Day Twenty-Four

The vice president is still following us around Rome. He just won't take a hint...I did manage to get a picture of his limo as the motorcade passed though....
Today we had two more student presentations. Nicole gave a fantastic account of Mussolini and his impact on Italy. She included some very interesting facts about Mussolini's masterful use of propaganda, particularly film. I was also intrigued by the architectural style Mussolini preferred, exemplified in what is described as the square colosseum. This building style is very cold, dramatic and imposing. 

Then Emily led us to two Jesuit churches, Il Gesu and Sant' Ignazio. The most remarkable thing about these churches to me are the fantastic frescos inside. They are painted using what is called a quadratura technique which was very popular during the Baroque period. (I've always wanted to work the word Baroque into a blog post, it makes me sound like a fancy pants) This technique makes strong use of painted architectural elements to give the sense of perspective and really leads to a three dimensional illusion. This scene is one of judgment day, with some souls ascending to heaven and, not shown here, some descending to hell. Look at how the painting spills off of the ceiling onto the surrounding architectural features. Also, notice the masterful use of foreshortening to create the illusion of depth. Wowie! 
Our final stop was at a very old library where our friendly guide allowed us to see some rare illuminated manuscripts and books. There were also two fantastic huge globes on display. It was neat to see what parts of the world were still undiscovered at the time these were made. The name of this library is Biblioteca Casanatense. It is actually a public library and if you are ever in Rome, I highly recommend checking it out. They will allow you to study some very old, rare items that you probably would never be able to actually hold anywhere else. We even got to look at some of the first edition etchings done by Giovanni Battista Piranesi....

Day Twenty-two

Today we spent much time in the studio working on some of our final images for the class as Mel, our photographer is leaving us on Wednesday. We did make a brief trip out into the world to go visit an institute that restores old books. On the way there our walk was interrupted by the CRAZIEST motorcade I have ever seen! There were easily fifty vehicles involved ranging from police motorcycles all the way up to huge SUVS loaded with angry men armed with machine guns. They were driving so fast through the town, blocking off intersections and making a lot of noise. Wondering who could be this important to warrant such a scene, I noticed that the limousine in the middle of the convoy was flying the american flag. So, when I got home I looked up to see what our jokers in charge are up to these days. My search revealed this:

Mr. Cheney met Giorgio Napolitano, Italy's left-wing and largely ceremonial

president, at his Quirinale palace in Rome before some scheduled sight-seeing

in the ancient Etruscan town of Orvieto. He was due to meet Silvio Berlusconi,

centre-right prime minister, on Tuesday.

Geez, just when you think you've escaped American politics for a bit by moving to Rome for a month, the vice president comes hunting you down.... The car full of machine gun guys was not very amused by a gang of photographers just happening to be on the motorcade route. They were shouting at us as they drove by. Unfortunately I really did not get any pictures to speak of.

I did however get some nice images of the super friendly book technicians we met today. They were very thorough in their explanation of the restoration process, perhaps a little too much. Interesting nonetheless.

I also liked this nun I saw today, looking quite fashionable dressed up in blue....