Day 19: Goodnight!

Okay blog readers....this day was very much a rest day for everyone. However, I was not cooped up in four walls all day. I figured it would be a great day to head over to Castel San't Angelo. I have three observations about the items in the castle. First, the guards were watching over everyone like hawks when it comes to the photos of artifacts in the museum.. I was able to snap one photo of an observation:

1. We first saw these jugs at our mini tour of the aqueduct system. Dr. Bednarz explained to us how the bottoms of the jugs (used for oils and wine) were pointed so that they could be placed into the sand. Well, there was not any sand in the castle, so Hadrian had these nice little stands made and niches carved out into the wall to display his oils and wines. I'd say that' s a pretty modern day practice as well. if one walks into a just about any home, there are more than likely to be a bottle of wine out in the kitchen for decorative purpose or for storage. Possibly to give some sense of "high class" to visitors. Okay, this whole theory is a stretch. But I still thought this stand was pretty cool.

2. The castle, like most castles, were built as a fortress to protect from invaders. besides sloped walls and archer holes, the best defense strategy I saw was a complete 360 degree inclined walk-way into the main area of the castle. Say an invading army were to make it into the castle, they would have to make their way around this rotunda for sacking purposes. Thus, allowing more time for those inside to either find safety or gather together to stop a militia from entering. Ohhh those Romans and their defense mechanisms.

3. A very interesting thing about the museum was that pieces of the museum were actually stolen at some point in time by Italian police forces in what they proudly called "lightning raids." One piece was a trifold medieval christian piece. In the center was mother and child, and on the sides of the piece were events from the Passion. A striking image on this piece was of the actual crucifixion itself. I have noticed that in medieval times, they were not afraid to show the reality of events. We give a lot of credit to later painters such as Caravaggio  for their ability to show reality in facial expression, but the medieval artists really were able to capture reality in the actual event itself. What do I mean? I mean that in this particular depiction, Jesus' wounds were graphically spilling out blood in each of the five major wounds. Also, Jesus' tunic was present, but was so transparent that it took a few seconds to actually realize that he was covered. Striking.

I'll try to get back over there to snap a photo of this particular piece. Since just about all of these were seized one of a kind works by unknown artists, photos are not online. That's a whole other rant I could make about museum security, but I digress......