Capitoline Museum I

Rome has a dozen or more world-class museums, and even on this more or less extended visit, we saw only a few. The Capitoline Museum is one of the great ones, and after considerable heavy editing, I will limit myself to just two posts on it.

Steps leading up to the Capitoline Hill, the Piazza

Campidoglio; the great Capitoline Museum flanks the Piazza

Inside, the great bronze statue of Marcus

Aurelius (and his horse); the largest equine

statue of antiquity

Bust of an Amazon; winner of a scultpure

contest in Ephesus

Beautiful marble caryatids

Tablets listing consuls (the CEOs of the Republic) over the

centuries

The very, very famous 5th century BCE bronze she-wolf (the

twins are a Renaissance addition)

Boy removing thorn from foot, also very famous

Another Artemis from Ephesus, but a

particularly beautiful one

The Emperor Commodus dressed as (his hero)

Hercules

Fragment of the immense bronze sculpture of

Constantine that once stood in the Forum; a

hand and two feet also survive

Interestingly, the Capitoline also has a fair

number of paintings, and not Roman; this is the

very famous and (to some) controversial self-

portrait of of Velazquez, who worked in Rome

for a time; I'm skipping the Caravaggio....

More Caravaggio (and a Random Rafael)

Vicki has really gotten into Caravaggio, so we are seeking his paintings out at every opportunity. I can't remember all the churches (I am relatively sure they are all of the St. Mary of the Whatever franchise) and all the paintings' names, but here are a few more...

Adoration of the Persons with Sticks and Big
Butt

On a column in the nave of this St. Mary

church, an apparently random Rafael, his

Elijah, as I recall; thank goodness they left it
as it was

Caravaggio's Matthew and the Angel; Guido
Reni's still the best Matthew, if you ask me

And in the Santa Maria della Francesca church (the French

church in Rome), the martyrdom of Matthew; both this and
the Calling of Matthew (below) face each other in a
fenced-off side chapel; one can only see these masterpieces
from an awkward angle and below; and poorly lit too; good
representations are at the numerous sites on the web, e.g.,
caravaggio.com 

The Calling of Matthew, one of C's biggest hits; no doubt the

guy was a transformational genius; the first "painter of light";

maybe it's just me, but I think he had a real compositional

problem with buttocks--they are almost always in the forefront,

often comically; and, unlike Michaelangelo or Bernini, he did

not do sculpture nor architecture; nor did he do fresco; still, a

genius, whose effect on later painting is profound and

undeniable

More, Or Less, St. Peter's

So it was Saturday and we figured the great church might be free of Masses for a while...think again, Pagan Breath...

The Beatification stuff was still everywhere; note use of the

Piazza for a tour bus parking lot

We fell in line right behind a group of nuns and friends from

Croatia, singing and chanting all the way; I was actually moved

(slightly) by their evident emotion

Looking across the great Piazza

We did get to see the new JP2 Beato shrine

Up closer

But they were already beginning to mass for

another Mass, and it was clear that we would

not see the forecastle and bow on this trip; I

did take some consolation in passing through

the north-side west doors and their apparent

instruction manual on how to persecute

Christians

On our way out we visited the JP2 exposition, which I found

quite informative and enjoyable

A collection of JP2's many books; I guess he didn't have much

of a problem with agents or editors or publishers

And so we left, but not without promenading

one more time through Bernini's four-deep

colonnade, one of the grandest of architectual

wonders

More Roman Roamin'

Interior of St. Mary of the Illusionist Dome;  no, I think it was

St. Ignazio Loyola

We were into illusionist domes and ceilings that day (high

Baroque stuff), and this might actually have been the best;
everything you see here is painting, not architecture

At the Church of Gesu, Vicki demonstrates use of the OSHA-

approved reflecting device for observing illusionist ceilings

The ceiling at Gesu, with its brilliantly blazing

IHS

As the sun was setting, we walked past Hadrian's Forum

Ditto

Ditto again

To our Metro stop by the Colosseo

Santa Maria Maggiore

Santa Maria Maggiore, renowned for its mosaics, is in the same neighborhood, so we strolled over and finished the long but exciting day there.

A very large old church, dating from the earlier fifth century;
one of the four Papal churches; the gold in the ceiling is said
to have been the first brought back from Peru...

The oldest Christian mosaics in Rome; over the altar

Up closer

The major panels were high up, far away, poorly lit; many

seemed to be battle scenes...

Some saintly types

In a side chapel, some of the Byzantine feather dancers I like

And, yes, more Holy Spirits in the gift shoppe

Ecstasy of St. Theresa

It was to be a one museum/three church day. From St. Mary of the Baths we wandered to St. Mary of the Ecstasies to see Bernini's very, very famous St. Theresa in Ecstasy. (Someone once observed that of Europe's approximately 10,000 major churches and cathedrals, 9,983 are Mary churches; thus, when in doubt, it is alway a good bet that this is a St. Mary of the Whatever church; anyhow, this might be St. Mary in Victory; or something else). For useful background, do read up on St. Theresa...

Baroque interior, to the hilt, so to speak

(Theresa would appreciate the metaphor)

Bernini pulled out all the theatrical stops on

this one, including

A voyeuristic audience of the donors who commissioned

the work

Closer up

Extremely closer up..."Oh, GOD, oh GOD, oh GOD...

that was GREAT!"

The Carmelites run this church, and there was thus a liquor

store on the premises; Holy Spirits for those overcome

by all the ecstasy

Baths of Diocletian

Near the Museo Nazionale Romane, in the Termini/Repubblica area, are the remains of the Baths of Diocletian, a third century structure, I think, that is now, of course, a church.

Doesn't look like a church, I know, but there it is, the Church 
of St. Mary of the Baths or somesuch

There is a dome as you enter, with an oculus, like the Pantheon

With an abstract stained glass thing

Looking down/up the nave/transept; Michaelangelo designed the thing, 
transforming the baths into a church; but then when the Piazza Repubblica 
was built, in the 17th century, I think, they decided to remodel, making his
nave into the transept; it doesn't work, IMHO

Vicki by one of the eight original Roman pink marble columns

The church also features this interesting old astronomical/
astrological device

And while we were there, an interesting display on Galileo, 
arguing, as best I could tell, that he really was a faithful son 
of the Church and not really asserting anything contrary to 
Doctrine...PS...nevertheless, it moves