Rome 2 - ruins

You cannot go to Rome without seeing the vast history overlapping itself and modernity. Though the forum is more crowded these days (put a price on it and tourists will flock?) one cannot help but be fascinated. On the Via Sacra, the main road going through the forum, the very large facade of the Temple of Antoninus & Faustina is clearly visible. You can see that there was a church built onto it later.

The Basilica of Maxentius is so impressive, especially when you consider that these large arches would have been to the side of the basilica. This basilica can easily be compared to St. Peter's, Vatican City, for scale. I have a book that I bought on my first trip to Rome which is really helpful for visualisation: photographs of sites have flippable overlays which illustrate the site as it would have appeared in its heyday! I love this book!

All that remains of the circular Temple of Vesta in the forum. I was a bit disappointed that there are barriers to go along with the better footpaths in the forum, so I didn't have the freedom to wander among the ruins as I did on my first trip. But perhaps "disappointed" is too big a word, as walking this close to these ruins will always be an amazing experience.

I was taking a good look at the Arch of Septimius Severus and was curious about this "angel" with the soldier's uniform on a stick, My daughter had the interesting suggestion that it could represent soldiers doing the will of the gods, like puppets. Another possibility is that it is Victory (Nike figures in Roman iconography have wings) displaying the armour of the vanquished. On the bases of victory columns (such as Trajan's Column, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, etc) the armour of the defeated armies is depicted. I went back to the other arches in the forum, the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus, to find that the same motif recurs.

On another day it was lovely to stroll by some other ruins which have had some reconstruction work done. There are two remaining temples from the original Forum Boarium, one of the earliest Roman river port facilities (Portus Tiberinus). This circular temple is often attributed to Vesta but  apparently research has shown that it more likely the Temple of Hercules Victor, dating from the 2nd c BCE. When taking a closer look at the nearby rectangular temple (also in good nick, restoration/renovation work having been done) I noticed part of a modern sign visible through a window. I could read "ecola" and wondered if a university "school of archaeology" had access to the buildings. They were clearly locked with modern locks.

Walking further up this road (parallel to the river, between the river and the forum) one comes upon the remains of the Theatre of Marcellus (begun by Julius Caesar and finished by Augustus; Augustus dedicated it to his nephew & heir, Marcellus) and three columns of the Temple of Apollo. The beauty of this site is its easy access, and as you can see by the photo, the rarity of tourists.

Continuing a stroll, in the direction of Campo de Fiori, is the Area Sacra. This forum is below ground, with limited access (only at certain times) and is a cat sanctuary. Apparently Rome is famous for cats everywhere, but we only saw two at the Colosseum and counted thirteen here; we saw no others. One of the four temples at Area Sacra is the site of Julius Caesar's murder and wreaths are still lain in his memory.

Sunset is a lovely time to view the Imperial Fora (across the road from Forum Romanum, aka the forum).These fora were built by/dedicated to Julius, Augustus, Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. There is limited access to Trajan's Forum at certain times, but all fora, including Trajan's Column, can be viewed from street level (i.e., looking down into fora and in the case of Trajan's Column looking both down and up!).

Visit to Rome - 1

I had the great fortune to be in Rome last week. It has been 16 years since my first visit, and the Eternal City has both changed and remained much the same. When there in 1999, there were a lot of preparations for the Millenium and thus many sites were getting a makeover; often I would visit something one day only to return the next day and find it covered in scaffolding. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore was closed on my previous visit, but this time, since it was near my hotel, it was one of the first sites I visited. The church's opulence is mind-blowing!

As well as basking in the warmth of Rome (16 C) it was a delight to be there during Carnevale as there were many street performances and an atmosphere of celebration. There was a grand piano set up across the road from the forum and four singers took the stage (individually, as duets, as a group) to sing popular opera songs.

I love the Pantheon. Originally it was a temple to all the gods, now it is a church; most definitely a sacred place.

The Pantheon's dome is it's most amazing feature, with the open circle spreading the natural light. When I was at university and taking a Roman art & architecture course, my professor had shown some personal photos of the city, including the interior of the Pantheon after it had been raining - puddles under the dome. I have been enthralled since.

After a pleasant stroll from The Pantheon, I found myself visiting the very baroque church of St Agnes in Agone (left of the fountain) in Piazza Navona. The picture below is one of Bernini's fountains.

Below the Spanish Steps, at Piazza Spagna, my guide book identifies this as another Bernini fountain or perhaps a fountain designed by "his less famous father". Though I like this fountain, most especially as there is seating around it, my guess is that it is senior Bernini's design, more staid and with less dynamic movement! Unfortunately the day after I was in this piazza, there was a match of some sort and small riots attributed to 6000 drunken Dutch fans did millions of euro worth of damage to the fountain and the piazza in general.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my 20th wedding anniversary! It has been a great 20 years, and has just flown by. Our wedding date was chosen haphazardly as a day to correspond with a party my husband had in the 1980s, which was also close to Valentine's Day. So making a card for our anniversary doubles as a Valentine's Day card. Am I lazy or what? For this year's card I used some paper that I had picked up in Chinatown in Toronto on my first visit back there in 1995 (I moved to Ireland in 1993). The bundle of Chinese paper squares already had applied metal leaf and some paint on them; I used a piece as a backdrop for my abstract cityscape of ripped blue card. The additional heart and gold leaf is like a sunrise. 

In the spring of 1988, I started going out with this young man (the host of the above-mentioned party!). This portrait is from one of my sketchbooks of that year.

In 1991 we were living together in Toronto, and my job at the time allowed my spouse, including common-law spouse, to avail of my dental plan. It was a good time to get needed work done, including the removal of wisdom teeth. He was very smart, taking all the dental surgeon's advice seriously. My partner James is not holding a heart to his face, but ice packs to ease the swelling after surgery, and he is smartly wearing gloves so that his hands don't get cold!

In this portrait from a 1994 sketchbook, I suspect James was reading as he is looking down. Because of the colouring, I think I was using a conté pencil to do this sketch.

This drawing of James is from a 2001 sketchbook and I know he was reading because I have written "James reading" on the left page!

In this painting, Daddy Kiss, from 2012 from the Moments series, I have painted James with our new-born baby. Our baby is now heading for 13 years old so it is high time I did some new sketches of my husband!

Eureka!

After spending all last week with blue painter's tape experimenting with various compositions before starting my final Fever Afterimages painting on the composite textured canvas, I woke up on Sunday morning with a lightning bolt inspiration. The textured canvas would be ideal for a cityscape painting that has been hibernating for more than 30 years!

In my minds eye I saw the starting point for this painting as a tiny doodle in a tiny sketchbook. The doodle was from a period of time where I was temping at an office in Toronto. I worked "staggered" hours so that I started before 7 am and finished by 3.30 pm. In the winter it was very dark in the morning when I came to work, the office was empty and I got a view from the windows of buildings gradually appearing as daylight took its time dawning. I was searching through my box of old sketchbooks and couldn't find the doodle of my mind's eye, but found this tiny doodle (about 2.5 inches high) taped into the tiniest imaginable sketchbook. The doodle is from 1981, view from one of the office windows, so it is most likely the doodle I had in mind even if my memory had changed it's appearance!

From that same period, I found a number of tiny doodles taped into a half-size sketchbook (imperial equivalent to A5). I know I was looking out a different window in the same office; the vertical lines represented the lines made by open vertical blinds.

In a larger 8.5"  x 11" sketchbook from 1981 I found some ink sketches of sunrise through this second window which I obviously thought was more interesting!

Was I thinking of a shaped canvas?

The whites scratches were drawn in chalk, sometimes on wet ink.

 In another full-size sketchbook (8.5" x 11") I was working on the same cityscape theme with pastel.

By 1982  I seemed to have more plans to make paintings. These two ink & wash sketches are from a full size sketchbook that year.

This painted and scratched sketch is also from a 1982 full size sketchbook.

This sketch, from the same 1982 sketchbook, only covers about half the page. I used some silver paper and gold tape that I had found in a factory dumpster; the black is burnished crayon. It is this sketch that I am probably most thinking of as suitable for a starting point on the textured composite canvas. Time to get to work1

Roman Ruins

This is the last week of my Future Learn astronomy course "Exploring the Night Sky" and I had to whiz ahead to get it all finished because it was the first week of another Future Learn course "Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbour of Ancient Rome". This will be my fourth FL course, and I have signed up to another three! Perhaps I am crazy, but they are so interesting, and you can participate as little or as much as you want, learning at your own pace. The course is online, and accessible 24/7 with material still available indefinitely after the course is over. The Portus course continues my interest in Ancient Rome which was well whetted by the Hadrian's Wall course last autumn. In advance of getting stuck into Portus I was looking at some previous, relatively recent, Roman ruin site visits I have made. In 2013 while vacationing in Antibes, I made a side trip to Nice to see some Roman ruins. Unfortunately the ruins were only accessible to visitors by viewing from the park outside the archaeological museum, near the Matisse museum. Although I would have loved to actually walk among the runs, they were impressive nonetheless!

In the spring of 2012 I was in Barcelona. Prior to the trip I discovered that in ancient times Barcino was part of the Roman Empire (this is probably common knowledge, but it was news to me at the time!) and I made it my business to see what remains I could. I started my first day by taking a taxi from my hotel to the necropolis. There was a bit of confusion when the driver suggested I wanted to go to the museum and I insisted I didn't. It turned out that part of the necropolis is in the museum and can be viewed from outside and above...

The old city of Barcino is obvious: as well as the bronze letters spelling out its heart, the ancient walls which outlined the old city are evident.

Even where new buildings pop up, as with the inside of this civic office, the Roman heritage is preserved. These columns date from the 1st c AD.

Ancient Interests

By my request, Santa brought me the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) the 1000  year old Iranian national epic by poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi. I have the Penguin deluxe edition of the book with deckled pages and it is a very readable translation. So far it is reminding me of The Mahabharata (the ancient Indian epic which I only saw in Peter Brook's serial televised form), in that it is very bizarre group of stories. I am struck by the use of the word farr to describe a radiance emanating from a true king's face to illustrate that he has a divine rule. The book to me represents a literary parallel to various pieces of ancient art and architecture which I have always associated with Ancient Persia (that is, the Achaemenid Empire, c. 550-330 BCE). Please forgive me if I am incorrect in my association, I don't mean to step on any toes with my ignorance!

Three days was a short time to spend on Museum Island in Berlin in 1992, but I made the most of it. The Pergamon & Bode Museum was amazing and it was there I beheld the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate. The gate hails from 6th century BCE Babylon, shortly before the Persians invaded that part of the world. The wall sculpture below, also at the Pergamon, identified as being from the Persian palace at Susa and being a depiction of a "Spear-bearer of the bodyguard of Darius I (521-486 BC)" shows how stylistically similar Persian work was to other art in the area.

Other work which I have confused in the past for Ancient Persian, are wall reliefs and sculpture from the earlier empire of Assyria (c. 7th century BCE). The British Museum has a beautiful collection of  artifacts from Assyria, including a dedicated long room full of wall carvings.

Whenever I visit the British Museum (every couple of years), I must stand in fascination in this room. The carvings are stunning.

These photos are from a visit in February 2011. Unfortunately, my young daughter felt uncomfortable with the animals being speared and shot with arrows (depictions of a lion hunt), so we did not spend as long in the room as I would have liked!

Star Gazing

 Last night was a cold, mostly clear night. Perfect for winter star gazing. This is the view from our backyard looking south east around 830 pm GMT.

Yes that is some snow on the storage box! My daughter and I are well wrapped up, trying to see if we can pick out the comet. There are lots of stars visible, but I am trying to locate the dim comet with the binoculars before pulling out the telescope.

We were unable to focus on what we think is the comet -- it just seemed too dim. We looked at The Pleiades through the telescope -- my daughter was amazed as the blur in the sky became at least 20 sharp points of light in the eyepiece. My husband took some photos and we think we identified Comet Lovejoy from other photos and articles online.