rome, day 5

michelangelo´s moses


this is the last full day that we spend in rome. since we did nothing yesterday, we felt that we had to make up by making sure to do things today. the main part of our plan was to go to palazzo bernini to see a caravaggio painting that i really like. since caravaggio was the man of the day, we also went to the french church that was closed the other day with paola’s dad. it was close by, and we knew how to get there, so we went there fierst. apparently in 1599, this church commissioned him to paint three paintings based on the life of st matthew, who wrote the gospel. it was amazing that we went there for that painting, but we didnt know where in the church it hung, so we started. from the otherr side and other end of the church, i caught a glance at one of them, and knew instantly that it was one of the caravaggios. this was because of his very distinct style (that i described earlier) of high contrasts and sharp lighting. so all three were pretty neat paintings.

then on the way out of there, we decided to take a detour to a church that had a famous michelangelo sculpture of moses. by the time we got there, though, the church was closed for what i can only imagine was lunch. it is very common in these churches that they close between 1230 and 330 in the afternoon. pretty long lunch, but even priests have to eat (and im sure that they eat well).

so then we went up from there to a big church called santa maria maggiore. it was a big church with a lot of neat sculptures in it, but i didnt recognize any, nor know the stories behind any of them, so we were in and out rather quickly.

then was our adventure of finding palazzo barbarini (which i found to be a funny name, reminiscent of john travolta’s character in ‘welcome back cotter’). it should have been very easy from that church we were at, but we got mixed up, and went backwards, then forwards, then back and forth again, that it was a pain to get there. paola and i were getting frustrated with each other: i because she kept complaining about how much we were walking, and her because i kept making her walk in circles. we never let it get too bad, though, and soon enough we got there, and complaints passed.

there were three caravaggio paintings hanging right as you walk into the gallery. there was ‘judith and holofernes,’ ‘st francis,’ and ‘narcissus.’apparently all the art experts, after arguing for a long time, now agree that the st francis is by caravaggio, but after looking at it, i disagree. the narcissus was nice enough, and a good rendition of the greek myth. perhaps my favorite painting by him, however, is ‘judith and holofernes,’ which i may have explained earlier. basically, judith is chopping off holofernes’ head. cool. there was also an impressive painting by raffael, and two el greco paintings that i liked (actually, the el grecos not so much; they were a bit faded and not as vivid as i expect from el greco).

from there we went back to the earlier church to see the michelangelo sculpture. it is one of his masterpieces. supposedly, when he finished it, he hit it on the head with his hammer, and asked, ‘why dont you talk,’ being so impressed with his work that he thought it was so realistic, it only lacked the ability to talk. indeed, its pretty good.