increased my total of photos on this museum from some 400, but don't worry, I won't inflict them ALL on you!) But first are some shots taken along the way to the Museum.

A side street with a passageway
 deliberately cut under a building. 
It connects the Via Torre Argentina 
with the Via Monterone. 
Some of these underpasses 
are not very well lit at night . . .
(arrow at n. 3 on map) 

 

These two shots are of the small church at the end of the above passageway. 

This church of Santa Maria in Monterone gives the street its name. The church was rebuilt in 1682 and, in 1728, it was assigned by Pope Benedict XIII (Orsini, 1724-1730) to the Mercedarian order. That order's objective was the ransoming of Christian slaves in Muslim countries. Even then there were very few members of this religious order, and romeartlover.it believes the attached monastery (right photo showing 98% of the building) to be one of the smallest in Rome. 

Undoubtedly this pious order has shifted the focus of its activities in recent centuries. 

Sant' Ivo and La Sapienza

  One short block further west, and the upper left view of the unusual tower of St. Ivo is suddenly visible. (Upper right, front of St. Ivo from the courtyard of La Sapienza. -- n. 5 on map) This church was begun by Pope Urban VIII (Barberini, 1623-1644). The church is one of the masterpieces of the architect Borromini. The lantern atop the dome represents the path to achieve supreme wisdom, and the flaming crown is a symbol of Divine Charity. This wonderful church is tucked into the buildings of La Sapienza, Rome's University, and has very limited visiting hours. (The University has vastly expanded in modern times and most of it is a little further from the center of town.)  I have mentioned this church before, but it remains a big favorite. 

Of course, another of my favorites is Sant' Andre della Valle, 
partly because it was one of the first churches in Rome I began to understand decades ago. 
The opera "Tosca" has its first act set in this church, another endearing aspect to me.
I'm not going to talk about this one right now. (n. 7 on map)

Off the Corso Rinascimento (a street forcibly widened in the early 20th Century) is a triangular open area behind the Palazzo Massimo. If you stand to the right of the ancient column, you can see the faint remains of what appear to be Renaissance frescoes. They probably were done originally in grey tones, and are much more faded than my photos indicate. But many palazzi were so decorated, some with colored frescoes, too.

(on the map, the above frescoes and the below alleyway are covered by the description of the Palazzo Braschi, below the n.8 marker.)

Turn around from looking at the ancient column and the frescoes, weave your way past the double parked cars, and you will spot this little back alleyway. It looks as if it is in a run down area, but at the other end of the alley is some very pricey real estate facing the famous Piazza Navona. I use this alley during daylight hours to evade the crowds, street vendors and beggars clogging the entryways to the Piazza Navona. 

Not even a hundred feet from that 

run down alley way is this courtyard 

of a very fine palazzo now turned 

into swanky flats.   

A Saturday afternoon crowd in the Piazza. 

On Sundays it is usually filled like a rush hour subway car with strolling people and vendors.
The most famous views are of the main fountain in the center, topped by an obelisk. I will include some of those in another posting.

The Piazza follows almost exactly the form and shape of the athletic stadium built by the Emperor Titus in 86 AD. It could hold an estimated 15,000-20,000 spectators, and was initially used for foot races and athletic contests.

(Below is the Google photo map again, in case you don't want to scroll back to the original map at the top of this blog entry. The Piazza Navona is the large sorta oval area on the left, above the green horizontal oval. In case the print is very tiny on your screen, the oval on the right is the Pantheon.)

At the point of this triangular palazzo is one of the best known of the "talking statues". In the 1600's, the great sculptor Bernini said this was the best sculpture from Classical Antiquity he had ever seen. The statue's location has been moved around the past few centuries, but none of its resting spots provided much shelter from the eroding rain.

This is an enlargement of the above photo, taken at the rear of the Palazzo Braschi, now the Museum of Rome. This ancient statue remnant may be of Menelaus with the body of the dead Patroclus, (the boon companion of the hero Achilles), a key scene in the Trojan War epic, "The Illiad".

But this is no ordinary statue, for it became in the 1700's, one of Rome's "Talking Statues". Of course the stones remain silent, but little notes would appear on them criticizing and satirizing the corrupt Papal government of Rome and other public figures. The powers that be were so offended, they had guards posted overnight at all the "Talking Statues", but these somehow did not remain mute. Anybody make any reforms? Scarcely.
(on western edge of the triangular shaped Palazzo Braschi)

 The Museum of Rome in the Palazzo Braschi. 

This palace has an interesting history, that you can read about yourself in English on the museum's website:

http://en.museodiroma.it/sede/palazzo_braschi

Very briefly, it was started at the end of the 1700's, and finished somewhat later.

This is the courtyard. The museum's ticket office is at the left, with the open doors. They also have very nice books for sale, too, but I think most of them are in Italian. I've had to force myself to NOT even THINK of buying more art and history books, a nearly hopeless addiction on my part.

Staircase with ancient statues in the niches, 
18 columns of ancient granite 
taken from a pilgrim's hospital near the Vatican and the Tiber. 
(The columns are originally from 
a portico built by the Emperor Caligula along the Tiber).

Below are more views of this very monumental staircase.

The short height between steps makes this very easy to walk, 
and even my long skirt does not drag on the treads.

A small door handle.

Painting of St. Camillo helping to rescue patients from the Santo Spirito Hospital during a flood of the adjacent Tiber river in the late 1500's.
In the left background of the painting there may be one of those granite columns now in the Palazzo's stairway?

This terracotta model for a marble bust of a cardinal doesn't look as if he was an impressive character. However, because of family connections he had quite a career in the church.

I don't know enough about him to say if Wikipedia's dismissive mention of his ineptitude in his post of dealing the with Vatican's international relations is correct or not. This is Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi, a relative of Pope Clement X's family, the Altieri. 

There is a great deal more to be said about this character, but I add only that he is reported as having been unusually attentive to becoming appointed or even appointing himself  to a vast number of offices on top of Clement X's officially adopting him as a "Cardinal Nephew", the most important title in those nepotism-laden papal times, because there were no more male heirs in the Pope's closer-in family. I'll have to poke around for more info on this laddie. 

This is a bust of Pope Clement XII Corsini,
done in the 1730's.
A duplicate of this bust is in the Capitoline Museums,
above another of the "talking statues"
because this is the Pope that created this entire wing of the
Capitoline Museums, the Palazzo Nuovo.

The bust of Clement XII Corsini is above this statue of a river god in the entry courtyard of the museum.

A general view of one of the galleries in the Palazzo Nuovo.

A portrait of the Danish archeologist Georg Zoega, done in the 1780's. This archeologist found the pieces of the now-famous Prometheus sarcophagus, depicting a deity's creation of the first human. This sarcophagus has been in the Capitoline Museums since its finding and restoration.

Here's the restored sarcophagus.

This isn't quite as dramatic as Michel-angelo's Creation scene on the Vatican's Sistine Chapel ceiling, but I am very fond of its showing the tender care the deities took for humans.

A view from the museum
of the Piazza Navona.
Notice the three police cars
on duty. Security forces are more noticeable this year in Rome.

 Before & After views of two famous sites.

The "Believe It or Not Award" winner:

THIS was the original layout of the Trevi fountain shown about a century before the world-famous stage-set
of sea creatures and deities
were added in 1732-1762. 

Yes, that's a very large basin for the washing of clothes at the left. There was also a watering trough for horses.

Although it is often very crowded, the Baroque version is an improvement!
(I'll do a feature on this another time.)

Here's a painting from 1847 of the other of Rome's most famous sites.

The city of Rome's size was vastly expanded once Italy was unified as a nation and Rome was decided upon as the capital in the later 1800's. 

Here's a view from last year.
There is a $35 million, three year extensive repairs project going on. 

For more info, see this 2014 article about the start of the project.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304518704579521583112244014

Or see this CBS TV video from last year about the three year project:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/romes-colosseum-brought-back-to-life/

This is a view of the inside from 1857.

I shot this panorama view a couple years ago.
The arena floor had been mostly removed to reveal
the corridors, cages, holding areas
and lift mechanism areas,
and the large Cross has been relocated. There may have been some Christians martyred here, but scholars think most of that occurred elsewhere. 

There is a GREAT DEAL more in this lovely museum. I removed most of the photos I intended for this blog, simply to keep this from growing too long.

We've been enjoying a very leisurely pace. I hope to bung some more (or few) of the three thousand snappy shots I've taken so far, AFTER I manage to wade through them more carefully.

We hope you all are well and enjoyed a jolly St. Paddy's Day in the USA.

Ciao, Carol

***** END OF POSTING *****

all photos 

(except as otherwise noted) 

and text are 

© Carol H. Johnson, 2016.