Santa Maria del Popolo

The church of Santa Maria del Popolo is in the Piazza del Populi, near the portal itself. It is a relatively small church, by Roman standards, but is so studded with great art that it is difficult to notice the church itself.

St. Peter crucifixion, a more characteristic work by
Michaelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, also
known as Mr. Fruity Butt Pants; St. Paul's conversion,
featuring a horse's butt, is across the small but now
well-lit (when you pay a euro) chapel

Thus

Over on the starboard side, the Rovere chapel features a
number of gorgeous Pinturicchio frescoes

Thus

Some were done by a "Helper of Pinturicchio" who was also
pretty darn good

But it's the Chigi chapel (Mr. Chigi was banker to Popes
Julius II and Leo X) that gets most attention (after Mr.
Fruity Butt Pants), with its two Berninis...here, Daniel

And here, Habukkak (it's a long story)

And dome, designed by Raphael

Up closer: God, signifying that the Chigis have SCORED!

Other items of interest include this bony inlay, designed to drive away the ghost
of Nero, who was said to have inhabited the precincts; it worked: he is now among
the second fiddles section at symphony hall

"Don't tread on me"; or possibly St. Cecelia or
Ann Boleyn

And this hole in the thinner-than-you'd-think stone floor... 

Revealing the nicely-tiled floor below; nothing escapes my practiced eye...

The rest of the church is totally Baroque..."if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it," we have
come to say

Roman Art Nuova

So after the Borghese we walked a bit in the areas east of the gardens and had a pizza lunch. Vicki had read that there is a concentration of Art Nouveau buildings near the intersection of Tagliamento and Dora (right after Po turns into Tagliamento), so we headed there. Many of the buildings were quite attractive, although I am not sure of the designation...perhaps Roman Arta Nuova.

Villa and Galleria Borghese, 2013

The Villa Borghese and its museum beckoned again. Vicki likes the Caravaggios and other things. I like the Berninis mostly. The Borghese is so popular, however, that visitors are limited to 2 hours (well, at 1:52:00 they start unceremoniously shooing you out), cameras are not allowed in the galleries. Etc. Below is Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. And Caravaggio's Madonna and Child with St. Anne. There's much more on the web, all worth looking at. Interestingly, of the half dozen Caravaggios at the Borghese, not one is of the buttocks-centered composition so characteristic of his work. Almost as if Scipione Borghese had said to his agent "OK with the fruit, OK with the 'painter of light' crap, but NO BUTTS; and No IFs or ANDS either!"

As exquisite as it gets; some of the leaves are so thin they
are translucent...

Supposed to depict Mary's agency in Jesus' works...
interestingly, it was rejected by the monastery/
confraternity/whatever that had commissioned it;
perhaps because of Jesus' lack of circumcision?
Lack of halo? Maybe they were some sort of snake-
handling cult like in the US? 

More Vatican Museum, 2013

It really is a pretty incredible place. In addition to all the usual favorites, we also took in a few new sections.

Vicki has always liked the Music-making Angels and Cherubs

Something you can't see at St. Peter's...close up, on this copy of the Pieta, Mary's
sash, where, in a fit of pique (no one could believe a 24-year-old could do this and
it was being attributed to other sculptors), Michaelangelo chiseled his name
("Michaelangelo Buonarotti of Florence Made This")

Up close of Raphael's Transfiguration, recently restored

Vicki says it is an excellent Egypt collection

Mosaic floor in the huge Sala Rotunda

Beautiful mosaics and in-lays all over

A detail from the great hall of maps...a ship bringing one of the many Egyptian
obelisks that now adorn Rome and the Vatican

In the Raphael Rooms, the Doctors of the Church, which no one ever looks at
because they are facing the School of Athens; embedded on the lower right,
in black, nearly obscured, but unmistakably...

Savanarola; evidently someone on Team Raphael had reformist sympathies 

Ceiling, same room, across from Apollo, the Muses, and Homer and Sappho, Poetry 
(Rebecca note)

In the Borgia Apartments, which we think we had not seen before, impressive
frescoes by Pinturicchio, a generation before Team Raphael

Interesting how much difference a generation makes sometimes

Also how much difference the change from Borgia to Medici Pope can make...

Lastly, before returning to the Sistine Chapel, we tarried in the
contemporary art section; here, Alice Lok Cahana's powerful
No Names; the road to Auschwitz, some claim, went through
the Vatican

We had visited the Sistine Chapel earlier in the day and had studied the
Botticellis and others that interested us (we are so over Mr. Twisty's ceiling
and Last Judgment), but wanted to return for a last look; alas, it was 4PM
or so and the chapel was so dark people were bumping into each other, with
no chance of seeing what they had come to see...perhaps saved
or sacrificed to see...a sad ending to an otherwise good day

Vatican Museum Out-Takes, 2013

Wednesday we spent at the Vatican Museum. We arrived and lined up for the 9:00AM opening, posted on the website, only to read a hand-lettered announcement that the great museum would be opening at 9:30AM. And these people want me to believe that snakes can talk?

We had noted further that the painting museum would be closing at noon, so we
headed there first; Vicki refers to these collections as the "Pina Coladas"; I'll
drink to that

Strafing enemy shipping...

"Here I come to save the day..."

St. Hulkus

Hmmm, perhaps a few more years in the cask, and the
increasing tannin will over-power that toe-jam aftertaste
...91 pts.

Torregiani's bust of Sixtus V; Torregiani, you recall, was the
guy who busted Michaelangelo's nose

Fish-eater

Device in the ever-popular Vatican Torture Museum

A size for every taste, every purse; it would be interesting
to know just how many gift shoppes are in the Vatican
Museum; and how many angels can dance on the head of a
pin...

In the Vatican Apostolic Library, Pope Felonius XVI forgives
all his own library fines

So we had lunch in the Vatican Museum pizzeria; here, the papal  pizza; not bad;
actually, I think they could do a whole lot better job of making it a theme 
restaurant...the possibilities are staggering (Rack of Lamb of God, e.g.)

Papal pilsener; or liturgical lager; the wine was only 2 euro a
glass; evidently they have hit on the recipe for making it from
water

Cornish pizza

"Sarcophagus of the two brothers"..."shell with busts of the deceased (the female
figure on the left, who was to represent the bride, took on male features during
the portrait execution"; we regard this miracle as convincing evidence that early
Christians permitted gay marriage; seriously

"You have such beautiful eyes"

Mr. Pointy; one of several figures from the
Baths of Caracalla

A dog and his boy

Holy Trinity, plus a little white birdie

Part of the Sistine Chapel you're not supposed to see...its fortifications