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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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YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
- on WDTPRS – 20th Sunday after Pentecost: What a grace it is to live with mind and conscience quiet: “Father, your fine remarks about heaven’s perfect accord versus hell and sin being discordant seem to echo John Milton’s “At…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 5: Savoring life and loveliness: “Father, it brings me joy that you are in Rome and to read your daily posts. Thank you for the…”
- on WDTPRS – 20th Sunday after Pentecost: What a grace it is to live with mind and conscience quiet: “The heading at your post on 1P5 on the Gospel reminded me also of this prayer before communion in the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Yes, BeatifyStickler, In the 70’s the put out a movie about St. Francis. All the Friars were flitting around like…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 5: Savoring life and loveliness: “NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others. The PBG Alaskan…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 4: BLACK VESTMENT PROJECT!: “EAW rightly pray for Fr Horan. He may choose to be laicized but I thought the changes wrought in the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Where did the hippie image come from? It always kind of pissed me off. I just sense gays from the…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Most likely it was referring to the heresy of Catharism, which led to the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229). To know more…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Interesting. Is there an attribution for this text or does the author prefer anonymity? Thanks.”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “@ Joannes_Picus – Heretics at the time were the Cathars and Waldensians who rejected teachings of the Church and promoted…”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “What were the Church’s sins at the time, and which heresy specifically was dominating Europe?”
- on 4 October – St. Francis of Assisi – A saint for times of weak doctrine and weak heirarchy: “Toward the end of St. Francis’s “Hymn to the Sun” is the line “Woe to those who die in mortal…”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 2: Lights (video): “@monstrance: Or selling off Casa Santa Marta to a hotel chain? ;)”
- on Rome 24/10 – Day 4: BLACK VESTMENT PROJECT!: “Those vestments are beautiful! In charity, let’s pray for Mr. Horan. He is obviously a troubled man in need of…”
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Very strange artwork in the background there.
No, it isn’t.
There are no titles available so I have no idea what the work is about. It looks a little scary to me, is that a baby drinking from a wolf?
Dear Father,
It is some perspective painting that takes some looking at, and thinking about, though – and also makes me wonder if there are iconographic conventions where Romulus and Remus are concerned to which I have not been paying enough attention… for example, is that Romulus in the foreground and ‘further back’ along the line of the body of Lupa – on her right, seeming at first sight to be having an easier time of it, getting his milk? Or, quite the opposite?
A splendid photograph in any case with – which of the later bearded Popes, in three-dimensional bronze, as embodiment of christened Rome, with the nurturing of pagan Rome in its long praeparatio in the background?
Trying to learn more about the iconography, just now, I found the English Wikipedia article, ‘Capitoline Wolf’, full of interesting things new to me, but not without its frustrations. It says, “The programme of conservation undertaken in the 1990s resulted in an exhibition devoted to the Lupa Capitolina and her iconography.” The footnoted link in the Wayback Machine has photos of a couple interesting coins (with no notes about them) – and gives the name of the curator, Claudio Parisi Presicce – which let me learn that the Italian Amazon has second-hand copies of his exhibition catalogue listed. The WorldCat tells me there is a online eBook version of it, but not (so far as I can see) how to get a look…
The Wikipedia article also put me on to the fact of a statue at the Siena Cathedral and the ‘Siena Cathedral’ article tells me no more about it, but has a photo of a pavement about which it says, “The She-Wolf of Siena with the emblems of the confederate cities (Lupa senese e simboli delle città alleate) probably dates from 1373 (also restored in 1864).” As far as the iconography in the sample photos goes, Romulus and Remus and Lupa seem to be depicted in various different ‘poses’ down the centuries…
This is in the Sala of the Orazi and Curiazi in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill. The bronze is of Pope Innocent X (Pamphilj), also famously depicted in paint by Velazquez.
Interesting juxtaposition of the shepherd and the wolf. Great photo!
Dear Father,
Thank you! I did not have a proper sense of the painter, Giuseppe Cesari, or the sculptor, Alessandro Algardi, or indeed of the Palazzo dei Conservatori and all the great works found together there, or of the Sala of the Orazi and Curiazi (how hopeful was the Treaty of Rome when signed there? – and what horrors have followed!)
This has helped nudge me finally to start getting acquainted with Plutarch’s Life of Romulus (if only in translation, at first) – wow, what I’ve missed all these years, without knowing it.