lunedì 7 aprile 2008

Oh the places you will go…

Dr. Seuss truly did know what he was talking about when he wrote that book. I have been to so many places and seen so many things here in Rome alone, my favorite being the museums. My school is so great about taking us to museums and in one week alone we went to one every day. We had a short week (only 3 days) and managed to see three different places.

The first place that we went was the Vatican Museum with the Masterpieces of Vatican class. We were going to see some of the sculptures but that area was closed off because a structure fell. Instead we took a look at the various works that we had learned about in the class.


This is Raphael’s Transfiguration, 1517. This was on our midterm. Its shows how light is used to show good and evil. The top is full of light, making it more holy, whereas the bottom is void of much light, showing the lack of holiness.


This is by daVinci. I don’t remember the name but I know it was about a saint who went into the desert to cleanse himself or something like that. We didn’t learn about this one.


This is a piece by Caravaggio, one of my favorite artists. It was done either in the late 1500s or early 1600s. I don’t know the exact name of this piece because I only learned it Italian but I think it translates to mean The Descent of the Cross.


We didn’t learn about these but there were all kinds of pieces that looked straight out of Egypt, probably stolen like so many things were.


This is a statue of Bacchus, also known as Dionysus. He was originally the god of the extraordinary and later became more commonly known as the god of wine who inspired creativity in music and poetry. He reminded me of Lauren.


This is Ajax and Achilles Playing Draughts, 6 Century BC. This was on our midterm. I so got it right.

After we finished up at the Vatican, we made our way back to school where our photo teacher met up with us to take us to a photo exhibit going on down the road. They were showing pieces from the National Geographic of Italy because they were celebrating their 10 year anniversary in Italy. It was the perfect place for me. Everyone that knows me knows how much I love, love, LOVE National Geographic and photography. It was amazing. Mario and I walked around and talked about all the pieces that we liked and I told him that this is my favorite subscription and I wish I could work for them. He said that’s his goal. I would love it if he started working for them. Maybe that would get me a job or at least a free subscription. Love National Geographic.


The next day we went to the Capitoline Museum with our Baroque and Renaissance class. We focused on paintings instead of statues and ruins.


This is the original shewolf. The two babes are the founders of Rome, Romolo and Remo, which translates into Romulus and Remus. She kept them alive and they started the city, I think, maybe.


This is another piece by Caravaggio. This is St. John the Baptist. I think he did this one in 1607 give or take 5 years.

The next day we went back to the Capitoline but this time was with Lucia and Claudio for Greek and Roman Mythology. Lucia wanted us to do a tandem with the students at her other school so we met them. Cute kids. Anywho, we spent the day looking at statues.


This is a bronze figure of what was either thought to be Marcus Arellius and it turned out to be Constantine or vise versa. I don’t remember. Pretty cool, however, because they didn’t bother to focus on proportion. Instead they made the horse way larger than it would have been to show how much power the rider had by means of controlling such a big animal.

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