Gary J. Kirkpatrick Art and Travel Blog
Expressionistic art
Gary Kirkpatrick The Museo delle Mura (Museum of the Walls), is at St Stephens Gate, at the entry to Appia Antica, the Appian Way as it is known in English. It wasn’t open when we were here last and in 2000 I do not think it even existed. It is small but the small albeit older style exhibits tell you about the history of the Roman walls and their many alterations and reconstructions. And the views are great!
You can walk along the top of the walls, as you can see from here.
October 21, 2015
The Barberini Palace, just up the hill from Bernini’s Tritone Fountain, is an immense mansion and the home of the Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, art from about the 15th c -17th century. Here is Caravaggio’s Narisco- Narcissus. Get a load of the reflection!
In the galleries I try to find something I can draw. I try to find something that is interesting and doable in 5-10 minutes and where there is a seat, good lighting, things like that. Sketch of Gerrit van Bronckhorst’s Betsaben al Bagno. I’d never heard of this painter. Seems to have been influenced by Caravaggio, given how he treats the light here.
Back to Caravaggio, here’s another masterpiece hanging in room 20 (in my best Spanish accent, I asked where this room was in Italian and got a reply in Spanish!). It’s so gruesome I nearly walked out of the room!
Salvator Rosa’s “La Poesia” and “La Musica” (17th century) are superb.
And a rarity for the time, a woman painter, and quite a good one! Portrait of a Young Woman Dressed as a Bacchante
Here’s yet another prize- what the Galleria notes as the first female nude:
Jacopo Zucchi “Ritratto di Ciela Farnese”
As for the building, it is a divine palace built by the Barberini family, whose symbol, three bees, appears throughout. It is in wonderful shape. The most magnificent room is on the second floor, immense and nearly empty except for several small sofas in the middle. People lay on them and look at the ceiling, some 20 meters/60 feet above. Here’s why:
You have to go there to appreciate all of these, especially this ceiling though.
All this for 7 euros.
September 20 2015 Istanbul
The Hagia (Holy) Sophia (Wisdom) is a stunning domed building built as a Greek Orthodox cathedral in 537 when Istanbul, then called Constantinople, was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire(also known as the Byzantine Empire). Between 1204 and 1261 it was a Roman Catholic cathedral. Following the conquering of the Empire by the Ottomans in 1453, the Hagia Sofia became a mosque. In 1931 it was closed and then converted into a museum, which it is still. The minarets and round domes give it an Islamic setting, and some of the interior maintains that influence as well. Nonetheless it is an impressive structure, notably the dome, and for 1000 years it was the largest cathedral in the world, replaced in 1520 by the Cathedral in Seville.
The Istanbul Modern is another pleasant surprise in a city full of them. The artists on exhibit when I visited yesterday were mostly Turkish, some trained here and others in the US and I think one or two in Germany. Most of the work is representational but very creative in a modernist sort of way, as you can from the photos I’ve placed below.
Istanbul has had its moments of beauty and grandeur. You can relive a bit of it’s heyday in the Hagia Sophia, the Archaeology Musem and the Topkapi Palace.
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The Topkapi Palace, home of the Sultans, his harem and the eunichs since circa 1450:
While we waited to get into one of the rooms at the Palace (we thought it was the main entrance, but we’d already passed it. It was just one of the rooms!) I sketched a section of the lovely old wall.
Turkish woman in bus:
September 18, 2015
The Grand Bazaar, also called ‘Covered Bazaar’ in Turkish is one of the world’s largest and oldest covered markets in the world. There are 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops. About 90 million enter the halls every year, the world’s most visited place (http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/worlds-most-visited-tourist-attractions/2)
We came on a slow day, fortunately. The place is overwhelming just in terms of the sheer number of shops. Much of it you could buy anywhere, probably most of it. I have no idea if the deals are good. Just being there again was enough for me.
September 24, 2015
Below, a small boat serves as a kitchen. They make fish sandwhiches and pass them to the land. The bones go in the water (not a good idea, as the decomposition removed the oxygen from the water)
This is a great place to people watch.
