SO here we go.
BOLOGNA!
Fresco from the pinacoteca -- painting gallery. It's not, surprisingly, a religious subject, but a chivalrous story that some person wrote in the 1500s.
Another view of the fresco, with one of my classmate's heads in the way. Unicorn!
Samson painted by Guido Reni, a baroque painter who I like very much after seeing his work in the pinacoteca. He was an oddball though! He hated women and the only one he ever let see him was his mum.
A very fancy lovely altarpiece by...somebody.
Now I believe this was by one of the Caracci brothers, there were three of them who founded a new school of painting that combined "the drawing of central Italy with the colors of northern Italy". A very good plan, as the three of them and their students all did pretty fantastic work. Anyway, in this painting featuring Mary, Christ, and some lady Saint, people speculate that there's something creepy between the lady Saint and Christ. Honestly? I don't think so. But art historians look for creepiness wherever they can.
I believe that this is the tomb that Michelangelo worked on, in order to cover for an artist who had died before finishing it up. Two of the statue figures are his, but you can't see them very clearly from here.
Okay so, this is a view of a courtyard from the Jerusalem of Bologna. Back in the day when people wanted to take that lovely pilgrimage to the Holy Land but couldn't afford it because, let's face it, that was the equivalent to travelling to Mars and back, they came to Bologna, where a sort of mini-Jerusalem had been constructed. They had copies of all the important things. This is a view of a cloister in one of the buildings. An order of monks still works there, and they had a lovely gift shop full of monk-made things, including elixirs and tonics. I found those incredibly funny, because the descriptors were written in pretty creative English. Here's a sample:
- Calendula - friend of skin
- Echinacea - for lack of defense in the immuse system
- Extract of ortica and propolis - best remedy for the fallen hair
- Pediluvo - cures inflated foot
So there you have Bologna. I apologize that my coverage wasn't all that great -- I did have a good time there and many laughs were had, although this was back when my shoulder was still killing me. I had a horrible attack of intense pain while we were wandering Bologna, and this significantly dampened my spirits and my desire to take pictures.
ROME!
Right okay we'll start off in the wrong order! Here is my favorite Caravaggio painting, The Calling of St. Matthew. Ps. The young guy in the corner is totally Matthew not that old dude.
The Pantheon! It was full of people and announcements in several thousand different languages to be quiet!
The Colosseum! Rather cool but we had to wait like a year to get in.
Michelangelo's Moses for the tomb of Julius II. I delivered a rant to Aunt E and Mom about how much I dislike Michelangelo and how he always planned too big. This tomb? Was supposed to have 40 figures on it. Forty! And he only ended up doing 3! There are 9 on there and only 3 of them are his! Gosh. Sorry.
Another view of Il Colosseo. It's big, man.
Next we went to the Forum, which was rather awesome although the sun was pretty keen on blinding us whenever we wanted to look at one of the neat old ruins.
This was pretty cool -- I can't remember what church this was in, but an Italian who lived in Rome all his life made this wooden sculpture at the age of 90 or something like that. It's a giant fantastical church, surrounded by churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques from all over the world. It's a representation of the ideal religion that is made of all religions. I thought it was pretty awesome.
Oh the Trevi Fountain! Such a wonderful fountain. I loved it. You can see there's Neptune being a badass and coasting on some waves, while two of his squires are restraining hippocamps (which are one of my favorite mystical creatures). Not bad at all.
Look at that awesome hippocamp there!
Student discounts and Steelers fans? Count me in!
This is a scene of Psyche and Cupid's wedding in the pleasure villa of a cardinal whose name I forgot. He built it for his mistress, but when she died his second mistress went to live there. Romantic, huh? Anyway it's a beautiful ceiling.
A little graffito by a German soldier from some war in the long-ago. It basically says "we got in here and chased your Pope out, we win, haha!"
Il Vaticano! This is a view of the Dome of St. Peter's from a porch in the Vatican.
The original Laocoon!
The Belvedere Torso, which inspired Michelangelo to make hundreds of barrel-shaped men and become very famous. (I am rolling my eyes)
Raphael's School of Athens from the apartments he painted for Julius II. I love these rooms, they were my favorite thing in Rome. Raphael is probably my favorite High Renaissance artist.
Another view of some philosophers up in the school.
The Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Bernini, who I like a lot. He's my favorite sculptor out of the High Renaissance / Baroque (I think he's more Baroque). Anyway this sculpture is really pretty amazing, but reading St. Theresa's description of her ecstasy makes one think it really was...sensual.
Here I am with my two friends Jessica and Ben at the Villa D'Este, which is a little ways outside of Rome. It's a gorgeous villa with a gorgeous garden, and I loved it a whole lot. The fountains were amazing, and they had a little hydraulic organ that played plunky tunes at different hours of the day.
A beautiful fountain at the Villa D'Este -- I love the mossy overgrowth.
Lion dog thing fountain! There was a row of about 40 of these, all with different animal faces.
A nice view of the hydraulic organ fountain up there.
Me!
Hadrian's Villa! This was a really long and exhausting trip, but worth it, because there was so much amazing ancient Roman stuff there. Blair aren't you so jealous?
It was late afternoon, so we had some gorgeous sunlight.
I believe this is one of the bath complexes.
Inside one of the bath complexes (yes, there were 2.)
A beautiful pond that Hadrian had fashioned to look like his favorite Egyptian resort.
Another view of the pond.
What is the Colosseum doing here? Uhhh okay this is the interior of the Colosseum!
Alice, Jessica and Ben posing in front of the Colosseum arena floor.
That's the end! I'm sorry it wasn't more comprehensive, but honestly that Rome trip was the longest 3 days of my life, and if I tried to write about everything we saw I would have no fingers left and you guys would be bored of reading about it. Now I'm going to go work on the homework I've put off until the last few days of break!
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