Friday, June 18, 2010

Villa Borghese

Umberto I/Galleria Borghese/arch/Byron/warped bench/skull & owl detail/part of the Galleria Nazionale D'Arte Moderna building

Kind of a random collection of shots from my day wandering in and around the Villa Borghese. The second photo is the face of the Galleria Borghese (no photos inside), where they have a small but very good collection, including Bernini's Ratto di Proserpina, which immediately became one of my favorite sculptures ever upon real-life inspection. I also visited the modern art museum nearby, which had a fantastic collection and basically no patrons. Its obviously not a tourist destination. Between tourists and giant tour groups with guides, the museums around here are generally packed full of people and very loud. Either way, it was really nice to be in a quiet museum for once on this trip.

3 comments:

Laurent said...

'SPQR' on a contemporary bench? Maybe it stands for something else then 'Senatus Populusque Romanus'.

Now I can see that the bird is severely twisting its neck while opening its beak. At first I took it as turtle-shaped head with an american football helmet (without the face mask)...

Kt D said...

No, SPQR is on everything in Rome. Every sewer cover, lamppost (even on our light Draco), every drinking fountain, etc etc. Defintely still means senatus populusque romanus.

Laurent said...

Very cool that this little piece of history has crossed the ages to still be in use today.