Daily Archives: December 18, 2017

The Borghese Gallery, Rome

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Day 95, Friday December 8, 2017

On our way to the Borghese Gallery today we see a truck double parked on a busy street. This is not unusual in Rome, but what caught my attention is that he was selling flowers from the back of his truck, and had no intention of moving any time soon.The Borghese Gallery was built in the early 1600’s.This informative five-minute video gives a bit of the history of the Villa and the artists as well as a tour through the gallery. We are very lucky there is a special Gian Lorenzo Bernini exhibit here in addition to all the other artwork usually on display. This 25th century silverpoint portrait was exquisite.The gallery is as interesting as the artwork it contains. All the doors are decorated.A familiar sculpture. We have seen copies of ‘the Boy with the Thorn’ in Paris and Florence. The Rape of Persephone (also known as The Rape of Proserpina) is amazing. I know this is carved from marble but Hades hand gripping Persephone’s leg looks like human flesh, it is so life-like. Oh, and in this context rape meant kidnapping. Oh and Bernini was 23 years old when he completed this masterpiece!The Villa is a piece of art in itself. Here are some of the rooms where the artwork is displayed. Now just imagine living in such a place!

Wood, slate, terracotta and plaster were used for this model of Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain that we took pictures of in Piazza Navona.

Bernini was only 20 when he carved this sculpture of Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, which shows Aeneas carrying his elderly father and son from a burning Troy.

This Caravaggio painting, the Madonna of Palafrenieri was thought to be indecent when it was revealed and was removed from St. Peter’s Cathedral after only two days and was purchased by Cardinal Borghese.A famous Bernini sculpture, the Damned Soul.

This sculpture of Paolina Bonaparte, as the Venus Victorious, by Antonio Canova was completed in 1808 after she married into the Borghese family. The drapery is all carved in stone but it looks like real cloth. 
Bernini’s very determined David is magnificent.A quick peek at the gardens from one of the gallery windows.This fellow made me think of the winter weather we will be returning home to in a few days.

Apollo and Daphne is a Bernini sculpture that tells the story of Daphne being turned into a laurel tree to escape from Apollo. The details of her legs turning to bark and her fingers growing branches and leaves is remarkable.This Bernini painting was intriguing as there are visible traces of where Bernini painted a different hand. This is known as pentimento. On the ride home we see one more obelisk and another column. I think we might have managed to see most of the obelisks and columns in Rome. We also saw another stretch of the old Roman Aurelian Wall that protected Rome. These walls were 52 feet tall, 11 feet thick and had a square tower every 97 feet, which was 100 Roman feet. They are remarkably well preserved.

Christmas Decorations in Rome, Italy

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Day 94, Thursday December 7, 2017

We returned from Pompeii early afternoon and decided we should see if we could find some Christmas lights. These festive bows were on the street on the way to the Vatican.

We stopped at St. Peter’s Square and we were delighted to see that the Christmas tree was lit up. I thought that the lights weren’t turned on until just before Christmas, so this was a pleasant surprise.The lights were just turned on at dusk today and they were still cleaning up so we had to sit about 15 minutes until we were allowed into the square.The manger scene has life size figures and there are several rather peculiar additions to the traditional manger scene we are used to. We don’t know why some of the figures look like pirates, and have no idea what the nude figure on the right is all about. There is no baby Jesus in sight yet.

This is the largest Christmas tree we have ever seen, and it is very beautifully decorated with lots of lights and big ornaments painted by children in hospitals across Italy who are receiving treatment for cancer as well as children affected by earthquakes in Italy the past two years.

We walk all the way to Nuovo Piazza to see the Christmas Market. That turns out be a big disappointment. No market, no Christmas lights, and no promised Carousel. Apparently there was some sort of political scandal a few years ago. The powers to be tried to restrict the vendors at the market to those who sold hand made items so all the vendors withdrew in support of those not allowed to sell their ware. It was supposed to be back this year, but nothing is here. Too bad. We were expecting a market similar to the one we saw in Madrid a couple years ago. Further research has revealed that “Rome’s Befana Christmas market, which was scheduled to return to Piazza Navona after three years on 2 December, has so far failed to open due to an argument between the city and stallholders over who pays for security.”

I had Googled where to see Christmas lights in Rome, so next we walked to Via dei Coronari. We did find a few lights but not enough to entice us to keep walking so we called it night. Italy does not have a tradition of putting up Christmas lights and Christmas trees. Pope John Paul II put up the first Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square in 1982. Now every year the tree comes from a different European country as a gift to the Pope. This year’s tree is from Poland. There are a few more lights and trees around the city, but nothing like the amazing Christmas lights and decorations we saw in Spain.

If you want to find out about the strange figures, including the naked man, in the Vatican Nativity Scene check out this link.