Art and Arch- Conquering Rome

On my first weekend here, my group and I took an hour-long train ride to Rome.  Roma truly is an ancient city, and its preserved buildings and monuments attest to that.  We arrived in the terminal in the late morning and, after a few metro rides, arrived a short distance to one of the most famous city-states in the world, Vatican City.  For this visit, we were gifted a tour guide, who made the experience complete with her knowledge of the buildings inside.  We visited the Vatican museum, one of the first collections of ancient arts and artifacts.  Two old buildings were part of this museum, one for the art, the other for and entrance way.  Between them, a very modern glass and steel canopy covered a courtyard, set there in preparation for the last jubilee.  This area explains most of the experience: a love for the past, with obvious modern accommodations. 

There were large exhibits from many parts of the world- largely, Egypt.  Mummies and sarcophagi made up the oldest of the attractions, but it was the more Roman and Renaissance sculptures that really drew my interest.  Belvedere Torso, a broken Athenian sculpture, is proudly displayed in the center of its own room.  The statute was highly influential to Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo who is known to have much of his time studying the piece and incorporating it into his own art.  Most powerful to me, however, was the famous Roman sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, which I have seen often in years of Art History classes.  The sculpture depicts a mythological episode of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons being attacked by sea serpents.  The writhing marble snakes twist and spiral around the contorted figures who struggle against their assault.  This piece has become a point of interest for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, the artist gives very believable action and detail to marble.  The life-like serpents, drapes, are impressive enough, but there is something about this statue that really defines the Roman and Romanesque art periods: their faces.  In contrast to the blank and placid expressions on many classical sculptures, these faces are in a perfectly depicted agony.  These expressions are presented later during and after the Renaissance. 

As we exited the museums, we entered St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was the first basilica that we had visited and I was in awe of the grandness of the holy building.  The enormous dome and vaulted ceiling was decorated with ornate mosaics depicting religious episodes and artworks.  This meant that flash photography was allowed as the art was not a fresco that could be damaged by the cameras.  It was also a powerful experience to see Michelangelo’s statue Pietà as it too is a well-known sculpture.  One thing that struck me as strange, however, was that tombs of former Popes were on display for prayers and pictures.  Although one was a closed stone sarcophagus, two others we walked past were transparent glass, housing the wax-covered bodies of the pontiffs visible and open.