4. Rome - The Vatican (including one Caravaggio)

We've visited the Vatican and its museums, as well as St Peter's Basilica several times before. In 2003 we gave the museums a miss, but this time Ben was keen to see the Sistine Chapel. Photos are banned. But not in other parts.

This time we didn't bother with the long queue to go into St Peter's Basilica.

NB The pictures of the Caravaggios and other paintings were not ones taken by me; I found them on the Net.

Below: Dome of St Peter's and Vatican gardens from gallery within the museum




Below: ceiling of the Gallery of Maps

Below: Vatican Library. It wasn't open to the public, which it has been in the past.
Below: The spiral ramp by Guiseppe Momo (1932)
Below: The Basilica of St Peter's. Dome by Michelangelo, Bernini colonnade, facade by Carlo Maderno (1614):
I set myself the task of seeing every Caravaggio in Rome; didn't quite make it, but very nearly. The Vatican contains one Caravaggio painting - a spectacular Entombment, or Deposition, of Christ. Why the Vatican only has one is quite an interesting question, too detailed to go in to here. You'll find other Carvaggios elsewhere in this blog in other Rome and Naples entries.

8. Rome - Renaissance and Baroque Palazzi (and 14 Caravaggios)

The Renaissance palaces (palazzi) of Rome give the city much of its character. Quite a few of them these days are galleries, some state owned, others privately owned. Many still retain apartments which sometimes the original families still live in. On this trip I visited several of the palazzi, including one which I don't have photos of - the Palazzo Colonna. That was for a reception for the conference we were attending.

Palazzo Barberini
Maffei Barbeini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623 and built his family a grand palace. Architect Carlo Maderno built it like a rural villa, with wongs extending into the gardens. Maderno died in 1629 and Bernini took over, assisted by Borromini (Maderno's nephew).
It is part of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, and I went there to see the Caravaggios - St Francis in Meditation (1606); Judith and Holofernes (1598) and Narcissus (1599) - see entry on Caravaggio. I also enjoyed seeing Hans Holbein's portrait of Hebry VIII, dressed for his wedding to Anne of Cleves, and Raffaelo's La Fornarina (the Female Baker)


Piazza Barberini, with Bernini's Triton Fountain was named after the nearby palazzo in 1625.


Below: Judith Beheading Holofernes c 1598

Below: Narcissus c 1598 -99
Below: St Francis c 1606

The Quirinal Palace
Official home of the Italian President. It was built in 1573 by Pope Gregory XIII as a papal summer residence. It was also used as the location for papal conclaves in 1823,1829,1831, and 1846. It served as a papal residence and housed the central offices responsible for the civil government of the Papal States until the Unification of Italy in 1870. It became the official residence of the King, and then in 1947, the President.

Palazzo Venezia
Built 1455-65 for the Venetian Cardinal Pietro Barbo, later Pope Paul II. It has also served as the Ventian Embassy before passing in to French hands 1n 1797. Since 1916 it has belonged to the Italian state. Mussolini used it as his headquarters and made speeches from the central balcony.

Below: Palazzo Venezia on the right. The construction work in the middle of the piazza (PIazza Venezia) is for the third Metro line, due to open in 2018.

Below: Piazza Venezia, with the Palazzo Venezia on the left, looking up the Corso. Taken from the steps of the Vittorio Emmanuele II monument.

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj (formerly Palazzo Aldobrandini)
Another stop on the Caravaggio trail. While the marvellous Rest on the Flight Into Egypt, and a John The Baptist (with the ram nuzzling St John), the Penitent Magdalen was on loan to an exhibition in Forli in northern Italy. Never mind, another reason to return to Rome!
The palazzo is enormous, probably the largest still privately owned in Rome. It is still inhabited by members of the family, and the gallery audo guide narration is done by the current scion, Prince Jonathan, the adopted English-born son of the three-quarters English Princess Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj and her husband Frank Pogson. Orietta was the daughter of Prince Filippo Andrea VI. The family story is interesting. Obituary of Princess Orietta.

Below: Palazzo Doria Pamphilij on the left.

Below: Courtyard inside the Via del Corso entrance of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj

Below: Taken from a window of the galleria Doria Pamphilj - a wonderful example of Roman hand language. Italian Hand Gestures - Youtube

Below: Penintent Magdalen 1596-97. On loan elsewhere.
Below: Rest on the Flight Into Egypt 1596-97
Below: St John The Baptist c 1600. Almost identical to the one in the Capitoline museum

Palazzo Spada
Built around 1550 for Cardinal Capo do Ferro. In 1652 Borromini built a trompe l'oeil colonnaded gallery featuring false perspective. It appears four times longer than it really is - about 37 metres instead of 8. The gallery has two works by Artemisia Gentileschi. I didin't get inside this time - but it's on the list for next time.

Below: The trompe l'oeil gallery at Palazzo Spada

Palazzo Farnese
Currently the home of the French Embassy. This palazzo is one of the grandest in Rome. Construction began in 1515, commissioned by Alessandro Farnese, who had been appointed as a Cardinal in 1493 at age 25 (thanks to his sister, who was Pope Alexander VI Borgia's official mistress). He became Pope Paul III in 1534 and employed Michelangelo to complete the third story with its deep cornice and to revise the courtyard, as an emblematic "power house" suitable to the Farnese family.

Below: No, not Palazzo Farnese, but another building in the piazza which the palazzo faces.

Galleria Borghese (formerly Villa Borghese Pinciano)
The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, which was begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621). Borghese used it as a "villa suburbana", a party villa at the edge of Rome. Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio.

We visited mainly in order to see the Caravaggios - Boy With a Basket of Fruit; David With the Head of Goliath; John the Baptist; Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri); Young Sick Bacchus; St Jerome Writing.

Below: Picnic lunch in the Villa Borgese garden

Below: Sick Bacchus c 1593. Reputed to be a self portrait

Below: St Jerome c 1606
Below: Still Life With Flowers and Fruit 1590s
Below: Boy Peeling Fruit c 1593

Below: Boy With Basket of Fruit c 1593
Below: David With Head of Goliath c 1609 -10. Another self-portrait
Below: St John the Baptist c 1609
Below: Madonna With Serpent c 1606

9. Rome - Capitoline (including two Caravaggios)

Below: Palazzo Senatorio - historically used by the Roman Senate, now the meeting place of the Comune di Roma (City of Rome). The statue of Marcus Aurelius is a copy of one found in the museum to the left of the Senatorio.
Below: Looking from the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the seat of the magistrates during the late middle ages. There's a couple of Caravaggios in there: Fortune Teller I (not as good as Fortune Teller II in the Louvre) and John The Baptist.
Below: On the sides of the niche in the panels of the stairway, Michelangelo placed two colossal statues of rivers (almost 15 feet long) sculpted in the second century AD and coming from the thermae of Constantine on the Quirinal Hill. This is the Tiber, flanked by a tiger that was later changed into a she-wolf and the twins. This statue originally represented the Tigris and the characteristic attributes of the Tiber river were added only in the sixteenth century.
Below: Newlyweds pose for photograps in the portico of the Palazzo Nuovo
Below: The original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Palazzo dei Conservatorio museum. It is the only fully surviving bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman emperor. Others were melted down for coin or other uses in the Christian era. Statues were also destroyed because medieval Christians thought that they were pagan idols. The statue of Marcus Aurelius was not melted down because in the Middle Ages it was incorrectly thought to portray the first Christian Emperor Constantine.The statue was erected in 176 DC. Its original location is debated: the Roman Forum and Piazza Colonna (where the Column of Marcus Aurelius stands) have been proposed. In the medieval era it was one of the few Roman statues to remain on public view. In the 8th century It stood in the Lateran Palace in Rome, from where it was relocated in 1538 to the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) during Michelangelo's redesign of the Hill.
Below: Head of a colossal 4th century AD statue of emperor Constantine I in the Palazzo dei Conservatori

Below: In the Pinacoteca of the Capitoline museums is this Fortune teller by Caravaggio (1596). Compare it to the one in the Louvre, underneath (also 1596). I've stared at both of them for a long time. Admittedly i'm more familiar with the Louvre version, but I much prefer it. The light source is more evident, but there's also something about the subjects - Caravaggio seems more intimate with them. The young gypsy is more worldly wise and craftier, and the young buck more gullible. The whole seems more intimate and immediate. The model for the boy was probably Mario Minniti who was a friend, colllaborator and lover (?) of Caravaggio in Rome in the late 1500s. He eventually married and returned to his native Sicily and is an artist of renown.
Below: St John the Baptist c 1600. A subject Caravaggio returned to over and over (probably because he was being commissioned to execute this popular subject) and there are several in various places in Rome. His model may have been his servant, a boy called Cecco. There is an almost identical version to this in the Galleria Doria Pamphilij.

14. Rome - Other bits (including six Caravaggios)

Above: One of the loveliest piazzas is Piazza del Popolo.
We particularly like it for the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, wherein are housed two magnificent Caravaggios - Conversion of St Paul and Crucifixion of St Peter. These two were designed by Carlo Rainaldi - Santa Maria dei Miracoli (left) and Santa Maria in Montesanto. To appear symmetrical, the one on the right was given a circular dome, the one on the left an oval, because the site on the left was narrower. Below: Conversion of St Paul 1600
Below: Crucifixion of St Peter 1600

Below: A typical Roman street scene.

Other bits include a few churches, which we only visited to see Caravaggio paintings inside.

San Luigi dei Francesi, the French church in Rome has the Matthew cycle. Outstanding. Ben was really impressed by these. In fact he was pretty impressed by Carvaggios generally and was interested in the use of light and dark, the hallmark chiarascuro technique.

Below: The Calling of St Matthew 1599-1600
Below: The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew c 1599
Below: The Inspiration of St Matthew c 1602
Below: Around the corner from San Luigi is San Agostino, and another Caravaggio, Madonna di Loreto, c 1603