Painting on High

Day 76

Tuesdays mean that I must do something with my day because I have far too much free time.  Today, that meant a trip to the Vatican Museum, to which all except one of my friends had already seen.

So off Courtney and I go to the Vatican Museum, not entirely sure of where we are supposed to go, but trusting those good old fashioned rust-colored signs to get us there.  Soon enough we hit a line that seemed neither too far from, nor too near to the entrance for us to stand in.  An hour later we were buying our tickets and riding up the escalator to see those Popes' fantastical art collections. 

The sculptures were lovely, of course.  (They could have been blank slabs of marble and I would say that, but hey, I'm a Classicist.  Produce anything before the 3th century and I would love it. Though the art here really is great.  After all, Popes took the time to collect it.)  We spent the majority of our time in front of Raphael's School of Athens and below Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.  Raphael will stubbornly remain my favorite Renaissance painter because his work is just so pretty, though Michelangelo was undeniably a genius.  In front of the School of Athens, I gazed from face to face admiring both his rendering of the individual philosophers and the hidden faces of his contemporary artists.  I have way too much of an art history background to just glance-and-go this painting.  To me, this painting sums up everything I love about art and the Classics, bringing together old and new, comparing one idea with another without dismissing either, and showing the roots of all modern thought.  Next it was to the Sistine Chapel.  You can see slide upon slide and picture upon picture of this fresco and never understand what it is truly like.  I know I have.  Courtney and I would have laid down on the floor and looked at the ceiling fresco for hours if we could have.  Unfortunately, the mad rush of unappreciative tourists made that impossible and instead we settled for standing with our heads craned upwards for half and hour.  No regrets.  In photos I dismiss it.  In person it is unbelievable, especially when you consider that is it was painted on a ceiling. (How did he even get up there?)

After that we took a quick tour of a gallery of ancient statuary and tried one last time to see the Augustus of Prima Porta (which is currently unavailable for viewing) before calling it quits and grabbing some tiramisu and returning to the convent for lunch.  Overall, an excellent morning adventure.

Ciao,
J