This blog is full!

One of the reasons it has taken me so long this time to post anything new is that this blog filled up.  I have set up part 2 of my adventures and you can find them at  http://romanrikk3.blogspot.com.  Feel free to continue visiting this page to look at pictures and read what I've written; this blog is not going away.  But for new and, hopefully, exciting adventures you will have to visit the other page.

Oh, one of the other reasons is I'm just plain lazy.  :-)

I love neon

As I walked home last night I passed by a section of town famous for its cafes and bars and restaurants.  It is Via Veneto and if you have ever seen La Dolce Vita you should recognize it as the place where they all hung out.  It is fun for me for three reasons:  one, it is actually a lovely walk, with wide sidewalks and trees and lovely shops with lovely windows.  Two, the items in those lovely shops are way beyond anything I could ever afford so it is pretty safe for me to window shop.  Yes, those are beautiful shoes but $600?  I don't think so.  Finally, I love neon and the neon is beautiful.  I'm not sure what it is about neon but the quality of light is just different.  I mean it doesn't really light up anything but it really catches the eye.  And if the sign is old you can even hear it hum.  Plus the light can be multi-sensory; a red neon light isn't really giving off much heat but it looks and feels so warm like a fire on a cold, winter's evening and a blue light can be as cool and refreshing as lemon gelato on a warm afternoon.  Perhaps it is because of growing up near Route 66 and all its neon signs-neon bringing back warm and fuzzy childhood memories? Then there is the way it reflects, off the buildings, off the backsplash, off the wet pavement.  It is an unobtrusive light that adds magic to a place that LED lights or colored lights just can't accomplish.

Carnivale

So yesterday I ventured out to Piazza del Popolo to check out the goings on on a beautiful, sunny Sunday.  It is carnival season here in Rome and Piazza del Popolo is where all the public activities are being held.  Even though I knew it would be crowded I still didn't expect as many people as I saw.  If you've been keeping up with my musings you remember that this piazza has three streets heading off in three different directions.  Well, I came up the middle street-Via del Corso-and about a half mile or more before the piazza it was already wall to wall people.  And these were the people leaving.  At first I thought that I had missed all the fun but then realized that, along with me, there were still scores and scores of people heading to the piazza.  I got there and it was packed.  Normally I am not a fan of crowds like this but about half the people there were about 7 and well behaved.  So, whereas in America I would feel claustrophobic because everyone else in the world is taller than I am and I wouldn't be able to see a thing, here, where I am a normal height for an adult, I had no problem seeing through and over the crowd-again thanks to half of them being very, very short...I mean young. 

I found my way to the middle of the piazza and stood on the base of the Obelisk in the center.  From there I had an excellent view of the arena where any moment now they'd start the horse show.  Any moment...or not.  Actually, two youngsters did some simple riding tricks, getting the horse to kneel, riding two at the same time, not falling off and breaking bones.  But otherwise the announcer just talked and talked and talked while five horsemen rode around in circles.  I got bored so I ventured on which is a good thing because otherwise I would never have seen the cute, young men on stilts spitting fire.  Nor would I have seen the 'Punch and Judy' show.  All in all it was a wonderful evening.

Baby, it's cold outside

It is a cold, rainy day here in Rome.  I'm curled up in my chair, wrapped up in a blanket, occasionally napping, and wishing there were three little dogs nestling in my lap.  I have books open, pen and paper for note taking and am surrounded by two racks of freshly washed and still drying clothes.  It's a good day-a good day to study and relax and nap.  I'm working this weekend on a presentation on the Domus Flavia-Domitian's grand palace at the top of the Palatine. I am somewhat astounded that I have no pictures of the remains as they are quite striking.  Perhaps I'll get a few sometime this weekend if I ever venture outside.  I know they say that witches only melt in movies but I never like to take that chance.

A couple weeks ago, on another cold and rainy day, we had to venture out to the Immigration Office to submit paperwork and be fingerprinted.  It was a long journey by bus and subway and bus again.  Most of us got lost at one point on the journey-we each had separate appointments so didn't travel as one large group.  It was appropriate weather for a day you had no time to in which to enjoy yourself anyway.  And the outskirts of Rome resembled the weather-dreary, cold, and a little sad. 

And now I must get back to my studying.

Two last paintings from the Villa Borghese

Titian-Sacred and Profane Love-1514-Nicoló Aurelio and Laura Bagarotto (Epithalamic-Nuptial Painting)

This painting was made early in Titian’s career but it didn’t receive its common name until much later, the end of the 16^th century.  It is a polysemic painting meaning that is open to multiple interpretations; interpretations that are based on the viewer’s level of culture and knowledge, and the circumstances at the time.  For example, art historian Erwin Panofsky considered this a neo-platonic painting and that the women represented Celestial Venus and Earthly Venus.  He based this partly on the castle in the background which is clearly the town of Asolo.  The Court of Caterina Cornaro, former queen of Cyprus who had given Cyprus to Venice, was the place in the day for artists, musicians, and poets such as Pietro Bembo who helped revive pastoral poetry.  These artists and poets would sit around and discuss neo-platonic philosophy and other important humanistic ideas.  Bembo’s Asolani was published around 1500 and would not have been unknown to Titian.

Another theory is that Sacred and Profane Love is based on Francesco Colonna’s Hpynerotomachia Poliphili, a bestselling novel about a boy who dreams and in his dreams he travels.  In one of his travels he meets two women at a fountain.

Another art historian (whose name I didn’t write down because it was supposed to be on our handouts but it wasn’t-something like Rona Goffrey) discovered the coat of arms on the fountain of Nicoló Aurelio.  With further study she discovered the coat of arms of the Bagarotto family in the silver bowl.  After a great deal of research she discovered there was a connection.  Nicoló Aurelio was a citizen of Venice but not a nobleman.  Laura Bagarotto was a young woman with a tragic past: her family was considered to be traitorous to Venice and all of the male members were executed, including her husband, and the family’s titles and properties confiscated.  The two met, fell in love (or not), and married.  By marrying Laura, Nicoló was able to regain the family’s titles and properties for Laura and become a nobleman as part of the package.  It is quite possible that he commissioned Titian to create this painting as a wedding painting.  Venus and Cupid, unseen by Laura, are present to bring luck-read fertility and lots of sons-to the marriage.  Another symbol in the painting points to it being a nuptial painting, the basket with jewels often represented a dowry.  The painting may be a talismanic image for marriage but that is no reason to discount the other theories as they are just as valid points of view.

Danae-Corregio-1531-Frederico II, Duke of Mantua

Frederico commissioned a series of paintings based on the loves of Jupiter: Io, Leda, Ganymede, and Danae.  Jupiter often had to disguise himself when seducing his loves to keep from frightening them and, more importantly, to hide from his jealous wife, Juno.  Danae was the daughter of Acrisius who had received an oracle telling him he would be killed by the son of Danae.  Thinking ahead, he built a tower and locked his daughter up in it.  Jupiter saw her, fell in love, and came to her in the guise of a golden shower.  Imagine Acrisius’ surprise to discover his daughter had given birth to a lovely little boy, Perseus but that’s another story.

During the Middle Ages, the poetry of Ovid had been translated with a moral bent; the story of Jupiter and Danae was considered a reference to the annunciation.  Renaissance artists-poets, painters, thinkers, etc.-rediscover sensuality and bring it back into the light.  This painting is sensuous and is meant to be.  It helped open the doors for future artists like Caravaggio.  Cupid is seen assisting Jupiter by taking Danae’s clothes off and pointing to the golden drops falling from the sky, which Danae clearly is enjoying.  This painting marks the rebirth of erotic art.