So I called in last Thursday and reserved a few tickets for Brukab, Anjali, Maia, Megan, and me for 3 pm today. They tell you that you have to pick up your reserved tickets by 2:30 pm, so after a bit of a delay on the bus, we had to race through the metro station then through the Villa Borghese park to find the museum.
When I arrived, I looked like I'd just run a marathon.
I was pretty much drenched in sweat and had beads of perspiration flowing down my face. 'Twas pretty gross. We made it to the museum entrance right at 2:30 pm and got in line to pick up our tickets. Only after I pulled out my nifty Rick Steves book again, though, did I notice that he said they usually don't release your tickets until 10 minutes before entrance. So we could've taken our time walking if we'd really wanted to. Oh well.
The museum itself is part of 17th century villa constructed under Cardinal Scipio Borghese, whom Paolo described as the man who "built the villa, assembled the collection, and hired Bernini to sculpt masterpieces" (page 175, Rick Steves Rome 2007).
Wow...I just cited Rick Steves.
Anyway, the Borghese is filled with the most amazing Baroque sculptures, mostly by Bernini but others like Canova too. The sad part about our visit, though, was that they don't allow you to take pictures inside or even to bring your camera in.
Lame-O.
The art itself, though, is both breathtakingly realistic and awe-inspiringly beautiful. It seemed that every room had at least one famous sculpture by Bernini, the most famous ones being his active, slingshot-swinging
David and his incredible mythical composition, Apollo and Daphne. (By the way, the pictures of the two sculptures here are courtesy of the wonderful world wide web as my camera was sadly stashed away at the check-in desk).I had such a blast in the museum that I went through the first floor sculpture exhibit a second time through...to find each of the rooms completely empty as all the crowds of visitors had by now moved to the second level from which I had just returned.
So, I journaled.
I sat in front of Bernini's David and just stared at his intense facial expression, which compared to Michelangelo's David's calm, peaceful, and proud face or Donatello's David's childish, feminine, and not-quite-so-serious face is much more realistic and representative of the moment he slayed Goliath. Instead of the Renaissance contrapposto stance, he is fully twisted, about to unleash a deadly projectile from his little slingshot.
I remember Ms. Nuxoll asked us in AP Art History, which of the three Davids we studied was our favorite. My answer then (and even more so now that I've seen all three in person) was hands-down Bernini's David. Of course, you're free to disagree. =]
The second sculpture that I journaled in front of was Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, which is absolutely amazing. It portrays the god, Apollo, trying to chase down Daphne, the nymph daughter of the river god, Peneus. Just as he's about to catch her, she cries out to her father, who turns her into a tree.
Bernini's masterpiece is incredibly intricate. From behind, you see Apollo chasing what looks like a tree. But if you walk to the front, you realize the tree is Daphne, whose toes are turning into tree roots and whose hands are turning into branches while her skin transforms into tree bark. It's such an impressive sculpture that it made me want to just sit in the room even longer than I already did.
I finished my little reflection period with one last glance at Canova's Pauline Bonaparte as Venus sculpture, which is equally as impressive. Canova's marble sculpture of Napoleon's sister reclining on a mattress is about as perfectly realistic as a marble sculpture can be. The mattress sinks down under her weight as if the carved mattress were really soft and cushy. Moreover, Canova sculpted little tiny folds into the mattress and polished it over and over until it shined like a leather seat. It's so real you just want to reach out and squeeze the mattress, just to see if it's real.
After spending an hour and a half of our maximum two hours in the museum though, we were really hungry and satisfied with having seen another entire collection of sculptures, although these were some of the most impressive ones I've seen thus far from Venice, Florence, or Rome.
So, we went for a stroll in the gardens...
Everyone was taking pictures. Pretty funny.
Our stomachs were growling pretty seriously though, so we decided to head back to cook...more pasta! When we made it to the grocery store though, we realized that it was closed (because it was Sunday), and so we had to change to plan B--McDonald's. Well, it was really plan D or E or F, but basically, we were indecisive, I wasn't too excited about spending a bunch of money, so we went for the Golden Arches.First time in Rome after eating it almost every day in Florence.
I have to say though...it was nice to not eat pasta again after having it for four straight meals. =]
We have class again tomorrow, so it should be another fun and busy week. My weekend was semi-productive as I sent out a few emails, revised my parts of the HIA final paper I wrote with Anton and Oscar, submitted my HIA Board Letter and HIA Action Project Initial Proposal, and did more thinking for Dream Project. I definitely need to step it up next weekend though if I want to see Pompeii, the Appian Way, the Baths of Caracalla, and the Catacombs. We'll see how things go...
It's my turn to write on Manka's class blog tomorrow, so I'll probably have lots of overlaps between what I write here and what I write there. I will at least post some pictures on Manka's site too. Time to go take a shower and finish some reading. Night!
Sam
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