In Art History, we are currently in the midst of studying the Renaissance, especially the "holy trinity" of the High Renaissance, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Raphael was a prodigious painter, with a workshop that produced a great many pieces. In the last decade of his short 37 year life, he lived in Rome and was commissioned by the Chigi family to decorate a part of their new palace in Rome's Trastevere district, south of the Vatican. Raphael produced, "Galatea" which we studied in class and then I went to go see. Today, the palace is called, Palazzo Farnesina.
Note the iconography (not Christian) but of mythology in which Galatea is fleeing (successfully) from her captor. It's the amazing realistic anatomical precision that has returned to art, which was lost for many centuries. There is whimsy too, note the dolphins (one of them is eating an octopus) pulling Galatea on a shell. The cupids (with on peeking out from behind the cloud) arrows frame Galatea.
In one of the grand ballrooms, the students and I played "find the most phallic fruit the artist painted." Here was our winner.
Upstairs in one of the bedrooms, a painting that caught my attention. If I were to make a list of 10 tasks NOT to do while naked, I think blacksmithing/ironworking would be on that list.
After lunch, we wandered to Piazza del Popolo to check out the festivities to promote Rome's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
A big stage was set up for bands to play, there were demonstrations of many sports and here I am taking target practice. My highest scoring shot, a 9.8 where 10 was a bullseye. I will reveal that my first two scores were 3.7 and 3.8.
Free hats and T-shirts, that's the real reason we went.