Tuesday July 3.

The Pantheon

Our first stop of today is the Pantheon. The Pantheon, dedicated to all the gods (pan theon), was built on the site of a pagan temple that had been destroyed by fire in 110. The new temple, Pantheon was dedicated by Hadrian in 126. Public pagan worship was forbidden by a law passed in 346 and for years the Pantheon was abandoned and feared by Christians. In 609 it became the first temple to become a Christian Church. Today it stands out as one of the most complete of the ancient buildings of the Roman Empire. As you walk up to the portico of the Pantheon you realize the scale on a personal level. The 16 monolithic columns dwarf humans with a height of nearly 40'. This is impressive enough, until you learn that the columns were constructed in Egypt and shipped by a series of barges across the Mediterranean and then down the Tiber to Roma. The interior known to many of us in pictures, can not be described nor its beauty realized, until you have stood in it's space.  The dome weighs 4,999 tons and is the largest masonry vault ever build. The weight of the dome is counteracted by a gradual decrease in thickness from bottom to top, as well as a series of coffering in rings around the dome, 20 in each ring. The oculus provides the only light source to the building and acts as a compression ring in it's design. Originally it exterior of the dome was covered in bronze, although that was stripped by the Byzantium Emperor Constans II in 667. While visiting Rome in the early 1500's he claimed the design of the Pantheon to be, “angelic and not human design.” More than 1800 years after it was built, I would have to agree. 

At this point in the blog I must add a personal note, on today's visit to the Pantheon, the piazza was filled with people, both local and tourists. The was a duo of buskers playing guitar and violin. Their choice of music took me by surprise.... Hotel California, and Another Brick In The Wall!

Our next stop was to visit with one of the “Talking” Sculptures of Rome. The Pasquino, located in the Piazza Pasquino, is a Hellenistic style sculpture dating to the 17^th century, named after a tailor that used it as a place to provide political commentary, by attaching comments on the base. This became a public source of narrative known as “pasquinade”. Through a series of statues placed throughout the city people were able to criticize the city leaders as well as the papacy in an anonymous way, in effect the statues themselves were carrying on these “conversations”. 

Pasquino

 

Our third stop of the day was to the Capitoline Museum. As you enter into the lower courtyard, you are surrounded by pieces of what was the Colossal of Constantine. The 30' marble and bronze sculpture was built around 315 as a testament to Constantine's greatness. Statues were treated as Constantine himself and thus were required to be treated with respect. The Colossal was pillaged in late antiquity apparently to capture the bronze sections of the statue. The remaining marble body parts are now housed in the courtyard of the museum. Other highlights of the museum for me were the Hellenistic bronze statue “Boy With Thorn,” “Artemis Efesia” fertility goddess sculpture from the 2^nd century, “Medusa” by Bernini from the 17^th century, and the original “Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius” erected in 175 which is now located within the museum. The copy that stands in the Palazzo dei Conservatori was built in 1981.

 Not to leave two dimensional artwork out, “ The Fortune Teller” dated 1594, and “John The Baptist – youth with ram” dates 1604 by Caravaggio were my personal favorites. Pictures were not allowed in this museum, so family and friends will need to look up these artworks to learn more!