143
of 848 works of art.
4
And therein lies a Renaissance version of St. Catherine’s
Monastery in the heart of Western Civilization, across the street not only from the
ancient basilica, but also, this being Rom, from men and women’s clothing stores, a
few minute’s stroll from the Trevi Fountain, an Irish Pub (the Scholars Lounge),
cappuccino bars and pizzerias, the Jewish Monti District, and the Viale di Fori
Imperiali, which leads one past the Forum to the entrance of the Colosseum.
Curatorial accomplices are densely packed upon the walls, one above the other:
“The Triumph of Art.”
5
Genes for certain types of landscapes, which populate in
abundance; genotypes expressing all those causes and consequences of choice, both
by artists and patrons. Subject matter that is artistically and scientifically as paradoxical as can ever be described. Human nature floods the palace in a wanton selfreference, gorgeously choreographed, to what ends we cannot say. Individuals and
aggregates. Dynamics of the biosphere that confuse and perpetrate. Like all of the
greatest museums, the range of historic and ecological evocations is unending, by
turns euphoric and tragic.
6
Distinct paradise scenes by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jacopo Da Ponte
(Bassano); perfect unions of humanity and her precise vision of an organized nature,
half wild, half human, as in a multiplicity of scattered sheets of painted copper and
a joyful cascade of canvases and panels each lavishly framed. More than two dozen
landscape scenes by Dughet Gaspard (“Paesaggio con cascate,” etc.), scores of others by Dürer, Filippo Napoletano, Weenix Jan Baptist, Pasquale Chiesa, Herman
van Swanevelt, Philips Wouverman, Giovannini Giovan Battista, Guiseppe Rosa,
Mola Pier Francesco, and Jan Gossaert ll Mabuse. A small late eighteenth-century
watercolor by Seganti Antonio, the view of the lake from the Villa Pamphilj—today,
Rome’s largest public park—four kilometers from the Galleria. This density of
landscaping provides proof positives for every conviction and desire. Since each
frame purports to a regulatory hurdle, the imagination is free to wander inside, of
course, but that is the extent of it. These museums of grandeur are sending us perfectly mixed reminders. Enough heartbreak to overwhelm any frame, and all the
pretty pigments, and brushes fine aspiring to discover calm and succor beauty.
Amid the myriad faces staring back at us, Sebastiano del Piombo’s portrait of
Andrea Doria, painted between 1520 and 1526, cannot but herald imagery of this
infernal dichotomy we cling to from the first seconds of birth, this biosphere where
neither lament nor odes of joy can scarcely part a chilling mist. The great and longlived Admiral of the Genoan Republic, living into his mid-90s, and the ocean liner
named after him that went down in 1956, killing 46 on board. So many equivalencies
4 See Collezione Doria Pamphilj – Catalogo generale dei dipinti, by Andrea G. De Marchi,
SilvanaEditoriale, Editorial Director Dario Cimorelli, Art Director Giacomo Merli, Milano 2016,
pp. 450–455.
5 See main Galleria website, http://www.doriapamphilj.it/roma/en/la-galleria-doria-pamphilj.
Accessed March 20, 2019.
6 See all paintings listed as on display: http://www.doriapamphilj.it/roma/en/tutte-le-opere-espostedoria-pamphilj. Accessed March 20, 2019.
16.1 Epiphanies in Rome
of 848 works of art.
4
And therein lies a Renaissance version of St. Catherine’s
Monastery in the heart of Western Civilization, across the street not only from the
ancient basilica, but also, this being Rom, from men and women’s clothing stores, a
few minute’s stroll from the Trevi Fountain, an Irish Pub (the Scholars Lounge),
cappuccino bars and pizzerias, the Jewish Monti District, and the Viale di Fori
Imperiali, which leads one past the Forum to the entrance of the Colosseum.
Curatorial accomplices are densely packed upon the walls, one above the other:
“The Triumph of Art.”
5
Genes for certain types of landscapes, which populate in
abundance; genotypes expressing all those causes and consequences of choice, both
by artists and patrons. Subject matter that is artistically and scientifically as paradoxical as can ever be described. Human nature floods the palace in a wanton selfreference, gorgeously choreographed, to what ends we cannot say. Individuals and
aggregates. Dynamics of the biosphere that confuse and perpetrate. Like all of the
greatest museums, the range of historic and ecological evocations is unending, by
turns euphoric and tragic.
6
Distinct paradise scenes by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Jacopo Da Ponte
(Bassano); perfect unions of humanity and her precise vision of an organized nature,
half wild, half human, as in a multiplicity of scattered sheets of painted copper and
a joyful cascade of canvases and panels each lavishly framed. More than two dozen
landscape scenes by Dughet Gaspard (“Paesaggio con cascate,” etc.), scores of others by Dürer, Filippo Napoletano, Weenix Jan Baptist, Pasquale Chiesa, Herman
van Swanevelt, Philips Wouverman, Giovannini Giovan Battista, Guiseppe Rosa,
Mola Pier Francesco, and Jan Gossaert ll Mabuse. A small late eighteenth-century
watercolor by Seganti Antonio, the view of the lake from the Villa Pamphilj—today,
Rome’s largest public park—four kilometers from the Galleria. This density of
landscaping provides proof positives for every conviction and desire. Since each
frame purports to a regulatory hurdle, the imagination is free to wander inside, of
course, but that is the extent of it. These museums of grandeur are sending us perfectly mixed reminders. Enough heartbreak to overwhelm any frame, and all the
pretty pigments, and brushes fine aspiring to discover calm and succor beauty.
Amid the myriad faces staring back at us, Sebastiano del Piombo’s portrait of
Andrea Doria, painted between 1520 and 1526, cannot but herald imagery of this
infernal dichotomy we cling to from the first seconds of birth, this biosphere where
neither lament nor odes of joy can scarcely part a chilling mist. The great and longlived Admiral of the Genoan Republic, living into his mid-90s, and the ocean liner
named after him that went down in 1956, killing 46 on board. So many equivalencies
4 See Collezione Doria Pamphilj – Catalogo generale dei dipinti, by Andrea G. De Marchi,
SilvanaEditoriale, Editorial Director Dario Cimorelli, Art Director Giacomo Merli, Milano 2016,
pp. 450–455.
5 See main Galleria website, http://www.doriapamphilj.it/roma/en/la-galleria-doria-pamphilj.
Accessed March 20, 2019.
6 See all paintings listed as on display: http://www.doriapamphilj.it/roma/en/tutte-le-opere-espostedoria-pamphilj. Accessed March 20, 2019.
16.1 Epiphanies in Rome