|
|
 |
There is no lack of museums in Rome.
A substantial part of the city is more or less an open-air museum anyway. So it
shouldn't be too difficult to see plenty of good old Roman iron and steel
hardware. Maybe that is true for smarter people than me. I, however, didn't see
any - and I have been to quite a few Roman museums. |
|
 |
I did see a lot of
extremely good things, however, some are shown below. |
 |
Let's start with the
Galeria Nazionale del Antiqua. Nothing very
"antiqua", however, just paintings. Swords were only shown in use
like in this "Judith and Holofernes" from Caravaggio (1571 - 1620)
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Judith puts Holofernes to the sword |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Otherwise they have the usual
collections of great old ("antiqua") art. Eschewing details, most art
pieces are either of the "dead
Christians" or naked
women type. Here are examples: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Dead Christians type of art
The entombment of Christ; Jacobino del Conte (1510 - 1598) |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
 |
Naked women type of art
Pittor Fiamingo; Diana and her nymphs bathing |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The
world-famous Vatican Museum also has a lot
of old pictures on display. It is, however, clearly in favor of paintings
showing dead or soon-to-be-dead Christians and eschews the naked woman kind of
pictures. While I like my Christians dead, it gets a bit boring after a while.
Just kidding, There are many breathtaking paintings; I particularly liked
these frescoes.
But the Vatican museum has much more to offer than just pictures. Here is
Ullyses or Odyseus, apparently taking a selfie: |
|
|
|
|
 |
Odyseus taking a selfie? |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
There are plenty of
gorgeous marble sculptures and other great objects, often showing somebodies
dinner. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Dinner Time |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Marble and bronze
sculptures, mosaics, Greek and Ertruscan vases, reliefs, you name it, it's
there. Except iron, steel and swords.
This picture shows
pretty much the full extent of what you can find in this respect: Nothing of
particular interest |
|
|
|
 |
.Walking through the vast area of the
Forum Romanum and so on, you encounter the Palatine
museum on the Palatine hill, where the palaces of the emperors used
to be. Once more no metal but clear evidence of skilled steel tool uses: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Small part of palace floor
Producing thousands of small marble pieces with precise shapes calls for steel
tools |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The Capitoline Museum is next. Wonderful, fascinating,
breath-taking, marvellous - you can't praise it too much! There are even a few
exciting Leda's.
Just no metal objects. |
|
 |
As an example, here is
another version of the dinner scene from above:
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Dinner Time |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
We also have friendly
Romans: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
"The bathroom is over there"
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, ca. 170 AD |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Then we have the "dying
Gaul" , one of the most famous
cultures from antiquity: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Dying Gaul
Roman copy of a Greek sculpture; another picture is
here. |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
 |
.Let's move on the the Palazzo Massimo
alle Terme, a part of the Museo Nazionale
Romano. Wonderful, fascinating, breath-taking, marvellous and so on
once more. No iron steel and swords once more, too. |
|
 |
High
points are the bronze sculpture of "the Boxer" and a marble disc
thrower: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
"Discobolus" or disc thrower
1st century BC copy of 5th century Greek original |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
And so on and so forth. Time to move
on to the Galleria Borghese. It is
world-famous and a private enterprise, meaning that it is crowded, expensive
and not given to suck up to mere customers. Explanations, for example, are only
given in Italian if at all.
I must admit, however, that the Galleria Borghese does have remarkable stuff -
just no iron steel and swords. |
|
 |
Prominent among hundreds of
world-class art works are in particular the Bernini "marbles". Below
"Apollo and Daphne"; another one is
here. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Apollo and Daphne; Bernini, ca, 1623
Apollo, hit by same magic, is deeply in love with Daphne, who, influenced by
some other magic, can't stand him. The happy end (?) includes Daphne turning
into a laurel tree. |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
 |
Ratto di Proserpina (The Rape of Proserpina);
Bernini 1621.
We see the abduction of Proserpina, where Proserpina is seized and taken to the
underworld by the god Pluto. You also see Fluffy, Hagrid's three-headed dog of
Harry Potter fame
Large picture |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
By now it should be clear that Greek
mythology was invented so that artists had an excuse for doing naked women
(plus a naked men on occasion), using all the media at their disposal. That's
fine with me; I definitely prefer it to doing dead Christians. |
 |
.No iron, steel and swords, of
course. So let's move on to the Etruscan
Museum. Marvellous and so on; and I mean it. |
|
 |
Hundreds of cases show
highly interesting pottery; here is an example of a case, the next picture
shows why the pottery might be highly interesting. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
One of many cases showing pottery |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
 |
Etruscans with clear ideas of how to have a
good time |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Finally! Some iron: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Coppia di alari di ferro and almeno otto
spiedi in ferro; 630 BC
Whatever, essentially spits for roasting your pig. |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Explanations were given in Italian
only (could be worse, e.g. Latin).
There were several interesting bronze objects and two actual swords: |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Iron swords. In a Rome museum!
The only ones I encountered. |
Source: Photographed in Rome; April 2016
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Seven museums. All of them amazing.
But only two (mediocre) iron swords. I'm sure there are more - in the museums I
didn't see. So let's wait for next time around. |
© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)