Italia Day Three

Rome is chock full of fabulous museums and original classic art, and nothing is more fun to me than spending a couple hours in a great museum just thinking and looking and walking. I realize that might be unusual, but I don’t care. Museums are just good places to think, even if you don’t look at the art work around you. If you do look at the art AND you think, museums can be quite formative I think.
But I digress… what you really need to know if that we started our day with a trip to the Galleria Borghese, a fantastic museum with a collection of paintings and statues that blew my mind. Since I only have so much time to write, I will try to be concise about all the incredible art work I saw. My favorite part was the statues by Bernini, a Baroque sculptor. His sculptures are unbelievable. His figures are so detailed that you can see veins and muscles and hairs and all kinds of things you would not expect to see in a piece of marble. When his figures touch each other, you can even see the imprints their fingers leave in the other’s skin. I literally stood in front of his work with my mouth open. My favorite was Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina… check them out on google and see if you can zoom in to see detail… they are awesome!
There was also a Francis Bacon/ Caravaggio exhibit. Caravaggio is the essence of Baroque painting, and Baroque is my all-time favorite style. The way he plays with light and color while giving his paintings extremely realistic details with clean lines is what makes me so attracted to him. I love very detailed, clean artwork. Bacon on the other hand is a modern artist whose paintings are anything but detailed and clean. That being said, I loved him too. I have always hated modern art with a passion. To me it has always seemed pointless and simple. I have always said that some modern art is the product of a life devoid of meaning and purpose. In our post-Christian world, we get a lot of art that is purposeless. However, I changed my mind about modern art that day, looking at Francis Bacon. His art is still the product of a life devoid of meaning and purpose, in my opinion, but that is why I like it. Let me explain. I think Bacon and other modern artists are TRYING to be purposeless in some cases and are TRYING to show that life is futile. At least, that is part of what I think Bacon tried to do. So, if I as a Christian, someone who believes that life is not futile, can learn to appreciate and interpret works by people like Bacon, then I have a very clear glimpse of what goes on in a non-believer’s mind, and I can start to understand them and this post-Christian culture we all live in. Therefore, I think it is important to learn about modern art because it gives me a window into my own culture that I would not have otherwise.
Back to Rome. After the museum, we walked to the church where Michelangelo’s Moses stands. The church was closed till three, so we took a lunch break and ended up in a tiny café by a college in Rome. The café was recommended by Rick Steves, according to a laminated sign on the front door. That meal turned out to be the best I had in Italy, and maybe during this entire trip. The pizza and pasta were fantastic, and at the end we had a cappuccino. That cappuccino ruined me, because I have not had any cup of coffee that good before or since. Oh well, at least I had one perfect cup of coffee before I die (not to be dramatic or anything).
After lunch we saw Moses, honestly a little disappointing for a Michelangelo. I am afraid I am turning into a super art critic who sizes everything up and criticizes great masters, but who can’t sketch a flower herself. Oh well.
After we saw Moses, we walked to the Castle of St. Angelo, one of the pope’s former residences. We had wanted to walk to the top of St. Peter’s but we didn’t make it there before it closed. Disappointed, we decided to climb to the top of the castle instead. That little snafu turned out to be the best disappointment ever. Not only could we see the whole city from our vantage point, but we could also see St. Peters and the sun setting behind it. It was glorious. We read a Psalm about the Lord ruling over His creation while we looked at the church which has served as the seat of church authority through the centuries- it was a powerful experience.
After some more pasta and gelato (why do I keep telling you when I eat this stuff?), we went back to the hotel. I listened to Dean Martin’s song On an Evening in Roma and felt very good about life before I fell asleep.