July 20, 2005
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IMAGES FROM THE STUNNING AND SPECTACULAR VATICAN CITY
I
thought world history was so boring in school. But when you are
standing underneath something living, breathing that by today’s
standards are just timeless, then all of a sudden it is so fascinating.
I
have never heard of anybody as amazing as Michelangelo. Today I
saw the amazing fresco he painted above the Sistine Chapel and stared
at its scale and beauty in immense awe. Then
you see St Peter’s
Basilica and realize what a tremendous architect he was. Inside
St Peter’s, on display is his original Sculpture of the Pieta.
How could one man exist with so
many gifts? He painted timeless
murals, was an unparalleled sculptor, an amazing architect
and also a poet. Wow. And then I realize, this was a
man. Someone who would probably sit next to me in the pizzeria in
these timeless streets.When they say someone is a true
renaissance man, I wonder why they just don’t say Michelangelo.
He was a turbo renaissance man.
Marco and I were walking around
with our point and shoot cameras and we looked at each other trying to
be photographic artists and we said to ourselves, we suck.
Michelangelo sure had quite a rebellious nature. When
I saw the murals over the Sistine Chapel, two things immediately come
to mind: 1) the absence of the presence of Mary and 2) how muscular
everybody is. My tour guide Paulo taught me a lot today.
The reason everyone was so muscular was because Michelangelo loved the
human form, and believed that strength was burgeoning out of man’s
body.
The complete absence of Mary was puzzling to me in the house of a religion that worships Mary as the mother of
God, and born of immaculate conception. Well this is weird but
according to my guide, it was Pope Pius IX in the 1800′s that declared
that Mary was born of immaculate conception, and it was at this time
that Mary had become a central figure for Catholicism. I mean it
isn’t really written in scripture, so it seems this worship of Mary and
especially the prayers directed toward Mary came well after
Michelangelo’s time. That is why Mary doesn’t show in the art.
The
Roman emporer Nero was really a weird guy. After the big fire in
Rome, he blamed it on the Christians, and ordered St. Peter crucified
and St. Paul beheaded. St. Paul was beheaded because he was a
roman, and therefore he was “treated” to a swift death rather than the
painful slow death of crucifixion. St. Peter chose to be
crucified upside down because as a martyr, he didn’t want the imagery
to be confused with Jesus. On the massive bronze door outside of
St. Peter’s is this stunning relief of St. Peter being crucified upside
down. On the site of his crucifixion, and the supposed tomb of St
Peter is the stunning square and basilica. It was here the
Catholic church was founded, at St. Peter was the first to run it.I
asked my tour guide Paulo why the roman empire fell. And he said
that it was because Rome had become arrogant and corrupt, and tried to
spread its’ idealogy around the world by force, yet could not longer
finance and support such a large army. (sounds hauntingly
familiar to me right about now). As the presence of Christianity
grew, it was not until the Roman emporer Constantine “legalized”
christianity did it become a possibility in Rome. The funny thing
is, Constantine became a christian on his deathbed – so it was like a
political thing because he knew Rome was losing it.
Today
I am pretty sure I took the most powerful images I have ever taken in
my life. I have one of the St. Peter’s Basilica where the light
is streaming in like a cross (see to the right). I just couldn’t
believe how amazing the Basilica is. But I totally am not going
to even think of any of my crap as even slightly artistic, after
standing under Michelangelo’s mural, or seeing the amazing sculpture he
chipped out of marble. I sell plastic lighting accessories and
take snapshots on vacation. Talk about being humbled!My
last question to Paulo was, if he thought there was ever a genius like
Michalangelo again, and he said that during those days there were so
many amazing Italian artists. The wealthy textile merchants from
Florence started the Renaissance and financed gifted artists… and
though Michelangelo was awesome, so was Bodicelli and Raphael. I
also freaking am stunned by how insane Bernini is. Inside St.
Peter’s is an amazing amazing sculpture by Bernini pictured here to the
left and his immense immense altar, the Baldacchino.
Tomorrow night I return to
France. I will miss Rome but this is a city I’ll see again.
There are many regions you can see once and be fine. Egypt I’m
fine. Greece I’m fine. But I’ll always feel homesick for
Italy or France…
