Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Relics, Rome
Tweet This week my parents were in town and on Tuesday I was wandering around churches with my pa and Anthony Blunt’s book on Roman Baroque churches. (We did 16 that day, that’s where I get it from…). The last of the day was Santa Maria sopra...
Art History, Caelian, Churches, Counter Reformation, Empire, Fresco, High Renaissance, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Medieval Art, Vatican
Tweet In the mid 8th century, a beleaguered Pope named Stephen “found” a document of inestimable value. Purporting to have been written over three centuries earlier, in it the Emperor Constantine handed over complete power of the city of Rome, amongst...
Archeology, Art History, Augustus, Empire, Esquiline, Fresco, National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Roman Art, Roman Painting, Rome
Tweet In a city filled with extraordinary works of ancient art, perhaps one of the most breathtaking is one of the least visited and one of my favourites. After visiting the “Monsters” exhibition (excellent, go) at Palazzo Massimo today I went to the top...
Best Job in the World, Rome
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Aeneas, Aeneid, Archeology, Architecture, Art History, Augustus, Empire, Legend, Origins, Palatine Hill, Roman Art, Roman Forum, Roman Painting, Rome
Tweet This year December is treating Rome very well indeed. It has been largely dry, as warm as one can hope for, and the rich blue sky sets everything off wonderfully. On Monday I took myself off to the Palatine Hill for a wander amid the ruins in the winter...
Art History, Caelian, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Rome, Underground Rome
Tweet In my last post I wrote about the 15th century chapel of Branda Castiglione at the church of San Clemente, a languid stone’s throw from the Colosseum. San Clemente is one of countless buildings in Rome which serves as a history of the city in microcosm: twelfth...
Art History, Caelian, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Medieval Art, Rome
Tweet On Monday morning I was exploring underground sites on the Caelian Hill with a charming couple from California. We started off a stone’s throw from the Colosseum at the church of San Clemente where layer upon layer of the city’s history can be explored; a...
Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Late Medieval Art, Melozzo da Forli', Renaissance, Rome
Tweet I’ve always been rather fond of Antoniazzo Romano (1430/5-1510), a Rome-born mid-fifteenth century artist who bound the developments of Florentine painting to the medieval traditions of religious art, creating an inimitably Roman style. He rose to prominence...
Archeology, Capitoline Museums, Esquiline, Greek Sculpture, Rome
Tweet Last week amid a maelstrom of tours all over the city I spent a morning “off” scootering to the Ufficio Tributario of Rome: the office that deals with fines. Rome is a place where fines are a part of life’s expenses. Sometimes one needs to be...
Aqueducts, Archeology, Rome
Tweet A stone’s throw from where I live, on the other side of the railway tracks, is a road I will happily take a detour to drive along. Grubby and pavementless it makes for an awkward walk, but on a Vespa is a dream. Via del Mandrione runs along a stretch of...
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