More sketches

Still trying to figure out oils, water colors starting to work a bit.

Fascists

Visited EUR with Matteo today. Beautiful severe yet oddly accessible art and architecture from the Mussolini period. In the failing light of a cold February day there was a odd warmth to the stone.

did another water color of a Tiber bridge

water color

bridge

weekend slowdown

Trying and failing to keep up with the day to day activities. I feel at home here now, enjoy the rituals of lunch and dinner with funny and bright folks. the short term visitors as well as the longer inmates.

toured the churches that face the forum yesterday (was it only yesterday) and then had an amazing permisso to view the temple of Augustus and his forum. Intimate contact with the grand scale of this extraordinarily intimate contact with a long gone but increasingly familiar feeling time. I think we are still living in Rome, not just now but the Roman past. Some photos and a water color.

Sick as a dog all weekend

Fever dreams in Italian and bedsheets soaked with sweat. I think I am over it now.

Thursday

Went to Saint Peters with John Matteo.

looked at repairs, soft pastel colors, and the ceilings

Then walked to Quirinale and did some drawings

Aventine

Strolled over the Isola and up the Aventine to see Santa Sabina.

Very quite and calm space. A view across the river that I hadn't seen before from the Aventine. Saw the lines of tourists waiting to put their hands in the Bocca di Verita.

Figured out how to get to Piazza Navona and the shops I wanted to return to. then over Ponte Sisto and up the hill with almost no doubling back. Just lucky I guess.

In Rome With Cigar

A week into the American Academy. 

On Friday I worked in the morning and then went to Trastevere with John Matteo to find the art supply store. Saw Bramante’s Tempietto which was quiet, small and beautiful. Elegant and simple proportions, the kind of thing that could be built in a couple of months, finished in a few more but which changed the world. It is so simple and complex.

It is within the Spanish quadrant of the Janiculum. The Royal Spanish Academy is outside, the church was funded by Ferdinand and Isabella and the tempietto is within the courtyard. Its halfway up the hill. A pleasant respite from the walk and walk. I have to try to take the buses now as my feet are starting to hurt.

After that we stopped at Santa Maria in Trastevere. This is where Rome retreated when Aleric broke the aquaduct and starved the Palantine of fresh water. The population shrunk from 1000000 to 20000 or less. It has a small town Medieval feeling, more Verona than Milano and, except for the steep climb, a pleasant neighborhood to live in. It takes a while to learn Rome, I am still taking baby steps. Getting lost constantly but beginning to locate certain landmarks and find myself on streets for the second or third time. It will take a while but I like it. The weather is cool and pleasant, warm in the sun, brisk in the morning or evening.

Santa Maria in Trastevere is ancient, recycled granite columns of unequal height and girth. Central core with 2 side allees. Beautiful mosaics in the nave and on the exterior over the loggia before the entrance.  12 cent restoration over 8^th, 5^th and original 4^th cent. church. Forgot camera.

Saturday morning went with David Pearson to Palantine to measure section for his proposal to redesign the entrance to the site. He was very knowledgeable about the construction of the ancient Roman center. I have been reading histories and have begun to understand bits and pieces of the history so to actually see the places was astonishing.  The via Sacra turns and spins around each temple and monument. Wide enough for a procession but narrow enough to be confining. The building scale was enormous.  The Venus and Rome (AMOR-ROMA) temple a full city block long and emensely tall. The  Maxentius and Constantine Basilica (from the Greek Basilike, King’s, therefore the throne room and seat of state.) with aisles and now fallen concrete dome.

Past the small house of Augustus is the Imperial Palace. It was atop the hill, looking down on all, and topped out only by the water level of the aqueduct, which essentially established the highest point in Rome.

Sunday was a walk all over the city. Headed to Belvedere, did s drawing, then lots of strolling over lots of territory. Rome is a big small town and, little by little, it is starting to come together.

Beautiful day here

Spent the morning in the library researching my topic. found some references in 19th century Italian tracts that may provide some starting points. Read several papers on archeological isotope and other means of identifying quarry sources but it is clear that this can only give a very general source for stone (Pentalic or Carrara) but is not useful for finding specific stone locations within a quarry as there is not enough of a data base to check against. Still, beautiful quiet and peaceful morning.

Spend afternoon walking around Rome. some touristy pictures of touristy places. it is all much cleaner than I recal, due, mostly I think, to the sprucing up that it got for the millenium jubilee. It is a beautiful city, rough around the edges but the hills make it feel very sensible (look for the river or the hill).  Also a nice workout. Probably strolled only a couple of miles but it felt like a hike. Maybe its just me.

some pictures.

Bureaucracy and wandering

Applied to the state for a Permisso di Sogorno. Apparently one can receive a visa from the State Department that allows one to enter Italy for a period but then needs another one from the Dept. of the Interior to approve your stay. I don't know, it takes almost as long as my stay is likely to last but it is what it is.

Met Adele DeCruz who showed me her new Er:YAG laser, not only lower energy that one in common use but, because of the wavelength, has the capacity to ablate organics and OH molecules and not only dark materials. uses a 1 mm wand, kind of slow for monuments but ideal for murals.

Got lost looking for the art supply store so came back to planet AA Rome defeated but then met some more lovely interesting people, got oriented to the library which I will start to use tomorrow and submitted my application for the Permisso.  Went with Tom, the architectural historian working on Rapuanno, the Fellow who designed lots of Robert Moses era buildings at NYC parks. We had a lark at the post office, trying to file the forms.

At first I asked if we were in the right line to file the permisso forms and she looked at a copy of a paper I had and asked what was this? I said it was the form I thought, I don't know. It was a COPY of the form and she couldn't use it but, once she found the original in the folder it was ok. Fortunately my Italian was good enough to be nice to the clerk and smile and tante grazie. Tom then started with another clerk (both women) and she efficiently filled in everything. A client threw a fit that we were served immediately while he had waited a half hour. The supervisor was called. She explained that they were the clerks to handle this matter and the others were the ones to do what he wanted. But there are 20 people waiting and only 2 of those clerks but only the 2 of us and 2 clerks for us.  But we were in a different line with different service she explained. Oh, thank you! that makes it completely clear! he stormed out and I thought we would end up in an international incident.

 Although Tom's clerk started later he was done ahead of me. I gently chided my helper that the other was quicker. There is no prize for speed here she said, but not in a nasty way. it was very Italian, hunch your shoulders, roll your eyes and go on.

Pictures of Adele and the view from her 3rd floor studio.

Starting to feel like myself

Spend the morning writing and then walked all over the area around the Teatro Macello in what is the oldest part of Rome, the section of the Tiber near the island.


To get there walked into Trastevere down the steep steps in front of the Academy. They go by a lovely fountain by Pope Sixtus and past the Academy Arcad from which Galileo trudged up the hill to the Academy grounds to demonstrate his telescope.

Walked around the Palantine hill to the Forum and then back to the Tiber. some pictures along the way.

Even found the first example of the kind of deterioration I was looking for on Trajan's Column base.