the Wright way: get there the roundabout way, through self-reliance, staying alert, and learning more about the Roman transportation system as you go. You're stuck on a bus for 30 more minutes anyway.
____________________________________
Look through my little moleskin notebook: the 3x6 I keep in my coat pocket that usually cradles a fountain pen. It went to the Vatican Museum with me today. You can tell.
There is a section of notes I wrote, which starts after
Stanze Delle'Incendio di Borgo:
-Depictions of Pope [Leo IV-X]
-Scenes from his life, dramatized
-During fresco process, faces changed b/c papal deaths
-Dining as intended use of space...
There's a header which follows, barely coherent. It reads
Sistine _______.. *arbitrary cursive*
*odd amount of free space and an ink blot*
-images of serpent *more brigid-hieroglyphics*
-onparch.
I think that was the point when my neck resigned itself to my will of a ninety degree angle, and I experienced "the wordless:" When I can't speak. It's a really emotive time. I have names for those.
first thing raphael ever painted.
ceiling of the gallery of maps, began in the 1590s.
i can't get over these maps. the lettering reminds me of Faith47.
we are there. rome.
sea monster depiction.
looks sculpted, right? this ceiling is pure paint.
ceiling detail.
hyena mosaic!
from the egyptian section [we didn't go in].
floor mosaics.
look familiar?
more floor mosaics.
the belvedere torso. michaelangelo refused to restore this greek sculpture, but the position of the body and musculature influenced his work on the ceiling of the sistine chapel.
not the original; that one was lost. this is a cast.
papal art collecting.
i want to draw this elevation. piazza pinacoteca..
contemporary sculpture. it spins, watch out.
The Gallery of Maps was one of the coolest spaces I've ever been in. Who knew two of my favorite things, the medium of fresco and the subject of traveling and geography, could be found in the same hall? The ceiling was remarkable, too. It was constructed a bit after the maps were completed in the 1580's. The architectural ornamentation rips your eyes from their line of vision and leads you around an elaborate display of ceiling sculpture and gold paint. It's all about the details, here.
The way the compasses are drawn in a golden radial pattern on the maps looks a lot like what I'd recently been painting at my place. I work with oil on wood though-- a lot easier than fresco. If you get that wrong, you have to wait for the plaster to dry, then chip off the mistake and fill in the missing area with more colored plaster. The depictions of sea monsters and war ships were fantastic, too. It's remarkable how accurate the master map-makers were in terms of topography.
Then it was off to studio to work on a church redesign as a warm-up for what's to come. We get project II tomorrow. Who's excited?
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