Hum 225: Art and Culture of Rome 8-17

Santa Maria dei Miracoli & Santa Maria in Montesanto
Piazza del Popolo
Churches made of Stone

These two churches are very interesting in the fact that they both look identical but have different structural plans. Where they are built three roads are divided the: Via del Babuino, Via del Corso, and Via di Ripetta. These roads divide out from the point of the Piazza del Popolo; however, they are not the same width and length. This makes the fact that Rainaldi, Bernini, and Fontana were able to construct these two churches to look identical shocking. Their composition of the domes, columns, doors, and outer decorations were perfect in helping create this illusion. Also the use of lines and space were vital with how the streets were positioned.

What I found more interesting was the design of the structure surrounding the bell. For how much work they put in to create the illusion of these two churches being identical, the design of the structures surrounding the bells were obviously constructed to not look similar. So in a sense, I feel as though the designers wanted people to know the churches were different, but they didn’t want to make it obvious. The last aspect of these churches I noticed was the attention to detail put into the statues, tops of columns, and the structures covering the bells. Even though this was normal for the structures built back then, it is amazing to think of the craftsmanship and time it would take to chisel out these various designs.

Arch of Constantine
Close to the Colosseum
Stone

The Arch of Constantine was made to commemorate Constantine I victory over Maxentius. It is mostly made out of older monuments, which shows how the era affected the art. During this time, the marble from temples, forums, and other structures were being reused, so the idea of “recycling” or “reusing” was very popular. The Arch of Constantine took pieces from the Forum of Trajan, reliefs created for Marcus Aurelius, and the roundels from Emperor Hadrian. In a column I read, it mentioned how the decorations constructed particularly for the Arch were of poor quality.

The poor quality of these decorations is symbolic of how the knowledge and craftsmanship was not passed from generation to generation resulting in the demise of the Roman Empire. Along with the poor quality of the decorations, the idea that Constantine I had to take pieces from previous monuments depicts the notion that this generation relied on the previous generations. In the beginning and at the peak of the Roman Empire, it was unthinkable what they were able to achieve. This superiority could have caused future generations to lack the desire and motivation to be innovative and simply rely on what their predecessors achieved. It is equivalent to a rich father and mother having a son who simply does nothing but mooch of his parents because the resources are there for him. This is the easy route, but after a while the resources are run dry and with little movement forward future generations begin to feel the burden of this.