A Very Busy Day

May 16, 2019

A Very Busy Day

Today was absolutely filled to the brim with masterpieces by artists I have spent most of my college education studying. When I woke up, my back wasn't any better, but at least it wasn't worse. We had to be ready to go by 8:30. No matter how early I get up, I never feel like I'm ready by the time Steve asks. Maybe I will tomorrow, but who's to say.

The first place we checked out was a chapel called Saint Mary of the People and it had two paintings by Caravaggio. In the Chesari Family Chapel, the painting over the altar was done by traditional painter Carracci and the two paintings on the side were by Caravaggio. The Conversion of St Paul was definitely considered scandelous. C often used street people as his models and he would include their dirty hands and feet. This particular painting was wild because he made sure the horse's rear end was pointed to his enemy's painting. Petty.

The Conversion of St Paul

The Martrydom of St Peter is traditional enough subject matter, but in this painting it is clearly evident that C included all sorts of scandelous detail. He always did what he wanted and this got him in plenty of trouble. This scene is brutal and scary as it shows Peter already nailed to the cross. The positioning of this work of art is key because Peter looks at the altar for the grace of God.

In both works of art, Caravaggio uses a technique called chiaroscuro which is basically the use of dramatic light and dark. There isn't excessive decoration and it's intended to be intimate. His style really worked for the Chesari family because they continued to commission art from him.

The Martyrdom of St Peter

I can't remember which church we were walking to, but at some point in the day during our walk, we saw a group of older missionaries. Steve stopped us and starting shouting, "Elder! Elder!" Eventually we caught his attention, and the older missionary tried to get the attention of his wife, "Gerri! Gerri! Oh, dang it, Sister! Sister!" We all thought it was pretty funny.

We walked down a few streets to the Church of Saint Agostino to check out a few things, namely the Madonna of the Pilgrims/Madonna of Loreto. This altarpiece was commissioned by the Medici family (a powerhouse family back in the day). It is absolutely beautiful but it raised several eyebrows. Mary is absolutely human rather than depicted like the Queen of Heaven; it looks like she is living in some shabby tenement. The pilgrims are in an act of prayer, which is a big deal. This church was a pit stop for many pilgrims (kind of like Pioneer Trek) and when they saw this work of art it would just be absolutely familiar. The pioneers behave in a way that teaches the audience. They also shorten the divide between heaven and earth by almost touching Mary and the Christ child. The surprise of the work of art must not have been too bad because a family member didn't mind being buried in front of it. My favorite part of it is how he painted Mary's shawl.

In another cathedral is a cool chapel that was designed by Raphael. There is a creepy ceiling artwork that looks like they have thrown a skeleton down to death or to hell and the skeleton is under our feet. NOPE. Two Bernini sculptures are in the chapel.

In that same cathedral is a private chapel with only Caravaggio paintings. With the Martyrdom, it was way too complicated for Caravaggio; he didn't like doing pieces that had a billion people in them since he wasn't very comfortable with depicting the human form to begin with (that's because he pushed away his teachers and wouldn't get along with anyone). Within this painting, there is a little self-portrait of Caravaggio way in the background. I think its a decent painting by Caravaggio. It's dramatic and uses powerful poses to captivate the viewer. The lighting is really very cool.

The Martyrdom of St Matthew

With the St Matthew and the Angel, his initial painting was considered way too offensive to be accepted so they made him redo it. The original had Saint Matthew's dirty feet right in the viewer's face. Furthermore, the angel's hand was physically guiding Matthew and that was just way too intense for the people who commissioned it. That copy was destroyed in WWII but we have photos of the work of art. So this version has his foot to the side and the angel is up above, dictating what Matthew should write.

St Matthew and the Angel

With the Calling of St Matthew, Caravaggio made the subject matter approachable by putting most of the figures in contemporary clothes. Christ, however, is wearing a type of toga and does a kind of Michelangelo Creation of Adam pose from the Sistine ceiling. This painting is about a sinner, not a saint; it calls for repentance and the light on the right corner is a reference to the window that the painting would be by. This is a way to transform natural light into heavenly light. As with all other Caravaggio paintings, there is no following of decorum when depicting religious art. I think this is a really beautiful painting. I like how Christ is shown. It's just pretty.

Calling of St Matthew

During the fall semester 2018, I took a seminar with Steve all about Caravaggio. A seminar is basically a very intense study on a specific artist (I did one on Caravaggio and one on Napoleon). It was way cool to see works by a man that I studied so much about. For my final paper, I wrote about and diagnosed Caravaggio with a mental disorder. When I took a picture with these works of art, Steve crept up and photo-bombed me!

The last stop we made before lunch was the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini. I always thought it was cool but then I learned about it today. Less cool. It pushes an agenda. It suggests that anyone that isn't Catholic isn't enlightened (The art is basically one big @ to Asia). Learning about this was annoying especially after my Non-Western art class I took this semester (study of art outside of Europe and colonized America). Honestly, there are way more similarities within all religions than there are differences (at least as a whole). Anyway, less cool. Yeah, it's impressive that Bernini did the thing but could he not, though?

Today's lunch was pizza. Honestly, I didn't think this would happen. Italians really do just eat pasta and pizza all the time. I don't know what I expected but this wasn't it. I've been trying not to complain too much but Steve sent me and a few others who have been unwell in a taxi to the Borghese Gallery and the rest of the group would walk and meet up with us. I got some good pics because of it (Thanks Megan).

I understand that whoever might be reading this blog might share it with their children and I respect your decision to withhold certain content. A number of the sculptures in the rest of this post may feature the nude figure. This is a classical idea which praises the human form in a very idealized form. It isn't intended to be suggestive. In my preparation for each post, I am very careful in selecting which images I will post about; when taking photos, I try to take images which don't include sensitive areas. However, the following images are significant to the history of art and I do not feel are problematic.

So Cardinal Borghese was a rich dude who turned this vineyard into just a beautiful garden. Eventually it was turned into a museum. The first stop we made was for Paolina Borghese by Canova. Paolina was Napoleon Bonaparte's sister and she led a more suggestive, scandalous life than what was considered appropriate for women of the day. Her husband wanted a sculpture of her and they thought it would be a good idea to show her as a more modest, chill goddess. She was like, NAH, and forced Canova to make her as Venus/Aphrodite.

Canova was a 19th century sculptor who was very Neo-Classical. That means that he was with other artists reviving classical ideals from the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Canova is absolutely a better sculptor than I am; however, I know there are definitely best sculptors out there. They're just kind of boring, in my opinion.

Time to talk a bit about Bernini. He was taught by his dad how to be a sculpture. At only 8 years old, he surpassed his dad and was called a child prodigy. Eventually, Bernini was just insanely rich. He had a workshop of people who worked for him but he didn't pay them what they were worth and he didn't give them credit. Since it was their only option because Bernini had the monopoly on the market, they went with the flow. So as cool as the Bern is, he kind of isn't.

We saw Bernini's David. What's so unique about this is that this guy is in motion. It was done in about 6 months. It is meant to be seen from all angles. Some scholars argue that this was meant to be a bit of a self-portrait. At the bottom of the sculpture is a pile of his armor. Because of the bible story, Bernini showed David younger and a younger man wouldn't be able to fit the armor well enough to effectively use a sling. Another cool fact is that a few (a hundred or so) years prior, my man da Vinci wrote a guide on how to draw someone throwing something. Bernini appeared to have used that guide for this sculpture. The world is so small.

Another unique attribute of this sculpture is that most Davids are completely in the nude, Bernini used the appearance of fabric and the motion of the figure to mask the nudity. In addition to the lack of nudity, Bernini focused on emotion and movement. He preferred to show the art right at the moment of action. You'll see in the next few sculptures that he definitely did just that.

The next room held Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. The story goes that Apollo was really pissing off Eros so he struck Apollo with an arrow of gold and Daphne with an arrow of lead. The gold caused Apollo to fall in love with Daphne and Daphne was so not in love, she wanted to remain a virgin forever. Now, Daphne's dad really wanted her to get married and she really didn't want to. Luckily, her dad listened to her and let her have her own way. One day, Apollo is just pursuing her so much and she is over it. As she runs away from the god, she cries out for her dad to change her into a tree so she could be left alone. Pop changes her form and this scene captures the moment of her transformation.

This scene shows the moment of transition; Daphne's toes turn into roots and it honestly looks kind of spooky. Her fingers turn into branches and leaves. There's all sorts of texture on this sculpture from the bark to the leaves to the hair to the skin to the fabric to the rock. It's so much!

This is one of the sculptures that Bernini used his workshop for (HIS NAME WAS FINELLI). Great job, Finelli.

The work of art that I presented on was the Rape of Persephone. Rape in this case means "abduction" and not what we are used to hearing these days.

The myth of the Rape of Persephone tells the story of how the different seasons of the year came to be. Due to the similarity between the Greek and Roman myths and for the sake of continuity, the Roman names will be used for this presentation (Pluto is Hades, Proserpina is Persephone, Venus is Aphrodite, Ceres is Demeter, Jupiter is Zeus, Amor is Cupid, and Mercury is Hermes). In the 1st century CE, Ovid gave two versions of the myth of Proserpina in Latin; this same myth was told in Claudian’s 5th century De Raptu Proserpinae.

Venus wanted to bring love into the life of Pluto so she sent Amor to hit Pluto with his arrow. It was at this time that Proserpina was near Enna in Sicily, collecting flowers and playing with nymphs. Pluto came out of the volcano Etna and he abducted her so he might marry and live with her in the underworld, which Jupiter gave permission for. Proserpina’s mother, Ceres, crossed the world looking for her. The only evidence she found of her daughter was a belt floating in a small made from the nymphs’ tears. Jupiter attempted to explain to Ceres that the marriage was of great honor because Pluto was the Lord of the Underworld. Ceres wouldn’t return to the home of the Gods and halted the growth of fruits and vegetables; she created a desert with every step she took walking the earth looking for her daughter.

Jupiter attempted to send Iris to plead with Ceres to relent in her mourning in order to bring back the plants. After Iris failed in doing so, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina and Pluto complied. However, before he set her free, Pluto sweetly spoke to Proserpina and offers her a pomegranate, knowing that if she were to eat it, she would have to return to him. She ate 6 pomegranate seeds, and because of this, the goddess would have to live 6 months every year with Pluto.

In another version of the myth, Proserpina took the fruit willingly and knowingly—but it was only four seeds; so when Jupiter demanded that she leave the world of the dead, Pluto made a deal with Jupiter. Since she stole the seeds, she would need to live with Pluto for four months of the year in return. The myth claims that when Proserpina joins Pluto in the underworld, the world seems to die and turn brown; when Proserpina joins the world of the living, the plants bloom and flourish in a response to Ceres being with her daughter again.

This work of art was inspired by another work called Rape of the Sabines by Bologna in the 1580's. It is absolutely insane. Pluto is looking at Proserpina like the event is funny, which may be a reference to the arrow he was struck by. Proserpina in comparison has tears streaming down her face and the emotion is absolutely tangible. Another thing that Bernini captures is the appearance of skin and flesh. I was able to grab a photo of a detail of Pluto's grip on Proserpina's leg. Honestly, I can't imagine being that good at anything. At the foot of the sculpture is the three headed dog of Pluto and it acts as a stabilizer which allows the sculpture to be less prone to the test of gravity. Marble is a heavy, delicate medium and having one more thing to help the sculpture is good.

Saint Jerome Writing is a simple piece and it may have been done as a thank you present to a cardinal who helped out Caravaggio when he was in trouble. Since Caravaggio got in trouble a lot, I would imagine he made lots of works of art as a way to say thanks. This work of art got Caravaggio mentioned to the pope and he would later be given the chance to do a painting for Saint Peter's Basilica.
The subject matter is Saint Jerome. Jerome is given credit for having translated the bible from Greek and Aramaic to Latin. The halo over Jerome is so thin, but it's lovely.

Madonna of the Serpent by Caravaggio is not a traditional scene. It shows Mary and Jesus with Mary's mom, Anne. Mary and Jesus are stamping out evil. It was meant to be shown in Saint Peter's Basilica but this work of art was so far from what the commissioners wanted that it was rejected under 48 hours of it being delivered. Unlike past works, Caravaggio was not given another chance to paint it. This was absolutely humiliating for the artist.

This absolutely shocking work of art is David and Goliath.

In 1606, Caravaggio got in a fight and he wounded someone who later died from his wounds. This led the artists to flee Rome and he would never return. With the artist on the run and suffering from his own wounds, he reached out to a cardinal who worked hard to help him out. His murder rap was updated to self defense and Caravaggio was allowed to come back to Rome. There is speculation that this painting was done to show Caravaggio's guilty soul as a gift to the cardinal; perhaps it would instill faith in him that he would never act out like that again. He never would have the chance; he sent the painting to Rome and Caravaggio boarded a boat to return to the city. Along the way, he got sick and died before arriving; he was buried in an unmarked grave in summer of 1610.

The painting features a self-portrait of Caravaggio as the head of Goliath. This gory, horrible scene still shows him half alive. It's terrifying. The David isn't a roaring, successful boy but rather a sorrowful, somber one.

Sick Bacchus is a spooky self-portrait by Caravaggio. Bacchus is the God of revelry and wine; he is considered the alter ego of artists due to their wild personalities but ability to create a sense of the divine. At this point in Caravaggio's life, there is speculation that he was either suffering from malaria or was sick from being wounded by a horse. This painting is a self-portrait and it is a curious way to show oneself.

After the museum, despite my back pain, I went with some friends to row in a little lake in the Borghese gardens. I'm glad I did because it was so beautiful!