Thursday, July 2nd

Today was a busy day! We had two presentations scheduled for our art history class with Lisa and added a third since it had been postponed from earlier in the week. We began the day with Alexandra's presentation of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, which is now housed in the church San Pietro in Vincoli. Michelangelo claimed the statue to be his best work and considering its impressive size and detail, it's easy to see why. The face of Moses also has a certain, somewhat elusive quality that we discussed in relation to an article we had read on Freud's thoughts on why he found the statue so moving.



Next we headed off to the Capitoline Hill for Melanie's presentation! Michelangelo came up again as he was the one who designed the piazza and surrounding area. It was not finished until long after his death but incredibly the builders stayed almost entirely true to his original design. It is still hard to believe that we are actually walking through and seeing buildings and works of art by some of the most important artists in history!


We then broke for lunch and reconvened for Anand's presentation at Il Gesu church. We learned about the history of the Jesuit order, of which Il Gesu is its most important church. Although I was impressed by its size when standing out front, I had no idea how amazing it would be inside. No expenses were spared on the huge amounts of marble, statues and paintings that both covered the walls and ceilings and appeared to emerge out of them.

The presentation ended at about 4 pm and Lisa informed us that at 5:30 a "miracle" would take place in the church! At first she was going to let us wait and see what it was for ourselves, but she eventually told us that each day at the church, the painting above the tomb of St. Ignatius is lowered down to reveal a huge, silver statue of the saint himself. We had some extra time and many of us explored the area surrounding the church before returning to witness the event.


Later this afternoon, an impressive thunderstorm engulfed the city! One of my roommates and I just barely made it back to the apartment with groceries before the rain started pouring. Many of the other students ran to the Pantheon to see the rain fall through the opening in the roof.

Like I said, a very busy but enjoyable day!

-Andrea