Music

I have been working for the last 3 days on various art presentations for the National Gallery and I also have to organize art lectures for the various schools who ask us to come in to give a talk.
It's a lot of work but I do enjoy it. I am trying to pick works of art in the Gallery that could be interesting to people.  As for the school program this year I want to talk about Abstract Art and Surrealism. One teacher would like me to talk about the Renaissance again this year. I will try to convince him otherwise. The Renaissance as a topic is far too large for a 50 minute presentation. Come on how can you cover 250 years in 50 minutes and most of it is religious art. We have PC guidelines and religious art is a no go area. Also the kids have very limited knowledge of history, geography, art, the world and anything before 1995.  So you can see the problem with a period covering 1297 to 1550, a little far for them to grasp.

As for this music interlude, well Haendel was of the Baroque period, nothing to do with the Renaissance. Please don't say, Oh he is so Victorian, we do that a lot in Canada.
Though it all gets all mashed up together a bit like World War I and II, not the same but most people think it is as I found at this Summer at the other Museum and war painting exhibit.

Rome 3 million people

Rome remains a very noisy city, our room giving unto the piazza below is quiet unless we open the window then the world comes in. But this is part of the charm of Rome, the traffic, the noise, the smells, it is an old city.

Renaissance façade of the Church of San Gregorio built by Cardinal Scipio Borghese. The facade hides the much older 5th century monastery behind.

Palatine Hill across the street from the Church, with remnants of the aqueduct of Nero which supplied water to the imperial palaces.

Today we went to visit the Church of San Gregorio, pope in the 6th century, early Christian period fraught with difficulty and violence. St-Gregory I is a doctor of the Christian Faith along with St-Jerome and St-Ambrose. He is often depicted as Pope with the Holy Spirit, represented as a white dove whispering in his ear God's Will. Gregorio came from an old Aristocratic family of Rome, his father Gordien was a Senator and they lived on the Celio Hill facing the Palatine Hill on Via Triumphalis which is the entrance to Ancient Rome since time immemorial.

 Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Docteur of Canonical Law of the R.C. Church

Gregorio was a Prefect of Rome meaning that he administered the City at a time when the Emperor's had long gone to the new Capital Constantinople. Rome had become nothing more than a Provincial Town. Gregorio came in contact with the teachings of St-Benedict and after many years became a Christian, he was elected Pope simply on the fact that all other candidates were too old or had died of the Plague. He also had lots of good political contacts in Constantinople. His mother St-Sylvia had nurtured his career, a bit like St-Helena had nurtured the career of her son Emperor Constantine.

He was the Pope who consolidated the power of the Papacy elevating it in 593 AD from a simple Bishop of Rome position to that of a Sovereign over Italy, establishing the Catholic Faith supremacy over all other Christian Faiths. He gave his blessing to the looting of old Roman Temples to help build Christian ones, this created a lot of violence in Rome against Pagans but also violence between Christian of various Christian beliefs over the Divinity of Christ and his teachings. Christianity in Europe will take many more centuries to be accepted as a new Faith. Gregory sent St-Augustine to England to Christianise the Saxons. By various, very often violent means by 930 AD most of Europe will have become Christian, though an important schism with Orthodox Christians will have developed and endures to this day.

 The tufa stone remnants of the huge platform that supported the Temple of Emperor Claudius, the god. The Temple was larger than a football field.

The temple sat on top of this enormous platform. The temple was demolished and replaced with a monastery in the fifth century.

We also visited other buildings and churches in the immediate area, one such monastery is built on top of what remains of the great platform built for the Temple of Claudius the god.  One remembers Claudius as the nephew of Augustus, the uncle of Caligula and the adopted father of Nero.

I always wondered if there was anything left of the massive buildings, well we went through a door and there it was the foundation platform or part of it some 300 feet long. The excavation also show the depth about 100 feet down where in ancient time shops were located. The Temple main entrance
was on the square facing the Arch of Titus and on the right the site of what will be the Colosseum.

Most people would not know of this site. It is not advertised and we only found it by being with friends who knew of it. This is what is magical about Rome, finding sites behind doors or down passageways.

 Will and Sidd with the celebrated Statue of Emperor Augustus of Prima Porta, this is a bronze copy of the original marble one in the Vatican Museum

Forum of Emperor Trajan and his column

21 Aprile, 753 A.C. Auguri Roma! Belleza Aeterna!

Today 21 April marks the birthday of Rome, the historical date marking when Romulus traced the Pomerium (Sacred boundary of the City) in 753 BCE. Making Rome 2766 years old.

In 1919 the Italian composer Puccini composed this Anthem to Rome (Inno a Roma). The Italian phrase ''Tu non vedrai nessuna cosa al mondo, maggior di Roma'' says it all. You will never see anywhere in the whole world a City as great as Rome. I can honestly say that this is true, nothing compares to it, a City both beautiful and eternal.

The anthem is sung here by Apollo Granforte on a recording which is at least 85 years old.




The story goes that Aeneas Prince of Troy fled the fallen city at the end of the Trojan War and sailed the Mediterranean Sea and finally landed near Laurentum just south-west of the actual site of Rome, married the daughter of a King and his son Ascanius established the Julio-Claudian line which would give us the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian Augustus nephew of Julius Caesar. Augustus claimed direct descent from Aeneas and his mother the goddess Venus.

The story of Aeneas had to be reconciled with that of Romulus and Remus who are said to be the sons of the god of war, Mars. One has to remember that Mars was the favourite god of Augustus and that the Aeneid of Virgil was written under his reign. The date of 21 April is the Feast day of Pales, the goddess of Shepherds. It was a shepherd Faustulus who found Romulus and Remus being nurtured by a she-wolf, the exact spot is in the Roman Forum near the Senate of Rome.

How many cities do you know in this world who have such a founding story.

Altar to the Nation, Piazza Venezia, Rome

Porta Pia, Rome 

Agrigento, Agrigentum or Akragas

Akragas was the great Greek colony in Greater Greece (Sicily). The Doric temples of Akragas were so magnificent as to be described by all as wonders of the ancient world. Pliny, Virgil, Cicero and many others wrote about them when they visited, Goethe in the XIXth century rediscovered in his fashion the site and wrote of it in his travel journal, this may explain why so many German speaking tourists find their way here. The temples are made of the local friable sandstone instead of Pentelic Marble like the temples in Greece.  The temples of Akragas were covered with a white glaze as to imitate the effect of white pentelic marble, from the sea they shone like bright objects and in the sunset you could not look at them, because they were so bright, conveying a look of austere majesty.

 The Doric style temple of Concord in Agrigento.

What you see today is still immensely beautiful, in a peaceful and tranquil setting.  UNESCO designate the site as World Heritage and the National Trust of Italy (FAI) have taken over the whole valley of the temples come under their protection away from unscrupulous speculators. Another Englishmen Alexander Hardcastle and his wife came to live in the Valley and built a great house amongst the temples. His wife developed a garden of exotic plants, he got into his head that he would rebuilt the Temple of Ercole (Hercules), so he did manage to raise several columns and clear the site, unfortunately disaster struck and one worker was killed during restoration work by a piece sandstone from the temple which crushed him to death. Hardcastle was dispirited by this accident and after compensating the family of the dead worker abandoned the project, he died in 1933. He probably knew of Whitaker who lived in Mozia, I mentioned him in a previous entry. They were all part of these Englishmen who did the grand tour and wrote about their travels and often settled abroad by getting involved in some project. 

 The temple of Ercole restored in part by Hardcastle.

The park of the valley of the temples is currently hosting the works of Mitoraj the great Polish sculptor who has integrated his creation into the historical complex.

 One of the works by Mitoraj on display in Agrigento until November 2011.

The temples are well preserved considering the terrible damage inflicted upon them by zealot Christian groups who under a decree of Emperor Theodosius of Bysantium were incited to destroy anything pagan and kill priests working in such temples. In Agrigento per example the Christians destroyed completely the great temple of Olympian Zeus which was considered one of the great marvels of the ancient world. A little like the Taliban in Afghanistan went about destroying to our horror the Buddhas of Bamyan.

It is best to travel to Agrigento between March and end of May and then from October to end November, as of June and the summer months the heat will be unbearable often reaching upwards of 42 C, in the shade.

 One of the many olive trees in the park, they are considered sacred to the Cult of the Goddess Athena, this one is said to be 1800 years old. Many plants were brought to Sicily by various conquerors, the olive tree was brought by the Greeks, the Arabs brought date palm and almond trees, the Spaniards imported from Mexico the Nopales Cactus and other flowers which now bloom everywhere.

We arrived at the park by 10:00 am and left by 12:30 pm thus avoiding the heat of the mid-day. As we were leaving huge throngs of tourists were arriving at the park, this reminded me instantly of the song of Noel Coward about Mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the mid-day sun.

We truly enjoyed our stay in Agrigento and the visit to the valley. It gives a real appreciation for Greek influence in the Mediterranean at the dawn of Western Civilization.