Dear Netters My granddaughter Gayatri, an undergraduate at Oxford, sends me her travel reports to me from time to time directly from her mobile that I have shared with you in the past. Her last report was the last in 2015 which was from her ancient dig in the campus . Hope you would like it as I did. Bhuban
Travel Report - Rome by Gayatri Gogoi In early December of 2015, I undertook a trip to Rome in order to better appreciate the culture and historical background of the region and to complement my studies, in particular, modules such as Art under the Roman Empire and two Roman history modules covering 136BC – 46AD. After an exhausting ten-hour, if blessedly uneventful, journey from Oxford to Stansted and then to Rome Ciampino, involving two coaches, a plane and much queuing and waiting, I arrived with my traveling companion at the Italian airport to find more queues for the coach. Ciampino, I had been told, was the worse of Rome’s two airports; while I found the airport itself fairly typical, the lack of transport away to the city centre was puzzling, as is those who ran the airport didn’t want anyone to leave. Finally reaching our accommodation by means of coach and metro, around midday, after a quick refreshing nap and a slice of one euro pizza, we started to explore the city. The Spanish Steps were first, unfortunately, renovations meaning they were partially covered with scaffolding, swiftly followed by the Trevi fountain. At the tender age of fourteen, it was at this location my bag had been stolen on a school trip to Rome; seven years on, and warier, if not wiser, my bag remained firmly in my possession. These relatively modern monuments however were not the reason for my journey to Rome. Therefore, we made our way to the Pantheon, originally built by Marcus Agrippa, the trusted lieutenant of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, upon whose legacy Hadrian drew when he rebuilt the temple in 126AD. Now consecrated as a church of the holy Mary and housing the body of the artist Raphael, the dome with its famous oculus is still the largest concrete unreinforced dome in the world. I was particularly interested in the huge red granite Corinthian columns of the portico, about which my Roman art tutor in Oxford had told me, pointing out how they had been carved out of a single piece of stone, rather than in column drums, and imported from Egypt. These columns are testament to the span and depth of Ancient roman imperial power, which I was still able to witness thousands of years later. As we continued our walk through the streets of Rome, we saw other sites harking back to the city’s ancient past. The Temple of Hadrian, dedicated by his adopted son Antoninus Pius in 145, was built into the Stock Exchange, with eleven Corinthian columns still standing. The Obelisk of Montecitorio, looted from Egypt by Augustus after the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, is all that remains of his Horologium, the huge sundial with signs of the zodiac, the architectural symbol of Augustus’ concern with time; he was the emperor after all for whom August is named, and presented himself as the herald of the Golden Age of Rome. Our next stop was the Piazza Colonna, named for the Column of Marcus Aurelius, a towering spiral relief column. While we might think of Marcus Aurelius as the kindly philosopher emperor, the formidable military aspect of his rule is clear in the marble reliefs of vicious battles of Romans against Marcomanni, inspired by the earlier column of Trajan, but rendered in a completely different artistic style, with more deeply carved and less naturalistic reliefs. Day two started with a failed attempt to enter St. Peter's Basilica, failed because we dared not brave the enormous queue filling St. Peter’s Square, which snaked round the obelisk in the middle. This attempt was the first of three visits to the Vatican over the course of our trip. As it turned out, by coincidence, while we were in Rome, there was not only a holiday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception but also the Pope announced the Holy Year of Mercy; this meant that that our attempts for the Vatican Museums were foiled because of closures, but also that the Vatican was continually packed.. Nevertheless, we soldiered on to the Castel Sant’Angelo, the imperial tomb of Hadrian repurposed as a castle and imperial lodgings. At the top, with the statue of the Angel who heralded plague to the city, we had an impressive view of the Roman skyline. Then making our way across the Pons Aelius, we walked to the Piazza Navona, built on the remains of the Stadium of Domitian, with the famous Fountain of Four Rivers and another towering obelisk. We lingered here for a while, enjoying chocolate and hazelnut gelato. From there we continued to the Mausoleum of Augustus, which formed part of Augusts’ dynastical aims by having all honoured members of his family buried there, its location at the banks of the Tiber testament to his commitment to his Roman identity and its cylindrical shape no doubt inspiration for Hadrian’s tomb. Then to the Museum of the Ara Pacis, a monument which was particularly exciting for me, having studied it in great detail during tutorials, and indeed, even at school. Seeing in person the huge marble altar, dedicated to Augustus by the senate in 9BC, means my appreciation of the artwork has an entirely new perspective; there is something about monumental art which pictures in books cannot convey. Seeing how the mythological panel reliefs are complemented by the decorative abstract vegetal and floral motifs below, walking next to the processional reliefs of the sides, tells me that the altar is impressive now as it must have been to the ancient Romans on the Campus Martius. We began the third day in Rome with the Colosseum, the Flavian amphitheatre where for centuries men hacked at each other, at prisoners and animals for centuries for the amusement of the mob and elites alike. Just outside the Colosseum is the triple-arch of Constantine, another monument I had studied extensively, which reused relief panels from other earlier imperial monuments, for example, from the reign of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, resulting in a strange mishmash of artistic styles. Next, we came to the Palatine Hill, home of the wealthy and the imperial family, from where the term “palace” is derived, from the opulence of the buildings. The Museum showcased a history of the hill from humble Palaeolithic settlement to lavish palatial complex as the Roman empire changed, and we explored the palaces left behind by the Flavians, as well as the earlier and humbler Domus Augusta and Domus Livia. After the Palatine, we came to the Roman forum, which again contained monuments I had studied. The Arch of Titus, built after his death by his brother Domitian, is particularly interesting, showing the triumph of the deceased emperor following the sack of Jerusalem. The remains of other monuments and temples, such as those of the spring nymph Juturna, Castor and Pollux, and the house of the Vestals are now only ruins to show the former splendour of the Roman Forum. The imperial fora came next, built over the years by various emperors, such as that of Augustus, part of his huge renovation of Rome which left a “city of brick clad in marble”, with its traces of opus sectile flooring with multi-coloured marbles imported from throughout the empire. The Forum of Trajan, still dominated by his Column with spiral relief of his victories against the Dacians. The remains of the Forum are testament to the changing and tumultuous politics of the Roman Empire, the buildings from different eras marking and remembering transitions from Monarchy, Republic, Principate and beyond. Nearby was the modern National Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a unified Italy, linking Rome's imperial past with more recent glories. Our final day found us at the Capitoline museums, housing incredible artworks; especially captivating for me was the gilt bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, a copy of which lies in the courtyard of the museum. The emperor astride a foaming warhorse wears civic clothes but raises his hands in the adlocutio gesture of a general addressing troops, embodying his dual role as civic and military leader. Our next stop was the Crypt of Balbus, an Augustan era construction, where originally there had been a theatre. The crypt, repurposed over the years as Christian hiding place and church, is now a museum showing the development of Rome from antiquity until the Middle Ages. Nearby, we saw the Largo di Torre Argentina which houses the remains of four Republican temples and the Theatre of Pompey, the site of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Our third attempt on St. Peter’s Basilica resulted in success. There we admired the fantastic architecture and ornament of renowned artists like Michaelangelo and Bernini, as well as attending an Italian mass and witnessed a procession led by one of the Cardinals. Our final stop of the trip was a visit to the National Roman Museum, the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. The museum houses a fantastic number of Republican and early Imperial works of art, not least the famous Via Labiana Augustus statue, showing the emperor in his role of Pontifex Maximus, ready to conduct a sacrifice with veiled head. I was also particularly interested in seeing the Portonaccio sarcophagus, a 2nd-century ancient Roman sarcophagus I have studied, designed for a general involved in campaigns under Marcus Aurelius, and the carvings of which resemble those on Marcus Aurelius’ column. The extensive collections of mosaics and frescoes in the Museum also impressed me, especially those from the house of Livia. We stayed, browsing the artworks until closing time forced us to depart. We left early the following morning for another journey of coaches and planes, finding ourselves in Oxford the next evening, thoroughly exhausted. My trip to Rome was certainly educational and eye opening, giving me a greater sense of the art and architecture of ancient Rome. I have no doubt that the information I have learned will prove useful in my upcoming exams. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
