5/30/15

Momentary Blindness

I decided to sit on a bench and right afterwards I closed my eyes. As I sit down I take a bite off a piece of an orange that I got from a tree. As I chew on the orange the taste in my mouth is one of disgust. I thought it would be juicy sweet, but I was wrong. I can hear birds chirping from different directions. I hear a man speaking Italian, having a conversation with a woman. I thought I heard someone running, but I later realize it is someone riding a bike. Afterwards I hear more individuals riding bikes and passing right by me. I unfortunately still have the nasty taste of the orange in my mouth. I wish I had water or something to take the taste away.  I can hear the honking of cars coming from outside the area. I can feel the slight breeze gently hitting me, its wrapping around me, embracing me, and hugging me almost as if it hasn’t seen me in a while. I feel bits of sunlight hitting me, poking through the skies. The sunlight is coming out of hiding trying to light up the world. The wind begins to pick up, getting stronger. I soon hear an airplane overhead and it is pretty loud. I wished I had a better orange than the one I had, it still tasted pretty sour. I later hear a car alarm go off, as it rings I start to think to myself that the alarm is really annoying and I hope the owner shuts it off soon. After a couple of seconds the alarm finally stops. I hear footsteps walking by me pretty loudly while also hearing individuals joking around and laughing. I hear birds chirping from various directions. People are coming and going, and so are bikes. I then hear someone cough and at this point is where I stop and finally get up.

Location: Aventine Hill, next to the Basilica of Santa Sabina

Date : 5/28/15

5/29/15

Voyeur

            As I stand listening to the Pope on a hot bright and sunny day, with sweat coming down from my head, I notice two elderly women. These women are standing in front of a barrier that has a guard in front of it. The two women seem to want to gain entrance through the barrier and get closer to the Pope. They both have a blue ticket which I believe gives them access to the area so that they can be allowed to obtain a seat. There are more individuals waiting behind them forming a line. The security is not allowing anyone to enter, but it allowing individuals to leave from the area. The two elderly women begin having a conversation with the security guard in Italian. They are most likely asking the security guard why they cannot get pass the barrier. The security makes a gesture and seems to be saying that there are already too many people inside already. The women’s faces are filled with annoyed gestures since people are coming out, but they are still not allowed to enter. The two women are talking amongst themselves and I can only imagine what they are saying to each other. One of them is probably saying to the other why did we come here to begin with?  While the other responds by saying because it the freaking Pope and he is the man! Moments later they start talking with the security guard again and have possibly told him a joke since they all begin to laugh I don’t know if the elderly women got in, but at least I left on a happy note.

Location: Vatican City

Date: 5/27/15

5/25/15

Ekphrasis

As I walk around the Galleria Borghese I stumbled upon a work of art that caught my attention. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. In my eyes it was a true work of art like no other. In the work of art it contained two human like figures and a beast to their side. When you look directly at the sculpture from the front of you the first thing you notice is that one figure is holding up the other. The first figure is very chiseled and you can see that he is using his left leg to support him by the way he clearly is leaning on it. As you look at his legs you can see his muscles flex. As you move up the figure you see some sort of garment bend across his upper left thigh. It is like it gracefully fell upon there. If you look more up you notice that he is holding up a woman. Just by looking upon them you can see that the male is trying to force himself upon her. What is remarkable about that sculpture is that if you look at the hands of the man grabbing the woman it seems as if he is truly grabbing on to real flesh. The artist was able to manipulate the medium into making the figures seem life like as much as possible. They seem to be more like humans pretending to be statues, as if they put pain on themselves and just struck a pose. The expression on their faces tells the whole story. You can see that the woman does not want to have anything to do with him. Her face has a sad expression while at the same time she is trying to push herself away from him. The man on the other hand has an expression of confusion as if he is asking for a reason as to why she does not want to be with him. The way he is grabbing her is clearly a forceful on as you can see his fingers press hard onto her so called flesh. While this is happening there is a three headed beast next to them from behind. Each face has a different expression. The face to the left of the viewer seems to want to ignore what’s happening to the woman as if it does not want anything to do with the situation. The one to the middle is growling to the woman as if it is telling her to do what the man wants. It is this that tells me that the beast is the pet of the man. The last face has an expression of shock. It’s ashamed of the situation. This face seems to go against what its master is doing. When you look at the whole thing at once you can tell that it does not end well for the woman figure unfortunately.

The piece is called the Rape of Proserpina and it is found inside the Galleria Borghese.

5/23/15

Space and Place

On May 21 I was able to get on to the Palatine Hill. Once you have entered you are given options on how to start walking around the Palatine. You can either a set of stairs down the middle, to your left, or to your right. I decided to go up the middle staircase which eventually led to the path of the left staircase. As I walked along the path the first thing I see is where the Aqua Claudia once lied. All that remains of it is a brick arch. Pass the arch you can remain on the path or go onto a grass field. The grass field seems to be one of many spots to have an ideal picnic. As I walk around I can see that the Palatine was built fortress like. You get the feeling that not just anyone was allowed to go into the Palatine without the permission of anyone of the prestige citizens living there. I say prestige because when you see the view from the Palatine and how it overlooks the entire city you get a sense of ownership. I can imagine the high class citizens of ancient Rome believing that the city was theirs and only theirs. The city was their backyard and they had control of it.  Walking around the Palatine I obtained more of an aww feeling than I had with the Coliseum. The Palatine is a location where you can in a way follow the same footsteps as those in the high class like Romulus. The Palatine gives you the chance to view the city as if you were a king.