Renaissance Rome

Last week I was taken on as a chaperone for two small boys to help their grandparents during a visit to Rome. As well as visiting the amazing sights of ancient Rome - the Roman Forum, Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Ostia Antica, Rome's historical port at the mouth of the Tiber - I had a wonderful opportunity to see some Renaissance masterpieces and contemporary art as well. 
 

Sistene Chapel

The Last Judgement - Michelangelo

The Vatican Museums were a highlight. I spent a long time in the Sistene Chapel examining Michelangelo's Last Judgement through binoculars, identifying the various saints and Biageo de Cesena, the artist's critic, whom he portrayed in hell wrapped in a serpent. I also particularly liked the Botticelli panels on the walls. The beautiful Raphael rooms (Stanze di Raffaello), were decorated with frescoes by the young Raphael for Pope Julius II in the early 1500s. What is still astonishing about them is the quality of light they seem to emanate. 

Trevi Fountain - Salvi & Bracci

The Bernini Fountains in Piazza Navona, and the Trevi Fountain are post-Renaissance - originally planned by Bernini in 1629, then designed and built by Salvi and Bracci between 1732 and 1762. They are imposing masses of marble, speaking as much about the power and status of the papal and aristocratic patrons as about art.  

St Peter's Basilica looked lovely from outside. Inside, apart from the stunningly beautiful cupola and the Pieta, both by Michelangelo, the place oozed with the power, money and implicit violence of the Catholic Church. Between the armed guards in force outside, and the hordes of visitors taking selfies despite the no-camera signs, it certainly did not feel like a sacred space.


Nevertheless, the money and power that built Rome certainly sponsored some wonderful art, and no one remembers who paid for it all, only the great artists.