I found my marbles

Roma, Italy, Thursday 24 September

I am feeling very Rubenesque tonight. I am sure I would have had the body to die for…errr…in the 17th century.

The Gallery was well worth a visit, but like much of Rome I find myself overwhelmed with too much and I end up on missing out. And, have I mentioned, I hate missing out. By the third or fourth room I decided to just focus on a couple of things, that was much better. There were though several highlights. The first was a fresco covering the ceiling of a room that was probably 50 metres long. Dozens of…er… shall I say rippling male specimens painted as a border holding up the ceiling for the key work which was called the Council of the Gods. The many Gods, male and female, were mostly naked but were presented kind of modestly from the waist down (!) while they sat about on clouds talking about whatever Roman Gods talked about. It was very compelling. I couldn’t help but wonder if the person that suggested that one should imagine your bosses or your audience naked to overcome nervousness had seen this. I would happily have sat in this meeting, or should I say sprawled, although I doubt I would have got much work done :-)

For the first time I can put a name to the famous marble sculpture of the woman reclining on the chaise lounge resting her head on her hand. You will know it when you see it. The lifelike Canova sculpture was in its perfectly rightful place, it was Paolina Borghese. It is transfixing.

There were one or two others that I knew but mostly the art was unknown to me, I assume they were good, one or two stood out, but mostly they were just old. The frescoes were fun and not too tiresome to look at, although my neck is responding well the comfort of an icy gin to ensure it is ready for action tomorrow.

Pic is of the Borghese Villa.