Sunday, November 29, 2015

Vatican stories 3


In the St. Peter's Basilica there is a very famous sculpture made by a very significant man. We are talking about the Pietà of Michelangelo Buonarotti. Everyone has heard of it at least once in a lifetime. It's absolutely beautiful, mostly because of its naturalness. When Michelangelo made Pietà in 1497-1499 he was only 22 years old, so he wasn't very famous yet but had a huge talent.

Michelangelo didn't use to sign his masterpieces. Everyone knew and knows which were made by this Italian maestro because of its undisputed and personalized artistry . However there was one exception - the Pietà. 
What's the reason?
One day Michelangelo saw two man who were looking at the sculpture. They were amazed and charmed by its beauty. Then one of them said that the author had to be Cristoforo Solari, a Lombard sculptor. Young artist decided to sign his work in the night. Today we can see the signature on the slink which holds the mantel of the Virgin Mary.

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Later, the author regretted that act and decided not to sign ever again. And he did like he had promised.

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Friday, November 13, 2015

Vatican stories 2

In previous post I wrote how we can get to the St. Peter's Square. Now let's enter the Basilica. There are a lot of special monuments, sculptures and paintings worth seeing. But today I would like to present you only one of them.

In the end of the right nave of the basilica there is a tomb of the pope Clement XIII made by famous sculptor of Neoclassicism - Antonio Canova.

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The tomb wouldn't have anything special if.......

Usually all of the maestros had a team of collaborators who worked in shadow of their bosses.  Also Canova had his team. One of his assistants was really upset and disappointed because of the fact that only the "main sculptor" (in this case Canova) would be remembered for ages. The man had a particular surname - Elephant. He was responsible for making the lion. He wanted to write his name on his piece of work or left any special signature. He decided to beg Canova for a permission and he achieved his goal. Mr. Elephant left his signature in the back part of the animal.He made a rump of an elephant :) Let's take a look:

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I suppose it's one of the most original signatures in the world!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Vatican stories


In the next few posts I'll write about Vatican. I've chosen some stories which I find very interesting.

First of all we have to arrive to the Saint Peter's Square. There are a few possibilities but usually people choose the biggest street. We are talking about Via della Conciliazione which means the Conciliation street. 

The street is very wide and thanks to this, while we are walking, we can see closer and closer the breathtaking St Peter's Square. But, was it always like that?

As you can guess, no, it wasn't. The street was planned by two architects: Spaccarelli and Piacentini. They were asked by the Prime Minister Benito Mussolini to create a street which would connect symbolically Vatican and Rome. Vatican, as he said, should be opened to Rome. Mussolini wanted to do this because of the Lateran Pacts signed 11 February 1929. It was an agreement between the Italian State and Vatican which considered various aspects such as: concordat marriage or the financial support from Italy in return for public support from the Pope.
Unfortunately, the architectures decided to destroy, to raze the area called Spina di Borgo. It was a very old "cottage" of fishermen, even with many historical monuments. They didn't care also for the people who were living there for centuries.
On the photos below, you can see how this area has changed.