Sunday Adventures

I'm not sure how I let myself get talked into these things but there I was getting up at 5:00 am to go watch the sunrise.  Granted, it was only a couple hours or so before I usually get up but I think my body was really hoping for leisurely morning and maybe sleeping in.  It was Nick's idea-always Nick-he really wanted to watch the sunrise behind the Colosseum.  He brought it up Saturday evening as a large group of us were enjoying a late lunch at an Irish pub (that did not have fish & chips!).  Somehow through the fog of a couple of Guinesses I heard myself saying, "That sounds like fun!  Wake me in the morning and I'll join you."  There we were at 5:30 walking to the Colosseum watching the very full buses herding masses of pilgrims to St. Peter's.  I was also looking desperately for an open caffe but wasn't having any luck.  We arrived at the Colosseum which was mostly deserted.  Three youngish people were sitting there finishing their beers-I guess they had a long night-and a couple of other tourists.  One asked me to take his picture and I almost pulled out my camera; yeah, I needed coffee.  Slowly the sky started to brighten and that is when we realized it was overcast.  Nick was disappointed but we still managed to get some photographing in.

After leaving the Colosseum we decided to see what a couple of the other major monuments looked like at this hour of the morning so we headed off to, first, the Trevi Fountain.

The fountain is a frontal façade fountain meaning that it is the terminal of an aqueduct, in this case the Aqua Vergine.  For years—centuries more likely—popes had wanted to build a new, monumental fountain at this location but a variety of reasons kept that from becoming a reality; a lack of resources, politics, other projects taking precedence.  In the 1630’s, Pope Urban VIII commissioned Gianlorenzo Bernini to work on a fountain project.  Bernini was able to change the position of the fountain so there would be a direct view of it from the Palazzo Quirinale, the Pope’s summer residence.  Bernini was unable to do more.

In the 1730’s, Pope Clement XII, a Florentine, called in Florentine artists and architects to compete for the design of a new fountain.  Nicola Salvi won the competition.  The Palazzo of the Poli family had to be confiscated and the family removed to complete the project but that wasn’t really a hardship for Pope Clement because he didn’t like the Poli family.  Salvi’s design reflects and refers to cinquecento style especially in the fountain’s monumentality; it is very Michelangelesque and the façade bears a striking resemblance to Michelangelo’s Palazzo dei Conservatore on the Campidoglio.  The lowest level is fully rusticated and the upper levels are constructed in the colossal order acting as the ‘bones’ of the structure framing the remainder of the façade.  The triumphal arch at the center represents the triumph of water and the lozenge pattern in the niche above is a pattern taken from Hadrian, referencing antiquity as well as the Renaissance.

At the very top center are four figures representing the four seasons.  Below the seasons, to the left and right of the upper part of the niche, are two relief panels.  The panel on the right shows a young woman, Trivia, is guiding Roman soldiers to the source of the water for the aqueduct.  The other relief panel depicts a Roman engineer showing the project plans for the aqueduct to Agrippa.  Directly below the relief panels are two statues representing abundance and fertility.  The central figure is Oceanus, “the great sea god who girdles the world.”  He is the source of all water which springs forth from the center of the Earth, his realm.  Oceanus is bringing water to Rome by rising up from below causing the Earth to displace and tremble.  Leading the rush of water are two tritons with sea horses almost as if they were charioteers for Oceanus.  The theme is neo-platonic showing the corruption of the original purity of ‘water’ as it cascades over the rocks and into the basin, fragmenting and becoming chaotic, disseminating into the various forms of water found on Earth.

Note the building 'crumbling' as Oceanus rises up.

Oceanus calling forth the water

A triton and his horse

After spending sometime almost alone with the Trevi fountain (and no, I did not pretend to be Anita Ekberg) we headed off to Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona was originally Domitian’s stadium but became a market place in the middle ages.  Leo X tried to reorganize the market and rehabilitate it.  He built his palazzo just off the piazza—Antonio Sangallo was the architect—reviving the ancient tradition of having a palace facing an open space like Domitian’s palace facing the Circus Maximus.  This urban form had been exported by late emperors to Constantinople (and others).  This revival tries to make the new Rome into the new Constantinople.  The palace and circus idea becomes appealing in the 17^th century.  Innocent X Pamphili built his palace directly on Piazza Navona and rebuilds Sant’ Agnese in Agone incorporating the church in to the palace façade.  The single façade hides three palazzos and a street.  Innocent X wanted to transfer the Papal court to Piazza Navona and the references to St. Peter’s are evident because of this.

The Palazzo Pamphili (1644-50) was designed by Girolamo Rainaldi with additions by Francesco Borromini and has a three partite façade enclosing a street and creating a blessing loggia which joins the palace and the church.  The blessing loggia has a Serlian window which consists of an arch with two flat side windows and is another reference to antiquity.

Sant’ Agnese (1652-57) was designed by Girolamo Rainaldi, Carlo Rainaldi, and Francesco Borromini.  It is a centralized church meant to recall the façade of St. Peter’s but also corrects the problems of Carlo Maderno’s façade of St. Peter’s.  There is tension and movement in the façade created by concaves and convexes; the towers and pilasters squeeze the façade creating the undulations like an accordion.

Fountain of the Four Rivers

Francesco Borromini was originally given the commission to build the monumental fountain on the Piazza Navona.  He had set up the mechanics by piping water from the Spanish Steps via an underground aqueduct and was charged with transferring an obelisk from outside Rome to Piazza Navona.  Gianlorenzo Bernini was eventually given the commission after he brought in a model in gold, silver, and bronze.

Bernini brings in four large rocks of travertine upon which sit four allegories of the longest rivers on each of the four continents—from a c. 1650 point of view.  They are the Danube, Nile, Rio de la Plata and the Ganges.  Through their movements and poses we can see the level of conversion attained on each of the continents; the Danube is embracing Christianity, the Rio de la Plata is blinded, the Nile is unveiling himself, and the Ganges is looking at the arrival of Christianity.  The obelisk in the center is the church of the Pamphili family and represents the diffusion of Christianity and referencing the fact that the Christian empire is larger than the ancient empire—war brings peace and a new Pax Romana which signals the 2^nd coming of Christ.  The four rivers also represent the four rivers of paradise.  Anastasis Kircher was a likely advisor to Bernini—underneath the Rio de la Plata is an armadillo and Kircher had one in his wundercamera.  The inscriptions are Kircherian, the obelisk and the palm trees equate the reach up to the sun and heaven.  The entire form is neoplatonic as it also represents the fragmentation of the perfect idea and its fragmentation as it moves to earth.  The perfect order of heaven is fragmented and becomes chaotic on earth.

Palazzo Pamphili--now the Brazilian Embassy

Serlian Arch

Sant' Angnese

Base of the Four Rivers Fountain

Fountain and obelisk

After Piazza Navona (those pictures, by the way, were taken a few days ago-it was almost empty when we were there) Nick and I decide to head over toward Castel Sant' Angelo just to see some of the madness.  We got as close as the river but couldn't cross it.  Castel Sant' Angelo is about a half mile from St. Peter's.  That is how deep the crowd was.  

After this craziness we walked back toward the centro storico because there is a church that is only open on Sunday's from 9:00-noon and we both wanted to see it.  We grabbed coffee--finally--and headed to Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza.  It may be the most beautiful church I have ever seen. 

The Sapienza is the former university of Rome where the Jesuits taught Theology, Philosophy, and Languages—the tools for conversion.  Anastasis Kircher taught here.  The courtyard is a concave with a continuation of classical elements and was planned by Giocomo della Porta.

The church of Sant’ Ivo is by Borromini and was completed under Alexander VII Chigi.  The lantern of the church spirals upward and recalls the tower of Babel which is appropriate for a university specializing in languages.  Decorations include tongues of fire.  The exterior is about the separation of languages and the interior is about the bringing them back together through Pentecost.  It is in a pyramidal form and contains neo-platonic references.  The plan of the church is an interpenetration of geometrical forms with the infinite small and the infinite large being connected.

After visiting Sant' Ivo, Nick and I went separate ways.  I went up the hill to see the other great Borromini church--San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

Borromini was an outsider and he worked outside tradition combining bizarre elements; spirals, ovals, etc. At San Carlino he fuses circles and triangles, the triangle being the symbol of his patron.  He took two equilateral triangles and set them end to end; then placed circles inside each of those triangles, they fuse and become an oval.  Circles then either add to or take away from the interior walls creating undulating walls where the perfection of heavenly figures have fused and fragmented on earth.  Architecture has become philosophical.  The undulating walls create a rhythm of movement, the coffering is like a reverse Pantheon, flowers are different and delicate, laurel wreath topped with crown—Borromini is fusing all aspects of western architecture.

The courtyard was one of Borromini’s 1^st independent works.  There are no corners.  Serlian arches appear at the ends and sides of the courtyard which is an octagon.  The balustrade is Michelangelesque but the balusters alternate one reversed from the next creating a better viewpoint for the individuals looking through but also creating further movement for the viewer.  The capitals of the columns have octagonal capitals, a reference to the middle ages, and the pairs of columns share an entablature, a design element also from the middle ages that Borromini has used before, e.g., Sant’ Andrea della Valle.

The façade was finished after Borromini’s death and possible by his son/nephew.  It bears a striking resemblance to Petra which wasn’t discovered until the 19^th century.  It was designed from drawings by Borromini and he may have been influenced by Montano’s drawings of ancient buildings.