ARROW - 34. Chapter 34

“Where are we going today?”

“Since you were so naughty last night, we are going to church.”

“You were just as naughty as I was.”

“Laughing, we are going to the Vatican. There, we will spend some time in their museum, see a painting by Michelangelo. If we are lucky, you might see the Pope.”

“I’m not catholic.”

“Neither am I, the Church was very instrumental in supporting artists and as a result has several fine examples of painting and statues by the masters. I think you will enjoy it.”

Colin was ready to go, as soon as he finished his breakfast. I’m sure he looked forward to these daily excursions as much as I did. The expressions on Colin’s face reminded me of children on Christmas morning.

Arriving at the Vatican, I led him to the Sistine Chapel. There were vendors outside selling brochures, Colin bought one in English. The tour of the museum starts with the Sistine Chapel.

There was a paid tour group ahead os us and we could hear the tour leader talk about the Chapel. He told them that Michelangelo painted the ceiling on his back, I knew that was false.

Walking into the Chapel, I watched Colin’s face. I thought for sure he would have a sore neck as he looked at the ceiling. “He painted this standing up?”

“Yes, he constructed a scaffold that he and his assistant used. He made an outline on paper, punched holes and holding the paper against the ceiling, colored in the holes and then connected the dots.”

I left Colin alone, he wander the Chapel, looking at the painting. He would walk to a spot, stop, looked for four to five minutes and then walked to another spot. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a sore neck tonight.

“Armand, wasn’t Adam made by God?” I nodded yes. “Then why does he have a belly button?”

I looked and Michelangelo had painted Adam with a belly button. I knew that there was a small feud between the Church and him, maybe he did this in retribution. I wonder what else he did as a contradiction to the Bible.

“If this is suppose to be heaven with god and man, why do they have fig leaves?”

“Originally Michelangelo painted them in the nude. After his death, the Church commissioned another artist to paint the fig leaves. Check the pictures in that guide book and see what they show.”

“They show fig leaves.” I would have been surprised if they didn’t show the fig leaves. It would’ve meant that photos were retouched to the original painting.

“Michelangelo also painted the mural over the altar, Judgement Day.” Colin was snapping a lot of photos, I was hoping he wouldn’t ask me to include any of these figures in my club wall painting.

Leaving the Chapel, we walked through a corridor which had closets with a glass doors. Behind the doors where the robes of previous Popes. Colin looked as we past them, “Armand, why haven’t they taken better care of these robes, they are faded with age.”

“I think these are sealed and can’t be opened.”

Leaving the Sistine Chapel, we followed the crowd to a building that housed the art treasures of the Vatican. Entering the building we saw a statue of a man and his two sounds in the throw of a large snake. I watched as Colin stared at the statute. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m trying to figure out what this statue has to do with religion. Is it symbolistic of some time in religious history?”

This statue is of a man called, Laocoon and his sons which was discovered in a vineyard of Felice De Fredis. When Pope Julius II heard this he sent Michelangelo and Giuliano da Sangallo, an architect with his eleven old son, to the site. The vineyard was near Santa Maria Maggiore.”

“Does the statue have anything to do with Christianity?”

“No, according to the Greek, Virgil, Laocoon was a priest of Poseidon who was killed with his sons in an attempt to expose the Trojan horse. According to Sophocles he was a priest of Apollo who should have been celibate and wasn’t. The serpent only killed the two sons leaving Laocoon alive. There are a lot of stories about this man and his sons. Maybe the next time we are in Europe we can go to Greece.”

“I’m going to have a lot of reading to do when we get home.”

As we walked through the museum, we cam upon a set of rooms. “These walls were part of the refurbishment of Pope Julius’s apartment. He died before he saw the finished renovation. Each of these rooms have a name, this room is called Hall of Constantino.”

I watched as Colin took photos of the walls of this compartment. “And this room?”

“This room is called, Room of Heliodorus.” Again he took pictures.

“And this room?”

“This room is called, Room of the Signature.” He took more pictures. I was hoping these photos for his album and not for the club. “This is the last room.”

“What is its name?”

“The room of the fire in the Borgo.”

“That is an odd name.”

“Julius died in 1513 and Pope Leo X continued the project with Raphel and his company of painters. Raphel died in 1520 and his company of painters finished the project. The suite of rooms was then moved to the museum. I thought it was interesting after Michelanglo’s death, Raphel became the prominent church artist. We’ll stop at his resting place before we leave today.”

Walking through the museum it was obvious that Raphel was a church favorite. A lot of his paintings and sculptures were in a prominent place. As we continued to follow the crowd, Colin began to enjoy the museum. I knew he preferred sculptures to paintings, so it was no surprise he took the time to read the descriptions. The paintings, he would look and ask me questions rather then read the information under each painting.

The museum is in two long long galleries separate by a garden. When you walked through one hall like structure, you had to leave to enter the second hall. I took this opportunity to get lunch.

“We have another section of the museum, want have lunch?” I realize that was a stupid question. He smiled as we more or less followed me to a local ristorante.

Lunch was a simple affair, walking into the restaurant, we were shown to our seats. Our waiter told us the special of the day and told us we could help ourselves to the buffet which contained food that would be the antipasto.

“This makes the first course easy. Take what you like but save room for lunch.” I took a small plate, Colin took two small plates. “We will have to jog home. You keep eating like that you won’t be able to fit into your clothes.” He smiled.

I ordered the special of the day and Colin ordered a fish dish. The plate of pasta I was served was enough for two. I watched Colin, he would eat from his plate and then take a fork full of pasta from my plate. I just smiled. We had a glass of wine with our meal, then a cup of coffee with our dessert.

Back to the museum to continue our tour. The second building had a lot more statues, relics of the past and some artifacts. Colin was happy and so was I.

Finishing our tour, “Where are we going next?”

“We are going to pay our respect to Raphael.”

Walking to the Pantheon, “Raphael was born in 1483 and died in 1520, a young man of 37. He supposedly died of heart failure. He had the reputation of being a supreme high Renaissance painter more versatile than Michelangelo. I think he was a favorite of the Church where Michelangelo was the bad boy of the Church. I liked both styles.”

“What is the Pantheon?”

“The Pantheon was a Roman temple until 609 AD it became a Catholic Church. This site contained an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of your favorite emperor. It was rebuilt by Hadrian in 126 AD.”

I watched Colin, this was more his style. As we approached, out came the camera and it never went back into his pocket tuntil we left walking back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it back, Colin wanted to stop at the restaurant where we have been eating our dinner. Tomorrow we are going to sign on for a tour.