I am impressed by the number of things I have seen
already. I am also impressed that
I haven’t been hit by a car… The drivers are crazy here and I’m not sure
traffic laws exist… Or if they do they must be optional. Anyway, today was a rainy cold day so
we decided not to go to Ostia Antica since it would require walking around in
the rain amid the ruins all day, which sounded kind of miserable. The cool think about Ostia Antica I
guess is that the ruins are well preserved and Christianity never made it there
so there are a lot of Mithraic temples and such. Anyway, instead we visited more churches (Surprise! Surprise!)
and the Capitoline Museum.
Our first stop was Santa Maria degli Angeli. This church is what used to be the
Roman public baths (the Baths of Diocletian). The baths had both cold-water areas (the frigidarium) and
the steam baths both for women and for men. I was actually a bit relieved that they weren’t still open
for public use because when in Rome…
Anyway, this church is famous because Pope Clement XI commissioned the
construction of a meridian line that runs through the church. This line is important because it
centered the calendar and time at the hands of the Church, making the Church
more central to society. The line
also predicts the exact day of Easter, when the light from the hole in the wall
follows the line exactly.
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| Santa Maria degli Angeli |
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| The Diocletian Baths |
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| The meridian line |
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| A pendulum! |
Church #2 of the day was Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. This object of interest: Michelangelo’s
Resurrection of Christ. This
sculpture is absolutely beautiful.
I now understand why Michelangelo is such a famous sculptor, architect,
engineer, painter (this guy could do everything, and everything very
well). The bronze piece across his
mid-section was added later when the Church decided that Christ should not be
nude…
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| Santa Maria Sopra Minerva |
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| All of the churches are so beautiful... |
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| Michelangelo's Resurrection of Christ |
Our 3
rd and final church of the day was the
Gesu. This church was built right
after the reformation. The
Catholics wanted to send a strong message that those who left the church were
in the wrong. This church is full
of paintings and sculptures of Protestants falling from heaven and going to
hell, infidels being crushed, and Martin Luther himself being whipped…
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| The church itself was beautiful! |
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| Protestants falling to hell... |
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| Martin Luther being whipped |
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An early depiction of Mary.
As time went on Mary picks up characteristics of many other
Goddesses of ancient Rome, especially Aphrodite.
That is why today she is usually depicted in blue. |
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In these churches we also noticed the eye of heaven,
which is taken from the Egyptians as a combination
of the gods Aten and Horus, and put on display
in Christian churches. Talk about a perfect example
of syncretism! (A main focus of our class) |
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| A beautiful mural focusing the light on the Lamb of God |
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