Monday, July 23, 2018

A day's walk in Rome + Turkish elections



                Elections were held here in Turkey on June 24. That afternoon, we flew to Rome, our first trip there since 2002 (with a group from our Archaeology department).   I learned the election results that evening, as soon as we had checked into our hotel.  A triumph for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a big disappointment for the opposition.  [More on the results at the end of this posting.]

        We went out for dinner in Trastevere, the district on the other side of the Tiber River.  

The streets were filled with young people, mostly foreign, having a good time.  Some restaurants, clearly trendy, had big lines.  We found a table in an untrendy restaurant and had a tasty dinner of pasta and salad.


        The next morning, after an Italian coffee with milk and a croissant, we set out for a big walk in the historic center.  First target: the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace).  En route, we crossed a little square with a fountain; admired the ruined temples of the 3rd-2nd c. BC at Largo Argentina


bought maps and a guide book in la Feltrinelli,  a large bookstore; and visited the church of il Gesù (1584), the first major Jesuit church and a pioneer of the Baroque style of architecture.  

Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, is buried here in an ornate and rather forbidding tomb.  The painting of the nave ceiling, “Triumph of the Sacred Name of Jesus” by Gaulli (1670s), is colorful, brilliant, complex, and astoundingly theatrical.  If only we had more time and a pair of binoculars!

        Th next stop after heading north through narrow streets: the Pantheon. Before entering the Pantheon, I was curious to see a church across the street: Santa Maria sopra Minerva, built on the ruins of a temple of Isis or Minerva.  This turned out to be a large church in the Gothic style.  Gothic is highly unusual in Rome, a city in the doldrums during the later Middle Ages, the heyday of Gothic architecture elsewhere.  The church has a few Byzantine touches, too, also unexpected.  The result is a curious mix.  Lots of interesting details, though.  One side chapel has paintings by Filippo Lippi, and a statue by Michelangeo of Jesus carrying a cross.  I read later that Fra Angelico is buried here, not to mention St. Catherine of Siena.   Another time.


        In the square in front of this church is a delightful monument, the sculpture of an elephant with a small Egyptian obelisk planted on its back (by Bernini and his student, Ferrata, 1667).

        Then across to the Pantheon, which we entered together with hordes of tourists.  

Entrance is free, since it is a church (and has been so since the 7th c.), even if owned and administered by the Italian state.  This building of 113-125 is breathtaking, truly glorious – and larger than I had remembered.   We wandered around, enjoying the sensation of the space created by the round plan, the grand dome, and the opening (oculus) at the top. 


        More picturesque narrow streets ... and eventually in front of us, the very modern Museum of the Ara Pacis, designed by Richard Meier, opened in 2006 (after our 2002 trip to Rome). 

This gives a light and airy home to the reconstructed Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis), commissioned by the emperor Augustus in 13-9 BC.  We went in at lunchtime.  Only a few others were there, amazingly, considering that the Ara Pacis with its relief sculptures  is one of the iconic works of ancient Roman art.  We admired the monument at leisure, taking many photos, and then went downstairs to see an exhibition of large-format color photographs of the Aurelian walls (270-275 AD) by the Italian photographer, Andrea Jemolo.  
Ara Pacis

        Outside, a rainstorm.  I had come prepared with an umbrella, having checked the weather forecast, although when we set out that morning rain hardly seemed possible.  We went to a nearby bar for a simple lunch of sandwiches (panini – ham and cheese), sparkling water and beer, and espresso, and then headed off for our next destination, Bernini’s sculpture of the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria.

        Our walk took us toward the Spanish Steps, like the Pantheon another touristic magnet.   But the Piazza di Spagna was empty.   Bedraggled tourists pressed themselves against buildings in an effort to protect themselves from the rain.   A little army of south Asians (Indians? Sri Lankans?) was out selling umbrellas and light-weight ponchos but had few takers.   I wondered why.    Faith that rainfall in late June  wouldn’t, couldn’t  last long?

        The road began to climb; we were heading up to the Quirinal, one of Rome’s seven hills.  I was keen to see Bernini’s sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila (1652), which I teach in my survey course of European art and architectural history.  From descriptions and photographs,  I knew St. Teresa and the angel were not alone;  Cornaro family donors were included in the group.  I couldn’t tell, though, if they were sculpted or painted, nor did I have any sense of the overall arrangement.

        Santa Maria della Vittoria, the church that is home for this art work, is not worth writing home about.  The Cornaro Chapel, however, is something else.  

Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Cornaro Chapel 

(photo from internet, Khan Academy.org)

Located in the left (west) transept, the chapel is not deep at all, but shallow – which surprised me.  Teresa and the angel are placed on a cloud, below an array of gilded rods indicating a sunburst.   In late afternoon, a window just above on the west side of lets in sunlight,  intensifying the brilliant yellow of the rods.  Since it was a rainy afternoon, we couldn’t experience this effect.  The donors are sculpted, it turns out, and placed as if seated in theater boxes, high up on either side of the chapel, watching the spectacle of Teresa in her intense spiritual moment.  Behind the donors, an illusion of three-dimensional architecture extends the sensation of space.  A lot of colored marble is used in the chapel. The overall effect is quite astonishing. 

Far left: Santa Maria della Vittoria 



        We walked back to the hotel first along the crest of the Quirinal Hill, with a brief visit into the church of San Bernardo alle Terme (1598; a smaller-scale imitation of the Pantheon, inserted into a corner of the immense Baths of Diocletian); paid hommage to Borromini’s church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, open only in the mornings; a look into a park, with a surprising modern statue; 

enjoyed the vast Piazza del Quirinale, 

the square in front of the presidential palace, from which one has an expansive view over the city toward the west.  

Castor (or Pollux?) + horse, details from the statue group in the 

Piazza del Quirinale 


Heading downhill, we stopped for tea and some delicious almond cookies, just in time to avoid another downpour; and continued back to the hotel, via the Piazza Venezia and, not far beyond, the Largo Argentina and the little square with the delightful fountain.  


        Not bad for a day’s walk!



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More on the Turkish election results ... Some statistics that interested me:

        Recep Tayyip Erdoğan scored 52.6% nationally; his closest contender, Muharrem İnce, 30.6%.  Ankara province voted 51.5% for Erdoğan.  My district (ilçe), Çankaya, Ankara’s largest with 600,000 voters, went 64.4% for İnce, 23.6% for Erdoğan, but all other districts put Erdoğan first. 

        Aegean Turkey and Thrace favored İnce; the southeast preferred Selahattin Demirtaş, who was running his campaign from prison.  Virtually everywhere else, Erdoğan won.  Among Turks voting outside Turkey, Erdoğan won with 59.4%, İnce with 25.8%.  There are striking differences by country, though.  In western Europe, Erdoğan is very popular; elsewhere, not so much.  To take one example, in Germany, Erdoğan scored 64.8%, İnce 21.9%.  Turkish voters in Austria, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands  favored the president in similarly high numbers.  In contrast, Turks in the US (far fewer than in western Europe) voted 69.3% for İnce, 17.3% for Erdoğan.  This reflects social differences among the Turkish populations abroad – as indeed do the differences within Turkey itself. 

        The national participation rate was 86.2%.  People take voting very, very seriously.  In the US, so proud of its democracy, voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election was somewhere in the range of 55-60%.  Admirable for Turkey, pretty pathetic for America.  

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