Reflections on Rome, Note 2: The Vatican
First things first: Merry Christmas! Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
We spent the first full day in Rome in the Vatican. We beat the huge line into the Vatican Museum by signing on to a tour group (Wisdom! Let you attend!). The guide was great, particularly for focusing one’s attention on the high points of a museum that could take weeks to explore. The only requirement is getting through the accent. Apparently Italians drop h’s at the beginning of words, but add them back when words begin with vowels. So when discussing the positioning of a statue’s arms with relation to a horse: “Yoo can see the staychoo-ez harms pointeh toward the ‘ors.” It brought back memories of tours we went on in Egypt with guides that we had no problem understanding at the time, but that, on reviewing old videos years later, were nigh incomprehensible.
The first section of the Vatican museum focused on Old Rocks from Imperial Rome. Fascinating sculptures. In good Western European Imperialist fashion there were even Old Rocks from Egypt in the collection (among others, two sphinxes and a brass “piyn-eh cohn-eh” that once adorned a temple to Isis). It’s all good - this way I get to find little pieces of home everywhere I go, you know?
Further on we got to beautiful tapestries and paintings (still not in the Renaissance quite yet), including detailed aerial renditions of Italy’s various regions - think GoogleEarth, pre-Renaissance. Several rooms had ceilings that looked to be elaborately curved and carved, but in fact were simply well painted.
And then we got to the Renaissance rooms. Where there had been restoration work, the colors were brilliant. Frescoes and murals with life size figures, or nearly so. Raphael was responsible for several rooms, and his “The School of Athens” was more astounding that I had imagined. I guess I never quite appreciated the work of the Great Masters before. Perhaps it’s like a classical symphony or jazz - one hasn’t really experienced the music until one has heard it live. And absolutely nothing can prepare for Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was brilliant. There really is no way to convey being in the presence of such art, so I won’t try. Please forgive me.
Later that day we spent time around St. Peter’s Basilica. It is again difficult to express the sheer immensity of the place. And again, the art was breathtaking. We visited the tombs of the popes, though I admit a more personal connection to altar of St. Gregory the Great in the Nave. There was a magnificent sculpture of the Chair of St. Peter being held up by Sts. Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, and John Chrysostom. The sculpture contains an actual chair that dates back to the “Paleo-Christian” era, implying it very well might have been an early episcopal throne, maybe even St. Peter’s, if he had one. The visit to the Vatican was capped off (pun intended) by Dad and I climbing up to the cupola, where we were rewarded by a beautiful view of Rome.
We spent the first full day in Rome in the Vatican. We beat the huge line into the Vatican Museum by signing on to a tour group (Wisdom! Let you attend!). The guide was great, particularly for focusing one’s attention on the high points of a museum that could take weeks to explore. The only requirement is getting through the accent. Apparently Italians drop h’s at the beginning of words, but add them back when words begin with vowels. So when discussing the positioning of a statue’s arms with relation to a horse: “Yoo can see the staychoo-ez harms pointeh toward the ‘ors.” It brought back memories of tours we went on in Egypt with guides that we had no problem understanding at the time, but that, on reviewing old videos years later, were nigh incomprehensible.
The first section of the Vatican museum focused on Old Rocks from Imperial Rome. Fascinating sculptures. In good Western European Imperialist fashion there were even Old Rocks from Egypt in the collection (among others, two sphinxes and a brass “piyn-eh cohn-eh” that once adorned a temple to Isis). It’s all good - this way I get to find little pieces of home everywhere I go, you know?
Further on we got to beautiful tapestries and paintings (still not in the Renaissance quite yet), including detailed aerial renditions of Italy’s various regions - think GoogleEarth, pre-Renaissance. Several rooms had ceilings that looked to be elaborately curved and carved, but in fact were simply well painted.
And then we got to the Renaissance rooms. Where there had been restoration work, the colors were brilliant. Frescoes and murals with life size figures, or nearly so. Raphael was responsible for several rooms, and his “The School of Athens” was more astounding that I had imagined. I guess I never quite appreciated the work of the Great Masters before. Perhaps it’s like a classical symphony or jazz - one hasn’t really experienced the music until one has heard it live. And absolutely nothing can prepare for Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was brilliant. There really is no way to convey being in the presence of such art, so I won’t try. Please forgive me.
Later that day we spent time around St. Peter’s Basilica. It is again difficult to express the sheer immensity of the place. And again, the art was breathtaking. We visited the tombs of the popes, though I admit a more personal connection to altar of St. Gregory the Great in the Nave. There was a magnificent sculpture of the Chair of St. Peter being held up by Sts. Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, and John Chrysostom. The sculpture contains an actual chair that dates back to the “Paleo-Christian” era, implying it very well might have been an early episcopal throne, maybe even St. Peter’s, if he had one. The visit to the Vatican was capped off (pun intended) by Dad and I climbing up to the cupola, where we were rewarded by a beautiful view of Rome.