June 8th

As I sit here and listen to the screaming Italian children in the courtyard, I think back to today and scramble to figure out the easy way to transfer pictures from my phone to my laptop (Google Drive is a godsend). Today actually had a pretty solid topic, with some easily accessible themes that all pointed in the same direction: the beginning. Not the beginning, per se, but the beginning that led to the Jesuit and renaissance art as we know it today. Origins; that’s a good word. Well, I suppose you could technically view it as the beginning, because of the terms we defined and the like, but it’s more accurate to say this topic more started in the Middle Ages (thanks for the term, Petrarch!).

Now here’s where the pics start popping in. The first church we visited was S. Maria in Trastevere which was pretty cool, since it was an entire church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The church was covered with multiple mosaics showing scenes of the Virgin Mary, including the annunciation, where she is told by an angel that she is carrying Jesus. Her iconography is everywhere, all over in the forms of mosaics (including the ones that Pietro Cavallini helped restore).

Next on the list was S. Cecelia in Trastevere which, while it was pretty cool, was not exactly our main reason for visiting. Our main reason was this beauty:

This is Pietro Cavallini’s Last Judgement fresco, which is located there, in what is currently a room for the choir. He painted this buon (“true”) fresco in 1293 and is one of his most famous surviving works. Not only does it depict the theme of the last judgement, but it is also a perfect example of Roman Naturalism, which is a concept new to this time. Roman Naturalism made it its goal to show people in a more natural and rounded light, with shadows and highlights instead of the ever-present flats that were shown in this time. The two people that really manage to show this style were Giotto and Pietro Cavallini, whose works even got mixed up sometimes.

Downstairs was the church to St. Cecelia herself, along with this cool little statue of how her body was supposedly found. Legend has it that her body was found incorrupt, meaning that it hadn’t decayed, or at least hadn’t decayed to the point of being unrecognizable. The statue is placed in the position that her body was found in, with a marble veil over her face and what looks like the supposed cut in her neck when soldiers tried to behead her, only for her to stay alive and continue preaching.

The Tempietto was next which was pretty cool. It was this small little circular building, built very similarly to how ancient Greek temples were built. According to legend (we’re not quite sure if this this true or not), this is place where St. Peter was supposedly martyred. No pictures from my personal angle here, unfortunately. That space is great for claustrophobia, it’s so small.

After lunch was the Pantheon, which was beautiful. It was a repurposed pagan temple into a Christian church, which just goes to show just how close some artistic elements can get. Granted, though, it was originally pagan and was more for pagan tradition, so it could be more relevant in another class.

After that was the S. Maria sopra Minerva, which was a Christian church built on top of a temple of Minerva. We went back towards the back and saw this altarpiece of the Assumption of Mary. An altarpiece is quite like how it sounds – a piece of art behind the altar that showed a religious iconograph that the priest would look at as he was doing mass (since priests used to face back towards the wall). As stated, this was of the assumption of Mary, and there were so many sybils (or fortune tellers) around. This was supposed to show that Jesus was basically there for everybody. Granted, it was a little annoying to have to pay for the light, but I managed to get some pics with it on.

Finally, we returned back to our favorite Gesu, our Jesuit home base as you will. While we were there, we saw this pretty little fresco piece (which used to be this gaudy little fresco piece) that Ignatius wanted somewhere in his church. It was this fresco of Madonna and child that had been slowly built up over the years, repainted and encrusted with jewels and gold and the like, but it was eventually returned back close to its original state. It’s actually most likely a chunk of a whole fresco, and it could be that Mary is standing, or sitting, or the fresco could just go to waist down.

That was our last stop! Afterwards, we all went out for dinner and returned to our home base and prepared for the next day.


*Edit: This was posted Savannah Kelly.