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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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That’s behind the Pantheon. Egyptian obelisk + Bernini elephant = Rome’s wonderful weirdness.
Sodalis quidam fratrum Dominicanorum e proximo coenobio, antequam rei initia ponerentur, Berninium carpsit, dictitans elephantem, grave pondus obelisci ferre non posse, atque novam rationem totius operis faciendi proposuit. Verumtamen Pontifex Maximus renuit.
Ioannes Laurentius non sine aliquo aculeo, non sine aliqua ulciscendi voluntate, collocationem elephantis ita mutavit ut eius tergum contemptim verteretur in coenobium illud, atque proboscis retorqueretur eodem.
Huius rei causa Ludovicus Sergardi (1660-1726) vir Italus litteratus sed maledicus et mordax, (praeter alia, satiras Latinas conscripsit) hos versus confecit: “Vertit terga elephas versaque proboscide clamat: Kiriaki (*) Fratres hic ego vos habeo.” (Carolus Egger: Roma Aeterna, pg. 102)
* Kiriaki – facete Dominicani ex Kypiakoi)
In the Piazza della Minerva, in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, one of my favorite churches in Rome, where the body of St. Catherine of Siena lies (except for her head and a finger, which are in Siena) as well as a sculpture of the risen Christ attributed o Michelangelo. Last time I was in Rome on Pentecost I went to Mass there because I couldn’t get into the Pantheon.
Cardinal Murphy O’Connor’s titular church was S Maria sopra Minerva. As he was appointed to Westminster in the Jubilee Year, I had wanted to to put a copy of the little elephant and his obelisk in the piazza in front of Westminster Cathedral. It would have been a quirky and charming legacy. One should always concentrate on the really important things!!! *
But no one was interested.
(* that’s irony for those peoples who don’t do it)
Good to see that the repair to the elephant’s tusk is looking good enough that it’s scarcely noticeable, at least in this photo. Some of you may recall back in 2016 it was damaged by vandals… https://news.artnet.com/art-world/rome-elephant-obelisk-sculpture-damage-vandals-749831