Das Baroque

Today I'm just going to focus on what we saw of the Baroque in Rome last Thursday. The Baroque is the next major artistic period that follows the Renaissance (there's a brief period in between called Mannerism, but it doesn't last very long). The Baroque is really extravagant, and before, I would always have described it as looking "heavy" in terms of all the different materials and mediums you see in Baroque architecture. Now I've learned that although my sense of the richness of material wasn't off the mark, "heavy" would be a somewhat incorrect description of the Baroque. Rather, it's just characterized by extremely lavish opulence, dazzling splendor and grandeur, and use of nearly dizzying theatrical effects. There's actually an effort in Baroque to make otherwise extremely heavy materials look nearly weightless, as with the bronze baldacchino at St. Peter's--even though it's just about two million pounds, it still has a graceful and delicate and soaring appearance. So we went to a few places in Rome that really emphasize the ideals of the Baroque.

First, we went to Santa Maria del Vittoria, which isn't far from the main train station (Termini). It's just a short walk away, and the cathedral itself is small but extremely opulent in terms of interior decoration. You could really describe Baroque architecture as "gaudy," just because it uses so many different materials in such an overpowering manner--all sorts of different colored marbles, stones such as alabaster and lapis lazuli, gold gilding on everything, stucco (plaster) angels tacked up onto the vaulted ceiling overhead, and all sorts of other crazy devices. But this church is most well known for being home to the most famous of Bernini's sculptural works, the Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Now, Bernini is arguably the most famous architect of the Baroque period (some say that his rival Borromini deserves this spot) and he's considered the best of the Baroque sculptors as well. In the photo beneath, you can see the Ecstasy and some of the surrounding architecture--which should give you a good idea of what Baroque interior decoration looks like.



Now, the Ecstasy is a pretty controversial work of Bernini's because it's viewed by many to have sexual overtones. Bernini sculpted the work after reading the writings of St. Theresa, a saint who frequently had divine visions from God. In one of her writings, she writes about a vision in which she is overcome by the divine love of God, and the manner in which she writes about this, how she experiences this love of God is considerably erotic. Bernini translates this writing very literally into this particular work of his, and we can see this in the languid expression on her face, the limp posture of her body, and the angel standing over her, readying to stab St. Theresa with "arrows of divine love." You can get my drift, and it's enough to make one blush to look at this particular sculpture. Despite all this, it's still considered one of the most beautiful sculptures of the Baroque, and I was quite moved by it. As I mentioned earlier, in the Baroque, they liked to play with theatrical effect, so this work is actually positioned underneath a hidden window that Bernini (I think) installed, so when the sun hits that side of the building, it causes the entire area with the golden sunbeams behind St. Theresa and the angel to glow. The photograph beneath shows a better, close-up view of the sculpture. It was really beautiful and very exciting to see as I've studied this particular work in at least two of my art history classes at LSU.



Not far from Santa Maria del Vittoria are two other famous Baroque churches by Bernini and Borromini (great rivals), San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and San Andrea al Quirinale. The first, St. Carl of the Four Fountains, is designed by Borromini. The exterior, the first thing you see, is very interesting because the Baroque jumps into a period where buildings are no longer consisted of just straight edges (e.g., rectangles, squares) but actually start adopting the use of convex and concave lines to add drama and excitement to a building. So you can see beneath, the rippling and curving facade of San Carlo:



And, wow, when you walk into this church, it completely knocks you off your feet. Even though it's Baroque, it avoids the overwhelming feeling that comes from using lots of different colored marbles and materials. The church is actually tiny, and could only hold about 30 to 40 people for a Mass. But the entirety of the interior is white, and all the detail is in the architectural framework--the curving edges of the room, columns and pilasters, and the coffers that make up the oval dome overhead (note that the coffers have three shapes: hexagons, octagons and cruciform [cross-shaped]). See a somewhat inadequate photograph of the interior beneath:



After San Carlo, we went to the small church designed by Bernini, which is more or less right down the street. It has a totally different look both interior and exterior-wise, because Bernini loves his multi-colored marbles and stucco angels. San Andrea also has an oval domed roof, but this dome is oriented in a different direction than the first one. Bernini also put in yellow glass into the panes of the small window that sits on the very top of the dome, so that the structure over your head would always be filled with a soft, golden light even if the weather outside is dull and gloomy. San Carlo, on the other hand, is filled with a cooler, white light. I tried to look for a picture of San Andrea on the internet, but couldn't really find any good examples. Here's a picture anyway to give you just a vague idea of what the dome with the yellow glow from the window looks like:



After that, we saw a motorcade containing President Bush zip by on the street, proceeded to the Piazza Quirinale where we briefly discussed the headquarters of the Italian prime minister, and then headed down to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is one of those places that became more famous just for being a famous tourist destination than for what it actually is, but it's still really beautiful and impressive to look at. The idea of theatrics is present here at the Trevi fountain, in the sense that it appears to be emerging from the building behind it, which takes up the entire block of the street. This, however, is another horribly crowded tourist destination, and full of irritating people trying sell you roses and bubble-producing toy guns. Trevi Fountain beneath...



The people who sell you roses (and other assorted crap) are usually Romanians or Indians, and some of what they do (selling the various items they do) is in fact illegal, because most of them are illegal immigrants. The problem of illegal immigrants though is a minor one, compared with some of the other issue that the country faces, so authorities don't really do anything about this. So there's an influx of these people hawking all sort of products on the streets (from roses to weird rubbery things to bubble guns for kids and more), and they can actually be pretty aggressive. In Frascati, a rose man tried to get friendly with me in order to sell me a rose, and so tried to put his hand on my back. I yelled at him very loudly, "NO!" and walked away swiftly. They are not dangerous, nor do they have devious aims in mind, but if you aren't firm in telling them to leave you alone, then they'll really try to push their shite on you. I've almost had my eye poked out twice by rose people sticking flowers into my face on this trip. I mean, I do pity them because there's really no other way for them to make money, but at the same time, they're pretty annoying. In Frascati, when we have dinner together as a class at night, they'll actually come into the restaurant up to your table and bug you to buy a rose. And often, two or three of the same people come to our table every single night, and we tell them NO every single time. So an interesting side detail for those of you who're ever interested in coming here. A picture of a typical rose guy:



The illegal immigrants also extend to the gypsies, and so that creates a secondary problem for the Romanians and Indians who do migrate here legally. They face discrimination because of the bad reputation generated by gypsies and illegal immigrants, so it's quite difficult for them to find good job opportunities here. Christiana, one of the ladies who work at the hotel, has had to deal with discrimination simply because she's Romanian, even though she's incredibly smart, one of the most beautiful people I've met, and has two B.A.'s under her belt. The Internet cafe that I always go to to type up my blog posts is owned by a family of Indians, who are all very nice people. The father, who is obviously the "boss," always makes sure I have a chair to sit down at when I come in here to use a computer, because there are clusters of Romanian teenagers who come in here and hog all the chairs for one computer. So he'll make them give up a chair when that does happen.