The Story of Rome

Someday everything's gonna be different......

Art is civilisation.  Without creative work our caves would still be undecorated, and we would never learn from the stories we hear, or see, or read.  Whether it is high art, sophisticated and subtle, or the puppetry of commerce is of minor significance.  Without art we would be nothing.  

These painted eyes from two and a half millennia ago are young in the history of the world, but date from about the time that Rome began to flourish, and it is this continuum that makes Rome so fascinating.  

Terracotta Head of a Woman,
First half of the fifth century BC

You don't need to be an art historian to enjoy what you see in Rome, but sometimes a little imagination and a brush with learning might help.  I met these two in the Villa Giulia, and hastily sketched them for my records.  Now I look at the picture though, I wonder, is she giving me the eye?  And is his right hand warning me off?  

Sarcophagi degli Sposi. c 525 BC
found at Cerveteri in 1881 (in 400 pieces)

The Etruscan civilisation predated the Roman Empire in central Italy, but the Rape of Lucretia by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (how's that for egoism?) in about 510 BC brought about a reversal of fortunes for Etruscan kings and the Roman Republic was established.  In the meantime, the Greeks were producing some very fine art, combining stories from their mythology with exquisite craftsmanship.  I was attracted to this young woman in the Palazzo Massimo, but had to give way to the paramedics when I realised she had an arrow in her back.....

One of the 14 daughters of Niobe, struck in the back by an arrow
Greek sculpture from the 5th century BC, but found in the Horti Sallustiani

Terracotta, marble, bronze.... the artists of old knew all the tricks. This fight-scarred and weary boxer was created in Greece using the lost wax process (as also used by Henry Moore in the twentieth century). His ears, nose and cheeks bear the marks of his trade, and his deep eyes perhaps convey a slight puzzlement as to what brought him here.

Boxer at rest
Hellenistic, 2nd - 1st century BC
formerly in the Baths of Constantine

A similar expression I note on the visage of my old friend Antonio, whose twenty seven years at the British Embassy in Rome we celebrate in anticipation of his imminent retirement from the ring....

In the meantime, with the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian, nephew to Julius Caesar, came to power in Rome.  In 27 BC, taking the title Augustus, he ushered in a period of stability that lasted over forty years - a lifetime then.

Emperor Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, 27 BC - 14 AD
A statue that emphasises his authority and piety

An idea of the continuity of Rome's architecture can be seen on the site of the Forum of Augustus, where layers of buildings are still occupied above the imperial remains....

The House of the Knights of Rhodes, 1470,
overlooking the Forum of Augustus(Originally reached by a stairway to the central door)

And also in the placing of this giant Bull's head by the central fountain of Michaelangelo's vast cloister in the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was built over the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian.  Originally this head was one of five symbolic stone beasts in the Forum and Market of Trajan, built next to Augustus's Forum by Apollodorus of Damascus in 112 AD.

One of five colossal animal heads in the Great Cloister of Santa Maria Degli Angeli, designed by Michaelangelo.

Though the empire's days were numbered, its power, and its habits, lingered well into the Christian era, and bulls were still being slaughtered to Mithras several hundred years after the birth of Jesus. This marble bas relief still bears some of its original colour, the red being particularly striking....

Tauroctonia, 3rd century AD
Mithras slaughters a bull
from the Mithraeum of the Castra Perigrinorum

The period known as the Dark Ages, roughly between the fall of Rome in the 6th century to the Renaissance in the fourteenth century, would not have been completely without light, as many churches bear witness.  One particularly luminous place is the Chapel of San Zeno in the 9th century Basilica di Santa Prassede, originally commissioned by Pope Hadrian I in 780 AD, but completed by Paschal I in 822.  

Christ Pantocrator
Byzantine style mosaics, possibly influenced by those in Ravenna

And on the streets of the city ancient statues, such as this so-called Talking Statue of Madame Lucrezia which sits outside the Palazzo Venezia, where Mussolini had his office, held their own, despite the ignominies of time. 

Then, with the explosive power of the popes and the artistic rediscovery of antiquity, all hell (proverbially at least) broke loose in Rome and villas, palazzi, fountains, basilicas, erupted all over the place. Typical of the decorative development was the Villa Giulia, now home to the national museum of Etruscan art.  Here in the heat of the summer, Pope Julius would refresh himself and his cardinals in his nymphaeum, under the watchful eye of statues representing the rivers Tiber and Arno....

The River Arno
Statue in one of the niches of the Ninfeo of the Villa Giulia
Vasari, 1553

Elaborate expressions of grandeur became the flavour, and major basilicas such as that of Santa Maria Maggiore grew in magnificence. First commissioned by Pope Sixtus III in 431 (in the Dark Ages, NB) it was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1348, and it did not gain its current appearance internally until about 1630.  

The facade was added in 1743. Inside it is as peaceful as polychromatic marbles, triumphal arches, mosaics and statuary will allow, which is then confused by groups of reverent tourists and even nuns with cameras and smart phones.....

Sister takes a selfie
Santa Maria Maggiore

Even the statues have to pose.....

Smile please!  Taking photos of Pius IX
in the Confessional of Santa maria Maggiore

And the same is happening at the Arcibasilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, and therefore the current Roman seat of Pope Francis, who will no doubt particularly like the bronze statues across the piazza.....

S Francesco waves at the Doctors of the Church atop S Giovanni in Laterano

And so, through baroque and rococo we reach a neo-classical age and the unification of Italy, when Vittorio Emanuele II got on his great wide harse in Piazza Venezia before the wrong (Brescian) white marble of the Altare della Patria.....

Winged Victory and her team of four atop the Vittoriano

The dome of St Peter's is in the background

And through all these centuries, inspired by or despite the art, life has gone on.  Gentlemen exchange pleasantries, 

The elegant relax

Policemen lean on counters, their guns safely holstered.....

Tourists pose for portraitists,

Or cruise the streets,

Children attend their schools, their walls discreetly signed,

Nursery School

Some adults speed from work, 

While others take their rest,

Which reminds me of the bruised boxer, from so many centuries past,

Boxer at rest
Hellenistic, 2nd - 1st century BC
formerly in the Baths of Constantine

I, in my comparative ease, take a little lunch, as Romans do,

L'Antica Enoteca
Via Della Croce

And then a coffee, grecian style,

Antico Caffe Greco (1760)
Via dei Condotti

And then admire the true citizens of Rome,

Later, as the sky tinges over the Marian Column (1614) in front of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome takes on a different guise.  In one way it becomes more ancient, as some of the signs of modernism are obscured. In other ways the electricity of the 21st century burns the past and the city whirls into a new kind of obscurity.....

I repair to one of my old haunts, to track down my friend Gino in his bottled hideaway....

The Fiddler's Elbow
Via dell'Olmata

Later still, I wander past Harry's Bar, vaguely wondering what it might cost to dine there.  It is in a wonderful location, with the Porta Pinciana piercing the Aurelian Wall at Piazza Brasile, with the great park of the Villa Borghese beyond.  In the war, my father wandered here with his pals; in the 60's Marcello Mastroianni popped his flashbulbs here in La Dolce Vita.  Now the traffic has soured the air, and somehow the romance has gone....

And indeed on my way back to my lodging lights are flashing as an accident blocks the street. Roman traffic is chaotic.  The city is being buried under parked cars, and to drive here is to dice with the devil. 

Dylan sings that The streets of Rome are filled with rubble..... Some of this can be cleared, and some, like the Sarcophagi degli Sposi, can be painstakingly reconstructed, to reappear almost as good as new.  Whether the rubble is the detritus of centuries of city life, or the shards of splintered glass from a wrecked motorbike, Rome both fascinates and repels, as, I imagine, it always has.

In case of glass, break fire....

Sarcophagi degli Sposi. c 525 BC
found at Cerveteri in 1881 (in 400 pieces)

Someday everything's gonna be different....

And when it is, I will paint my masterpiece.  

Civilisation is Art.  

But I still have a long way to go.....

A dances with her shadow on the Pincio.....

Saint Francis of Assisi

San Francesco d'Assisi 

This is a story about a boy. 

Not just any boy. A particular boy.  He could have been a girl.  He could have been you.  Or me.  Or no one.  But he wasn't.  He was special.....

His father was a business man, named Bernadone.  His business was importing cloth, and selling it.  He was rich, and traded with Avignon, in France.  Which was why he called his son Francesco, or Francis.

He came from Assisi, in the heart of Italy, and had warehouses full of fine cloth from France there.  And so his son grew up.  Under blue skies and sunshine. Wanting for nothing.



They had all they could eat:

All they could drink:

Luxuries of all kinds.  Welcome in the finest restaurants.

And as Francesco became a young man he became something of a playboy.  He had time on his hands:

Like many rich young men, then as now, he led a life of pleasure:  "La dolce vita" some would call it.  Carefree.  Hedonistic.  Spoiled.  Thoughtless.  Careless.

Though one day Francesco noticed a beggar.  He didn't do anything,  But he noticed, and the image etched itself on his mind.

It didn't stop him enjoying the fruits of his father's wealth.  Playing with style.  Having fine friends.

Living life in the fast lane.

Until a war broke out with a neighbouring city state, and Francesco was called up.

Then he was captured.

And imprisoned.

And this was the turning point.  He became ill and the image of the beggar grew in his mind until it took over.  He realised that his ways had been worthless, and so, when released due to ill health he returned to his father's home and denounced all his wealth.  He went to rebuild a ruined chapel just outside Assisi;

And, to his parents' horror, and his friends' incredulity, he took to helping the lepers and the lame.

And so, having made the decision not to indulge himself in the ways of his patrimony, he took instead as example the life of Jesus Christ, and his life took on meaning, and purpose.

He travelled.  And in the town of Gubbio he met, and tamed, a fierce wolf that had been troubling the people.

And his activities began to be talked about.  He gathered followers.

He moved into remote places in central Italy, in the mountains, where he and his followers lived very simply.  He dressed in a rough tunic, tied with a cord; and he went barefoot.  Francis seemed to have an especially good rapport with animals and his gentle and sympathetic approach to all creatures became a talking point. By 1217 he had many followers, not only in Italy, and his movement was becoming a Religious Order (Pope Innocent III had authorised Francis and eleven companions to be roving preachers - but Francis never became a priest).  In 1224, while praying at the Sanctuary of La Verna, there appeared on his body scars which resembled the wounds of the crucified Christ.  The 'stigmata.'

His order was accepted by the Pope and the 'Friars Minor' or 'Lesser Brothers' were formed.  In the years following his death in 1226 his legend was embellished and the great basilica at Assisi was built (beginning on July 17th 1228, the day after Pope Gregory IX pronounced Francis a Saint), to be decorated by the greatest artists, including Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti..

The basilica, which is really two churches on top of each other, houses some of Italy's finest frescos telling the story of the life of St Francis.  It was very badly damaged in an earthquake on September 26th 1997, but it has been successfully restored to its former glory.

Assisi itself is now a place of pilgrimage. On June 18th, 1939, St Francis was named by Pope Pius XII to be joint patron saint of Italy with Catherine of Siena.  Francis's feast day is observed on October 4th.

The panels on the walls of the upper Basilica, painted by Giotto, depict the life and legend of the saint. 

The following picture of St Francis receiving the stigmata was painted in 1596 by Lodovico Cardi Cigoli, and is to be seen in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The death of St Francis, as portrayed by Giotto in Santa Croce, Florence.

In modern times, the life and work of St Francis has been the subject of a number of films:

And the Christmas tradition of presenting the birth of Jesus in three dimensions owes much to St Francis:

As in 1223 he organised the people of the village of Greccio, near Rieti, to bring the event to life in what is now known as a "Presepe (or Presepio) Vivente" -  which means a living crib - with local people taking the parts of Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men and so on, and local animals playing themselves.  This is now a common part of village life throughout Italy.

And the name Francesco, or Francis, or Frank, is often chosen to link the child with the saint.  Here is one of Italy's most famous footballers - Francesco Totti, in Roma strip:

Or you could think of Frank Sinatra, Frankie Dettori, Francis Ford Coppola.... And here is a recent Pope. Though not Italian, he is the first Pope to adopt the name of Italy's favourite saint:

In fact there is a striking resemblance to the face in the painting of St Francis by Cimabue, to be found in the Lower Basilica at Assisi.  They could almost be related.

St Francis left a mark on Italy and on the world.  His story, which is not dissimilar to that of Gautama, the Buddha, inspires people to this day, and his writings and recorded thoughts are similarly effective.  In the English language one of the most popular hymns is based on what is known as The Prayer of Saint Francis, though almost certainly Francis did not compose it.  Make me a channel of your peace......  If you wish you could watch Susan Boyle singing it for five minutes on youtube, though for me the following video is infinitely preferable:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTNVoNPmrA

 O Signore, fa' di me uno strumento della tua Pace:

Dove è odio, fa' ch'io porti l'Amore.

Dove è offesa, ch'io porti il Perdono.

Dove è discordia, ch'io porti l'Unione.

Dove è dubbio, ch'io porti la Fede.

Dove è errore, ch'io porti la Verità.

Dove è disperazione, ch'io porti la Speranza.

Dove è tristezza, ch'io porti la Gioia.

Dove sono le tenebre, ch'io porti la Luce.

O Maestro, fa' ch'io non cerchi tanto:

Essere consolato, quanto consolare.

Essere compreso, quanto comprendere.

Essere amato, quanto amare.

Poiché è Dando, che si riceve;

Perdonando, che si è perdonati;

Morendo, che si resuscita a Vita Eterna

This story of an Italian boy informs us all.