Baths of Caracalla

This past Sunday, I invited friends to join me at the Baths of Caracalla.  These are the remains of an ancient roman public bath complex.  The structure is huge, larger than any photo could demonstrate to you.  You really have to stand there and see these huge walls and pilasters, but even they are just a part of what the whole structure once was.  It once had a gigantic dome that dwarfed the Pantheon.  Now, just the lower structures are left standing.  In some parts, the mosaic floor is perfectly preserved.  Chunks of floor depict black and white mosaics of fish, gods, and sea monsters.


I was thinking as I was looking at these ruins, that there must have been a very first day that a huge chunk of the dome fell down.  When the Roman Empire collapsed, these huge structures including the Colosseum and the Roman Forum were simply no longer maintained.  They became abandoned buildings, like any abandoned hotel or warehouse in North Philadelphia.  They were open to vandals, kids, shepherds, and climbers.  And one day, a huge chunk of this great massive dome must have fallen.  Perhaps half the dome fell all at one from stress and fracturing, or maybe the majority of it.  Maybe someone was nearby when it happened.  I imagine that there was a time when older citizens remembered when the baths were used, but the younger generation did not have any memory of this.  Because these structures were not maintained, the debris of time such as dirt and leaves collected in them and built up.  Slowly, the ground level rose around these structures and buried them.  The current ruins of the Roman Forum were once a level sheep and cow pasture.  Now, these structures have been excavated from the ground that rose around them like water, and people pay euros to see them.


These are some photos of inside the Baths of Caracalla.  I am also including pictures of the five drawings I did there.  These are portraits of my friends in the space.  For my drawing assignment, we were to try to improve our drawings by drawing something multiple times.  When I attempted to recreate these drawings in the studio but with improved compositions, they didn't turn out well at all.  Being on site is so key to getting the nuanced feeling of a place, and to having engaging, sensitive marks.

The above photo is just a side part to the bath complex.  The Central Dome area is way larger.

We found this door when we walked to a park with orange trees.

Kelsey, Luca, and Allison, drawing

Sam

Luca

Allison

Two Rocks

Hadrian's Villa

Last Friday, I went to Hadrian's Villa.  This is where the Emperor Hadrian preferred to spend his time and rule the empire.  He didn't get along well with the Senate because he had leading Senators assassinated so he could come into power.  Instead, Hadrian constructed this elaborate complex outside of Rome where he could escape from the pressures of the city.  The villa was filled with gardens, walkways, fountains, a theater, and banquet halls.  It was located in an area that was lush with forests and wildlife.  His villa was close enough to Rome that he could have easy correspondence with the capital, but far enough that he could feel more comfortable there.


I'm devoting this post to digital photos I took there.  I love textures, so ruins like Hadrian's Villa are amazing places for me to go.  It was a quiet, sunny, hot day.  Now it's getting chillier.  This past weekend was the last weekend of hot summer weather here.  It amazingly dropped to jacket weather just yesterday.

Adventure weekend/week

Last Sunday, I signed up for the Temple University Wall Walk.  This adventure circles around the Aurelian Walls.  The walls date back to ancient Rome, but many parts have been restored by Popes or altered to allow the city and traffic to expand outward.  The hike was about 13 miles and took about 8 hours to complete.  I was amazed that nearly 50 temple students showed up for the walk.


The trip was lead by Professor Jan Gadeyne, who specializes in archaeology of the ancient Roman Empire.  Jan Gadeyne created the Wall Walk for a few reasons.  One is that it is a good way to get a sense of where different parts of the city are.  Another is to show us that the city of Rome is much bigger now than its size in antiquity.  95% of Roman citizens live outside of the walls, according to Professor Gadeyne.  He wanted to specifically walk on the outside edge of the walls, so that we could see the city beyond the heavily touristed area within.  The goal was to show us that Rome is more than the big tourist sites and apartment’s passed down through families in the wealthier parts of town.  Rome is also a city of smaller residential houses, Italian university students, steep hills, and history that most visitors overlook.


Like everywhere in Rome, the wall is a constant reminder of both the past and present, and an example of the differences and similarities between the two.  For example, we passed The Baker’s Tomb, which is an ancient Roman Tomb dating to about 50-20 years B.C.E.  The tomb was strategically positioned near one of only a few entrances to the inner city.  Jan Gadeyne said the tomb acted like an ancient advertisement.  The baker who died decorated his tomb with images of the baking process.  Those entering the city might have looked at the tomb and made a mental note of the family name and apparent excellent baking, which would draw customers to the Baker’s family business.  I was amazed at how this ancient tomb acted like a modern-day billboard (which are actually pretty rare to see in Rome).


We ended the walk back where we started, and got a refreshing pop (or soda if you prefer) to drink.


In my Baroque Art History class, we went to the Doria Pamphilj Gallery on Via Del Corso.  The Galley is in the Palazzo of a family that owned the property since the Baroque.  Decedents of the family still life in the Palazzo.  Some of their ancestors were Cardinals and Popes, allowing them to spend enormous amounts of money on their favorite art and music.  They paid for Handle to live with them for a time.


Their collection includes this early Caravaggio, which I loved the second I saw it.  The painting is of the Repentant Mary Magdalene, and was radical for the time for many reasons.  One is that she is depicted clothed, as opposed to the semi-nude previous tradition that reflected her work as a prostitute.  Another reason is that her repentance is internal, it is psychological.  Traditionally, her repentance was depicted with raised arms, tearful face lifted towards the sky, and anguished mouth.  In Caravaggio's version, she is focused inward, quiet.  I love the color in this painting more than anything.  It actually reminds me of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, but I may be strongly influenced by the long red hair that Caravaggio favored.  The second painting is an incredible painting by Velasquez of Pope Innocent X.  The painting was such a likeness to the Pope, that the Pope was slightly disturbed by it, similarly to how people will be weirded out by pictures of themselves.  The image looked just like the Pope, but it was a flat painting.  The peering eyes in the Painting certainly would make me feel weirded out.  This painting is absolutely incredible to see in real life, the digital image does it no justice at all.  The space is so real, and the Pope figure has such presence.  It's nearly scary to look at the painting.  I can't even begin to describe how much the Pope feels alive in the painting.

I said I would include some of my art in this post, but I don't have my camera on me at school and would like to publish this now.  I will say that the Doria Pamphilj Gallery had a special exhibition of paintings with "vanitas" symbols.  These symbols represent the passage of time such as fruit and flowers.  There was a Baroque painting of a pile of dead finches with red and black feathers.  I was amazed.  Here was a Baroque painter using this same symbol that people (such as myself) use today, making it a pretty universal symbol of time.  I made a sketch of this painting.


I'm going to be exploring the Baths of Caracalla next weekend and will make some drawings there.  This is a video of some of the Wall Walk.  When I wasn't filming, I tried to be as close to Professor Jan Gadeyne as possible so I could hear him better.

Countryside and City

Rome is a larger city than the small part I've see so far.  I've mostly seen the interior parts of the ancient Roman city walls.  The city does sprawl out farther onto the surrounding hills of Rome.


My High Renaissance art history teacher named Paulo (who is an amazing good teacher and such a fun and informative person), said that the sprawl of the city ruined the hills.  We walked up a hill behind The Alter of the Homeland (also known as the wedding cake because it is a white marble building with many layers and tiers), and had a great view of the whole city.  Paulo told us all about the history of the Piazza Venezia below.  The Via Dei Fori Imperiali was built by Mussolini so he could see the Colosseum from his office in the top floor of the early Renaissance Palazzo Venezia building.  He tore down houses and baroque churches to make the road, while also covering part of the un-excavated Roman Forum which remains split by this road today.  Along the Via he put four large maps of the Roman empire at various points of it's expansion.  However, the maps do not go in chronological order leading to the Colosseum.  Instead, they go in order leading to the Piazza Venezia and Mussolini, effectively declaring himself the final part of the Roman Empire's expansion.


Mussolini also decided the hill we walked up was ugly covered in small houses (many historically owned by artists including a good friend of Raphael).  This was the hill in the center of Rome where the city started, and he ideally wanted to place a large monument on top.  Mussolini "scraped the hill" of the houses and churches, but then funds never fell through for a large monument.  Instead, gardens were planted leading up with paths and native species of trees and plants.  The gardens actually became a safe haven for the gay community in Rome who Mussolini was persecuting, which Paulo noted was ironic that Mussolini inadvertently created this.


Paulo said that the most beautiful things in life are not necessarily the ones you notice first or are the most flashy.  He said "imagine you are at a disco.  The loudest and most masculine or the most feminine person at the disco is not the most beautiful person.  After a few minutes of talking to them, you can't stand them any more, they are so stupid.  The most beautiful person may be the quiet person in the back that you have to look for but they are the best person there".  Paulo compared this to architecture.  The 1880 Alter of the Homeland building dominates the Piazza.  Tourists flock to it, snapping thousands of pictures of the sleek white building with it's sculptures and decoration that looks like icing on a cake.  They don't notice the Palazzo Venezia, which is the more beautiful building in Paulo's opinion.  The interior courtyard of the Palazzo has a rare example of an 'L' shaped pilaster in the corner.  The building is quiet, but unified and unique.  It was designed to be on human scale but still present mass and grandeur.


Those were some highlights of my art history class today.  I didn't bring my digital camera on our excursion, but pictures of what I experienced today wouldn't do it justice.  It was a whole experience looking at these buildings while listening to Paulo explain the history that you could never learn in a textbook.


These are videos from a while ago.  The first is from an adventure I went on with some friends to ultimately end at the Colosseum.  It gives good examples of what the streets are like in the city here.  It also shows the masses of tourists that can be found at the Trevi Fountain at all hours:



This next video was taken on the Temple University trip to Todi in Umbria.  Todi is a small hill town in the Province of Umbria, north of Rome.  We traveled by bus.  I love to watch the landscape pass by on the bus.  This video shows the countryside of Italy in this particular area.  There is also a part of the video taken from the balcony of a restaurant where we had a 15 course lunch.  It was an incredible trip, and Umbria is so beautiful.  The view from the balcony looked like a diorama.  Everything was so far away, that it looked like it was all on the same 2-D plane.  It was a view that looked too incredible to be true.  I wished so badly there that I could have had my painting supplies with me.

Streets of Rome

I like to adventure and explore places.  I've found countless piazzas, fountains, buildings, statues, and streets.  The photos below are only a small sample of what I found walking around the city today.  I chose to show a variety of the people I've seen here.

I walk long distances when in Philly.  Rome is even more of a walk-able city than Philly.  In Rome, walking doesn't just involve tracing through a grid pattern.  Rome has hills, cobblestone streets, and small unique shops and restaurants everywhere.  The city is dotted with piazzas and monuments.  Walking in Rome involves not only moving from one landmark to the next, but also exploring the network of streets in between.  Because I've never been here before, everything is fresh and exciting.

What surprised me is how clean every inch of the city is.  It's nothing like Philadelphia.  And not only is everything clean, I haven't seen a single abandoned building or storefront here.  Everything is active and maintained.  There is graffiti everywhere, but it's different than graffiti in America.  As Gianni said "Graffiti is an ancient Roman tradition.  You can go to the Coliseum and see ancient Roman graffiti".  The spray painted slogans, names, and love notes are everywhere, and seem to generally be left alone.  The graffiti never decimates anything of historical significance, but it covers the outside walls of apartment buildings and metro cars.

There are fewer ads in Rome than I've seen in America.  There are no real large bill boards, and advertisements don't light up the streets.  I'm amazed at the number of tourists here though.  There are tourists from all over the world, and from Italy itself.  The constant stream of tourists also attracts pick-pockets.  One of my friends had his wallet stolen from his side pocket when getting on the metro.  The pick-pockets work in teams; some of them distract you while others take the goods and pass them to others who run away with it.  Most of these pick-pockets aren't from Italy.  They are from all over the world, but converge on Rome because of the gigantic mass of tourists that fill the streets.

The people begging on the street all seem to have physical deformities that make them unable to walk properly, or they are very frail and elderly.  Everyone else on the side of the  street asking for your money is trying to sell you something, whether it be a flower, scarf, or fake designer handbag.

Rome is also completely different at night than during the day.  At night, the fountains and monuments are lit up, and the worn smooth stone streets reflect the lights as if it had just rained.  It's a perfect city to explore walking with friends.  There is so much more I have to explore here.  I don't think I could finish exploring everything if I spent a year here.