Following Michelangelo: Rome II (7/9/1983)

Saturday, July 9, 1983

It was so noisy we didn’t hear my alarm go off at 7:30, but we woke up soon after on our own. After a breakfast of bread with butter and jam, with tea, Marsha Cotter and I walked over to Via XX Septembre to Porta Pia/Pia Gate, the last architectural work of Michelangelo.

Porta Pia

It had a white façade but interior brick housing some kind of museum (Museo Storico dei Bersaglieri/Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri military regiment). We passed through the gate, walked along the outside wall, then made our way to Villa Borghese set in a large park with fake Roman ruins, several museums, and a zoo. We headed directly to the Borghese Gallery and paid the 2,000 ITL/$1.30 entry fee.

Borghese Gallery 

In the entrance hall were inlaid mosaic floors. The first room to the right was the reclining Venus (1805-1808) by Antonio Canova, better known as Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister. We also found Jean Antoine Houdon’s model of St John the Baptist, and in the next room, there was a scowling David (1623-1624) with his slingshot, supposedly a self-portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Bernini's David

The following room had Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625, she is turning into a tree). Through a chapel to the Emperor’s Room with Bernini’s Rape of Persephone (1621-1622), where you can see where Hades' fingers dig into her thigh, and on to the copy of Bernini’s Hermaphrodite.

Bernini's Rape of Persephone

A corner room contained Bernini’s Truth Discovered by Time (a young man carrying an old man with sagging skin). There was also an unfinished (?) Bernini: Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1618-1619).

The Egyptian Room had a small basalt sphinx pair, and the last room had a Roman copy of the Greek Dancing Faun. We returned to the Emperor’s Room to go up the spiral stairs to the painting gallery. In the entrance, we picked out Tiziano’s Three Ages of Man, Venus and Cupid, and Psyche. In the next room were three of Raffaello’s works: Young Woman with Unicorn, Portrait of a Man, and The Entombment. Also Pinturicchio’s Crucifixion of Sts Jerome and Christopher, Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna and Child, St John and the Angels, and a Pietro Perugino Madonna and Child. The following room had Il Sodoma’s Pietà, Albrecht Dürer’s Portrait of a Man, Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Venus and Cupid, Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna and Child, and the Labours of Hercules frescoes.

Back to the left of the entrance, we found Lorenzo Lotto’s Holy Conversation, Palma the Elder’s Return of the Prodigal Son, and Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo’s Tobias and Angel. Beyond was a Pietro da Cortona portrait, Sibyl by Domenichino, and a Flight into Egypt by Giuseppe Cesari. Next Giulio Romano’s Madonna and works by the mannerist painter Pellegrino Tibaldi.

Then again across the entrance hall to the Capolavori/Masterpiece Room of Caravaggio to see his interesting Madonna dei Palafreniere, David with the Head of Goliath, St Jerome, and two easel portraits of Young Bacchus and Boy Holding a Basket of Fruit. There was also the Hunt of Diana by Domenichino and Annibale Caracci’s Christ Brought to the Tomb. The sculptures in the room were by Bernini; bust of the Borghese Cardinal, and a model of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV. The next room had Peter Paul Rubens Lamentation of the Death of Christ and three Bernini portraits; two self portraits and one of a young boy. A smaller room had the Adoration of Shepherds and The Fall of Lucifer, then Francesco Francia’s St Stephen and another Deposition. Yet another room with Peter Paul Rubes’s Susanna and the Elders, and another with Danaë by Coreggio and Circe by Dosso Dossi. Oh my gosh, still another room, with Tiziano’s Sacred and Profane Love and his Venus and Cupid, as well as Paolo Veronese’s St John the Baptist Preaching and Palma’s Portrait of a Youth. A Giovanni Bellini Madonna and Child, Vittore Carpaccio’s Courtesan, and Giorgione’s Two Men. We also saw Agnolo Bronzino’s St John the Baptist.

We left the Borghese Gallery to return to the outer wall and follow it to Porta/Gate Pinciana, entered the inner city and followed Via Vittorio Veneto as the empty cafés slowly came to life. We passed the U.S. Embassy and circled down to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini/Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins. We entered the Cripta/crypt, the underground cemetery, highly decorated with bones and skeletons of the Capuchin friars. We left a donation of 1,000 ITL/65 cents each.

At Piazza Barberini, we first passed the Fontana delle Api/Little Bee Fountain by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with a sea motif. Where were the bees? (Actually on a smaller fountain in the corner of the piazza; what we saw was the Fontana del Tritone, also by Bernini.)

Fontana del Tritone/Triton's Fountain

We continued past the Piazza della Colonna, then down Via del Corso to Piazza Venezia. The 15C Palazzo di Venezia with the balcony where Mussolini gave his speeches held a banner telling of the exhibit in the museum inside. Across from the palace is the Palazzo Buonaparte, and to its left was the Basilica di San Marco Evangelista/St Mark the Evangelist, built from remnants of earlier versions of the church and ancient Roman stonework. We passed the dominant Vittoriana built over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. It an immense and white, and is nicknamed "The Wedding Cake," or "the Dentures," or "Typewriter." We walked around to the right to the Campidoglio, the steep steps leading to Basilica di Santa Maria d’Aracoeli that stands on the site where the sibyl told Augustus of the coming of Christ. Instead of talking the steps to the Basilica, we took the steps of the Cordanata designed by Michelangelo. The medieval bride stairs under the arbor were closed. Two Egyptian lions flanked the bottom of the stairs and at the top were two enormous statues of Castor and Pollux. Partway up the steps we passed the statue of Cola di Rienzo, who led the revolt of the Papacy against Roman nobles. Behind that was a cage overgrown with weeds that is supposed to always house a she-wolf in memory of the she-wolf that nurtured the twin founders of Roma, Romulus and Remus. The Piazza di Campodoglio was set up for a concert, and thusly the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius was removed. Legend states that when all the gilt wears off the bronze statue statue, the world will end, or it will turn gold again on Judgment Day. Now we don't know how close we are to the end of the world! Michelangelo didn’t want to use this statue, but ended up making it the focal point of the square. Straight ahead was the Capitol of Roma, built on the site of the ancient Senate, where Michelangelo designed the double staircase. The fountain has personifications of the rivers Nile (leaning on a sphinx) and Tiber (with a she-wolf with twins), with the river god in the center.
We went to the left to enter the Capitoline Museum in a building, Palazzo Nuovo, designed by Michelangelo to match the new façade of the Conservatory across the square. We paid 2,000 ITL/$1.30 for two tickets.

Capitoline Museum ticket

We first encountered the colossal statue of Oceanus, before being directed to the right up the stairs to see the dramatic dying Gaul, a Roman copy of a Greek statue, and Cupid and Psyche. The next area had the red marble Laughing Silenius, a young boy with a duck, and two gray centaurs from Hadrian’s Villa. In the next gallery were busts of philosophers with interesting faces, and the next room of Emperors’ busts, no two alike! There were high reliefs on the walls. In the final hall we saw Minerva di Velletri and farther along, the Drunken Woman. We saw the Capitoline Venus in a “cabinet/small octagonal room,” which was inspired by the Greek Venus by Parxiteles. We couldn’t find the Wounded Amazon. In the Hall of Doves were the mosaics from Hadrian’s Villa, including the one with four dove drinking from a basin, and a colorful pair of masks. Plus a copy of a Greek statue of a girl holding a dove away from a snake.

Back outside, we saw a wedding couple getting their picture taken by the fountain.

Wedding photo with the river god

We crossed to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, where the courtyard contained pieces of the shattered Glory of Constantine. Inside we went upstairs to the hall with the Bernini statue of Pope Urban VIII, and a bronze Pope Innocent X. They looked like twins in their papal garb and hands held up in benediction. The next hall had statues of five generals, and the next had frescoes and a 1C BCE bronze of a boy picking a thorn from the bottom of his foot (still working at it after all these years!). Also an Etruscan bronze head of Brutus. The following hall had the Capitoline Wolf, an Etruscan bronze of a 5-6C BCE. It is thought that the twins were added in the 15C by Pollaiolo (probably Antonio del). The next room had the bronze bust of Michelangelo made from his death mask, and a marble Medusa head by Bernini. Circling around to the lobby, we saw Arnolfo di Cambio’s sculpture of Charles Anjou. There followed a room with the municipal dignitary names on the wall, and a gallery to the right had the Esquiline Venus of the 1C BCE. In another room we found epigraphs giving honorary citizenship of Roma to Petrarch, Michelangelo, Tiziano, and Bernini. We passed several more sculptures, then came to rooms with bronze artifacts, a chariot, a litter, a death bed, and statuettes. Then Greek vases, and the final room had a statue of Hercules, and Marsyas (hanging by his hands from a tree).

We headed upstairs to the Pinacoteca/picture gallery. In the first room was an Annunciation and Sacred Family by Garofalo. Next a Dosso Dossi Sacred Family. Next Domenico Tintoretto’s Baptism of Christ and Mary Magdalene. Lorenzo Lotto’s Young Man Holding a Crossbow and Tiziano’s Baptism of Christ, and an unfinished Adultress by Palma, Sr. Next Van Dyck portraits, Peter Paul Rubens’s Romulus and Remus, Luca Cambiaso’s Madonna and Child, and Salvator Rosa’s Soldier and Witch pendants. The next room had Pietro Lorenzetti’s St Clare and St Bartholomew. We spotted Caravaggio’s Fortune-Telling Gypsy, along with Domenichino’s Sibyl and Guido Reni’s St Sebastian. More rooms of paintings by what are now becoming familiar names: Domenichino, Guido Reni, Annibale and Ludovica Caracci, etc. A room with a bronze gilt statue of Hercules. An end gallery had porcrlain, and its end was an easel with Caravaggio’s St John (unusual in that he was a boy!), and on the wall to the right was a Pompeo Batoni Madonna and Child.

Leaving the Capitoline Museum, we walked to the right/south side of the Senate building for a view on the Foro Romano/Roman Forum, seeing the Via del Foro with the original flagstones.

View of Roman Forum

The road was blocked, so we went around the left side of the Senate building past the Mamertine Prison where St Peter baptized his fellow prisoners and/or his jailers from a miracle spring. We saw how the Senate fit neatly in the Forum ruins. Several buildings in the Forum were covered with scaffolding, but we got a close up look at the Arch of Septimius Severus built to commemorate the victories of his and his two sons. One of his sons was later assassinated and all mention of him was removed from public buildings, including this arch.

After an ice cream and water break, we paid 4,000 ITL/$2.50 to enter the Forum.

Roman Forum ticket

It was hot and hazy. We veered right to the remains of the Basilica Emilia that was destroyed by fire set by the Gauls. The Forum was the center of Roma for money-changing and business affairs, and was once lined with shops. Various remains were covered with make-shift tin roofs. Next was the brick Curia, once the Senate House. It was well-preserved because it was consecrated as a church. In front of it was the Lapis Niger, a large black flagstone though to cover the grave of Romulus. You could walk down under the flagstone to see brick ruins.

We passed the inside of the Arch of Septimius Severus and saw the wall of the rostra to its left. It was once used by public speakers and was adorned by rostra, the prows of ships captured in a battle, thus the word rostrum (perhaps better known as the stand from which a conductor leads an orchestra). In front was a large open area, the comitium/assembly, for the people to gather, until Julius Caesar moved it to what is now Campo de’ Fiori. The way to the umbilicus urbis/symbolic center of Roma was blocked.

The eight Ionic columns of the Temple of Saturn were under scaffolding. This is where the Saturnalia, the basis for our modern-day carnivals, were held. The remains of the Basilica Giulia was once the law court. Three columns are what’s left of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, who helped the Romans in battle, and flew to Roma to bring the news of victory. To its left was supposed to be a pool with reliefs of the story. Here Castor and Pollux watered their horses.

Next was the Temple of Julius Caesar, on the site he was cremated. We saw the tiny circular foundation of the Temple of Vesta, where the Vestal Virgins had to maintain a sacred fire. Behind it was a garden courtyard with a few statues of the Virgins.

Temple of Vesta

It is said that one statue was removed when she eloped with her lover. On the hillside behind the Temple of Castor and Pollux were the remains of the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, the first temple converted to a church.  There was also the Regia or pontiff’s office. Looking across to the north side of the Forum, there was the Temple of Antonius and Faustina, an Emperor and his wife, with monolithic columns and a sculptured frieze on the right side. It was made into a church with a Baroque façade.

We continued up Via Sacra where processional marches took place. We passed the circular Temple of Romulus with a bronze door and supposedly the original lock. Opposite on the hillside were three gigantic arches of the Basilica Maxentius. We arrived at the Arch of Titus with bas reliefs on the inner side, showing the carting away of the spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem (candelabra, etc.) and Titus in his triumphal chariot. We then walked up Palatine Hill and turned right to the Orti Farnesi, the gardens and site of the palace of Tiberius. We climbed up to the Casino and to one corner for a view down on the Forum.

View down on Roman Forum

We went to a rear corner to take stairs down to the Temple of Cybele. A lot of excavation was still going on. We found Cybele’s statue in a niche on the hillside. We continued to the House of Livia, actually the house of Augustus. We couldn’t enter, but peeked into the courtyard to see the original Pompeii type frescoes from, 2,000 years ago! We went through a passage with original bits of stucco, and climbed up to the Flavian palace, grass-covered labyrinths of brick foundations of buildings laid out around courts. In the center was an octagonal maze. The palace of Augustus was now a museum showing fragments of frescoes and sculptures.

We looked down into the Palatine Hippodrome, of which someone was doing an oil painting. The way through the Septimius Severus baths was closed, so we had to return to the Arch of Titus, via the Clivus Palatinus, paved in a helter-skelter manner. In some of the buildings you could see the floors were built up on brick supports, and this may have been where they had underfloor heating.

We left the Forum to find the Arch of Constantine completely under scaffolding. We crossed to the Coliseum where there are new entrances.

The Coliseum

The Coliseum was so-named because of a colossal statue of Nero, but its official name was the Flavian Amphitheater. Here they held gladiator competitions, mock naval battles, and wild animal hunts. It was later a fortress, then a quarry for the Palazzo Venezia and the Cancelleria. Then it was consecrated as a church as seen by the simple wooden cross put up by Pope Pius IX. You can see the substructures that were below the floor of the area; passages, animal cages, and elevators, too! I looked for cats, but didn’t see any. You had to pay to climb higher than the ground floor. We walked around behind the Coliseum, crossed the tram tracks to climb to Domus Aurea, Nero’s Golden House, which was buried when he died and rediscovered during the Renaissance.

Roman tram

It was at first thought to be grottoes and the interesting stucco décor became known as grotesques, copied by Raffaello, for one. Today it was unfortunately closed. We continued to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano/St John Lateran, entering through the transept door. The transept is supposed to be the most beautiful part of the church with marbles and the frescoes telling the story of Constantine. Within the papal altar is a piece of wood supposedly from the table where St Peter celebrated Mass. Also there was supposed to be a fragment from the Last Supper table in the altar across from the apse door, but we couldn’t find an apse door. And it is said the heads of Sts Peter and Paul are in the tabernacle. The basilica was mainly designed by Francesco Borromini and has a 16C wooden ceiling. The altar has a Gothic canopy with frescoes by Barna da Siena. At the other end of the transept was the Chapel of the Blessed Scrament flanked by four bronze column plated in gold, supposedly from the Campidoglio. From the last chapel in the left aisle we walked out into the cloisters, which were similar to those of St Paul’s Outside the Walls with less-well preserved binate/paired columns with inlaid marble.

Basilica St John Lateran cloister

Back inside in the chapel that had a Baldassare Croce fresco. The first chapel in the left aisle was dedicated to St Andreas Corsini, and designed by Alessandro Galilei. Inside to the left was the tomb of Pope Clement XII with an urn from the Pantheon. On the central altar is a mosaic of St Andrew by Guido Reni. The gate was of gilt bronze. We walked out to see the main façade, also by Galilei, with statues of Christ and the apostles, and saints on the balustrade. Far to the left of the vestibule was a marble statue of Constantine. The central bronze doors are said to be from the Forum Senate House. We found the Holy Door to the extreme right, and entered.

Basilica St John Lateran Holy Door

St John Lateran is the oldest of the four papal basilicas. The nave contained statues of the twelve apostles in pillar niches. In the right aisle, attributed to by Giotto di Bondone, showing Pope Boniface VIII proclaiming the Jubilee of 1300. We returned to exit out the front and walked around to the building with the Scala Sancta/Holy Steps, the staircase thought to be from the house of Pontius Pilate and the one Christ walked up in the Passion to be presented to Pilate for judgment.

Scala Sancta/Holy Steps

The were brought to Roma by the Mother Empress Helen. We saw the 28 steps protected by wooden planks where worshippers ascend on their knees. There are parallel stairs for spectators, and one can receive the same indulgence for climbing those on their knees. We then went to Piazza San Giovanni. We didn’t see a way into the Baptistery, so went to catch a bus to the Caracalla Baths.

There was an older American lady waiting for the bus, who had seen all the Villa Borghese museums and was now on her way to the Baths. She thought all Romans could ride the bus for free, since she never saw them use a ticket. When we arrived at the Caracalla Baths, we at first went in the service entrance meant for the opera that is performed in the ruins. We got headed in the right direction and paid for our 2,000 ITL/$1.30 tickets.

Caracalla Baths ticket

These baths were second largest public baths after the Diocletian Baths, but there is more remaining of these brick baths. We walked around the back, which was set up for the opera “Tosca.”

Caracalla Baths opera stage

We entered to see remains of mosaic tiles here and there, on the ground or in huge pieces leaning against walls. We tried to imagine where the central trepidarium/tepid baths were flanked by the frigidarium/cold baths and caldarium/hot baths.

Caracalla Baths ruins

After using the restroom, we went out to walk up Via delle Terme di Caracalla to Circus Maximus. It was a mess; the central area looked barren like a drive-in movie theater parking lot and the ground was dug up here and there. We continued back to the Coliseum and beyond to the Basilica San Pietro in Vincoli/St Peter in Chains, built to preserve the chains that bound St Peter. It was very dark inside so we couldn’t appreciate the ancient columns. Far to the right was the mausoleum of Julius II, incomplete. The dominant figure was Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses. Michelangelo interpreted the Bible passage as describing Moses with horns or beams of light, and it looks like Moses has little horns. He also started the two statues on either side, one of Leah representing active life, and one of Rachel representing contemplative life, and they were finished by pupils. Beneath the main altar were the chains. We went outside to sit and rest, only to hear thunder as it started to rain. It began to rain harder and harder, and we moved from the portico to back in the church. Finally it let up enough that we continued onward; I had my little umbrella and Marsha wore my white hooded jacket. By the time we arrived at Santa Maria Maggiore/Major, the rain had stopped. It is called major because it is the largest church in Roma dedicated to Mary, and it is the third papal basilica in Roma. It is built on a site where the Virgin appeared to Pope Liberius and ordered him to build a church where snow would fall the following day (in August). We noted the tallest bell tower in Roma, and entered the basilica from the rear. The ceiling was coffered and supposedly gilded with gold brought back from the New World by Christopher Columbus. There were mosaics above the columns of Old Testament prophets, and of the Infancy of Christ in the triumphal arch. The main altar had a canopy designed by Ferdinando Fuga on porphyry columns. Under the altar is a crypt of the Nativity with relics from the manger from Bethlehem. The apse has mosaics of the Triumph of the Virgin. On the far right was the Cappella Sistina/Sistine Chapel with a bronze tabernacle supported by four angels. On the left was the Cappella Borghese, said to be one of the most beautiful chapels in the world. Above the altar was a Byzantine style Madonna. We went into the Baptistery and over the altar was a bas relief of the Assumption by Pietro Bernini (Gian Loenzo’s dad). Both Berninis are buried here.

We made our way to the front/back to find the Holy Door, to walk through our third of the four Holy Doors open this Jubilee Year of Redemption.

We walked past the train station back to the YWCA to freshen up.

View from YMCA room

We went to a Pizzeria on Via Magenta, to have pizza with salad. Marsha had a pizza with mushrooms and ham, and mine just had mushrooms. With mineral water, the bill came to 13,530 ITL/$8.80, and even got change of two 10 ITL coins. Tonight I took two aspirin right away to fall asleep, and covered myself with insect repellent because of all the mosquito bites I had gotten. Slept better.