Roman Statues and Florentine Art

Before I move to Florence and Bologna, I feel the need to write a little about some of the art I saw in Rome. While the Vatican Museum is filled with great stuff, and the Sistine Chapel is amazing, I really was more taken by the Roman art that is housed in the Capitoline Museum. I want to highlight 3 works.

The first is the Capitoline Wolf that is a bronze from the Etruscan era. It shows a wolf with enormous milk-filled teats. Later, the images of Romulus and Remus were added. This statue is really the symbol of Rome’s founding, and you’ll see it reproduced in many places. It was amazing to see it. It’s located in a new wing of the museum that was built to house the original statue of Marcus Aurelius that used to be in the courtyard, but it was getting too damaged by acid rain, so they moved both of these statues into the museum.

My favorite sculpture is The Dying Gaul, which dates from the 3rd century B.C. The statue is a honorific homage to the enemy. The Gaul is pictured naked, which would be honorable in Rome, but not Gaul, but he also has a mustache and a Gallic hairstyle so that you can’t mistake him for a Roman. He is leaning on his sword, and the look on his face is amazing. What I love about this statue, besides its aesthetic qualities, is the fact that the artist thinks well enough of the enemy to create a statue in his honor and in defeat. Can you imagine an American artist creating a loving and honorific piece to the enemy that is not filled with irony and loathing? I can’t. The statue is really not only a great piece of work, it’s also a symbol of the honor during the Roman Republic (that was eventually dispensed with during the Empire, but oh well.)

My final favorite piece, which I have a picture of, but I forgot to upload is this colossal statue of Mars, that my tour books makes fun of, but which is in fact incredible. It’s 5 times the normal size, and his legs are enormous. The sure audacity of it was hysterical.

After this museum, I went to the Colosseum, which was much better than I expected, thanks to the audio guide. I got tons of information about it, too much to share here. But then, after a quick lunch, I walked around the Palatine Hill for 2 hours. Basically, I strolled around amazed that I was walking in the same places that rich Romans walked and lived during the ancient period. What’s truly amazing, in retrospect, is that the Palatine Hill and Imperial Forum weren’t developed over the years. The Romans knew enough to keep things as they were, although they mined most of the ancient sites for stones to build other buildings.

It was a great way to end my time in Rome, and I felt a lot of regret leaving for Florence simply because I could have easily spent another week in Rome. I arrived in Florence in a bad mood, but then I saw where my hotel was located and I brightened up. It’s called the Relais Uffizi and it’s literally next to the Uffizi Museum right on Piazza della Signoria, which is essentially in the middle of everything. The hotel wasn’t that great actually, mostly because of my room, which was located right over an alley, and I could hear every little noise from the restaurant kitchens below, and every time someone was walking in the public areas, I could hear them. But I decided it was worth it because of the location.

That night I went to dinner at a Frommer’s recommended restaurant. And it was kind of disaster. I couldn’t figure out how to order, and I was having that menu del dia problem again. What I decided about Florence was that I liked their pastas – a lot – and their gelati – because how couldn’t you – but after that I wasn’t too impressed with Tuscan food. But again, it might have been because of the places I chose. Every meat dish I ate was awful.

But that’s okay because Florence was really about art. The next day I woke up fairly early and after a quick breakfast, I walked the 10 steps to the Uffizi. Well, I had been warned about the lines at Italian museums, but this one was a doozy. I waited for 90 minutes on a Sunday morning, listening to 5 Spanish friends or colleagues (I couldn’t tell what they were) talk for 90 straight minutes. They never rested, and I have no idea what they were saying because I couldn’t follow it (which now makes me think maybe they weren’t Spanish, maybe they were Latin American of some kind with a strange accent, although at the time I thought they were from Andalusia). By the time I got into the museum (which was free, by the way), the wait was now 3 hours!! And this was in early May. Again, the Florentines were shocked.

When you go to the Uffizi, get the audio guide. It was incredible. It’s basically a history of Italian art from the 13-18th centuries, and it was incredibly detailed and interesting. I spent hours there, and I finally understand the difference between Gothic and International Gothic, what Mannerism means, and by the end, I was thinking that I basically would be able to identify a Michelangelo from a Donatello, and a Titian from a Raphael. I was also introduced to painters that I hadn’t heard of, like Guido Reni, who was important but never got through to me. It really is a great museum.

Because most of the museums are closed on Mondays, after a quick (bad) lunch, I went over to the Pitti Palace, which is one of the Medici’s palaces, to take a look at their art. It’s not as good of a collection, by far, but really I think it’s the building that’s more interesting, and actually not even the building, it’s the garden behind it. The Boboli Gardens present great views of the city, and it’s a pleasant stroll. I took a nap under a tree.

That night, another bad dinner, this time because I tried to find a place on my own, which was a mistake. I got something that they called traditional Tuscan fried chicken, which seemed like chicken necks and ankles, fried. Blech!

The next day I spent the entire day in and around the Duomo. There’s a lot to say about this, but in general, let’s just say that it’s a great combination of art and thrill ride. The Duomo itself is huge, and the fresco under the dome is incredibly elaborate. The central picture shows Jesus on top, Mary and the Saints below, and then people below them. The one thing that this whole trip really showed me is that if you believe in the basic tenets of Catholicism, Catholic art is incredibly logical. Everything is linked to create one central vision of how the world works. I climbed up the dome, and at one point you’re are under the fresco, and directly opposite from this central picture is a picture the Devil and hell. God faces the congregation, the Devil can’t be seen unless you’re underneath the dome, but he’s always there lurking.

To get to the top of the Duomo is 450 steps, and it was fun. I talked to his young American woman as we walked up and we looked at the art and talked about our lives. At one point, you walk up these steps that are shaped to conform to the dome, I have a picture of it to the right. And of course the view was spectacular.

After a quick bite, I went into the museum that houses most of the art that was taken out of Duomo (which I should mention is amazingly stark since so much of the art has been removed). It’s actually a really interesting museum of ecclesiastical art. In it is this incredible Donatello statue of Mary Magdalene which looks about as modern as a Renaissance piece could look. The look of pain and agony is overwhelming, and she is draped in her own hair.

I had been in a bad mood when I arrived in Florence, but as I sat by the Arno having a gelato during my last hour, I reflected on what a great city it was. Not as great as Rome (or Venice), but a nice place to vacation and get to know art.

I then went to Bologna, but I’ll wait for my next post to write about that.