Posts Tagged ‘arts in Rome’

With the city well back into full swing after seaside vacations and late September holidays, Rome offers a cultural smorgasbord to welcome all.  Determined to sample some of its offerings before they ran out, I headed out on one of my innocent giri culturali, or cultural strolls if you will.  But by the end of the day, I found I had accomplished quite the girone culturale, the mother of all cultural strolls.

It started off at the Capitoline Museums, situated about Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio, to view the current exhibition Michelangelo: Architteto a Roma, a survey of his architectural works in Rome.  I have always believed this Great Master to be best as an architect, so I was quite excited to see the show.  Walking through his iconic piazza (what a preface!) and despite my earnest attempt to follow signs, I found myself searching for the exhibit, which I eventually came across thanks to the less than gracious gesture of an aloof guard.  (You would think that such a show at such a museum would be more visitor-friendly, but you must remember that this is Rome.  It can get away with anything.)  At first, I was a bit turned off by the space.  The exhibited works wanted more room to be seen and the layout was confusingly serpentine.  But the drawings, etchings, and plans made me quickly forgive the curation.  With texts both in Italian and English, viewers are introduced to the impressive amount of work Michelangelo envisioned in Rome. From the supporting drum of St. Peter’s great dome to Palazzo Farnese’s imposing façade and the theatrical Porta Pia punctuating the Aurelian Wall, Michelangelo’s hand touched upon great pillars throughout the city.  His warm, ethereal sketches are coupled by models, prints by contemporaries, and even images from later centuries documenting the influence of his architectural interventions.  The most halting works, in my mind, include his plan for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and Piranesi’s etching of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in his uncanny style.

Happily impressed by the modestly publicized exhibition, I made my way down the Capitoline Hill past Trajan’s markets and up the Quirinal Hill to visit Roma. La Pittura di un Impero (Rome. The Painting of an Empire) at the Scuderie del Quirinale.  The former stables of its namesake Palazzo, the graceful 18th-century building has been converted into one of Rome’s most important exhibition spaces.  The show debuted at the beginning of October to highlight the development of Roman painting through the rise and fall of the empire.  Climbing the stairs to the start of the exhibition, guests are welcomed with a wonderful fresco from the Colombario of Villa Doria Pamphili.  Used for the storage of ancient funerary urns, the colombario is delicately decorated with frescoes, which have been stripped from the site (for preservation) and exhibited as the show’s introductory work.  At the top of the stairs, you pass through a heavy curtain entering a dark futuristic space, ironic given the exhibited works.  From the three styles of wall painting to portraiture and depictions of daily life, the show successfully exhibits the breadth of Roman painting with works from various collections throughout the country.  Even if it doesn’t illuminate any great aspect about the ancient art, it appropriately celebrates the skills and accomplishments of our artistic forebears.  The show is definitely worth a visit and to enjoy it even more, I’d suggest complementing it with a visit to the nearby Palazzo Massimo’s formidable collection of ancient decorative works.

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