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IN ROME THE SMALL FOUNTAINS TELL ABOUT THE STORY OF ROME

in italiano http://traipinidiroma.blogspot.it/2014/04/a-roma-le-fontanelle-raccontano-roma.html

WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN ROME

When you arrive in Rome, in addition to the centuries-old pine trees, the first town residents that you can meet are the small fountains.

Small drinking fountains in every corner of the city tell about Rome, each in its own way.

Rome owes his life to the fountains, that they are always been a great resource.

The beginning there was only the Tiber River that bathed the fields, that was a defensive barrier and it was the "road" that enabled Rome to be in touch with the Mediterranean world.

Then the Aqueducts came and the Appius aqueduct was created, the first of a long sequence: 16 km long, built 312 years before Christ was born.

But the water in every corner of the city has always been insured by the small fountains and thanks to the abundance of water that Rome was called the "regina aquarum", the "Queen of Water".

The "father" of archeology, Rodolfo Lanciani emphasized this abundance of water: in addition to the thermae, ancient Rome had 212 fountains that were fed by 11 aqueducts next to 247 storage tanks which guaranteed 1 billion liters per day of drinking water clear and fresh.

THE WATER "FLEW" ACROSS THE CITY

The water "flew" across the city by bridges and viaducts, and even today you can see them in the Appia Antica Park or embedded inside buildings in the city center a short walk from Largo di Torre Argentina. These engineering tools were in fact necessary to overcome differences in height of the water in a city grown among its Seven Hills.

The aqueducts and the small fountains speak to you again, and each has a different story to tell in a city like Rome, which has fountains more than any other city: someone says that here there are 2000 and others say up to 2500.

THE "NASONI"

But what is certain is that Rome is unique in having the "nasoni", i.e. “big noses”.

 

an example of "nasone"

Luigi Pianciani, the first mayor of the city, decided their construction and this name derived from the curved metal tube, which gives them the appearance of small dwarfs.

In the hot summer afternoons, indeed, they are there to look at you smiling while you catapult with empty bottle in search of water!

Their identikit is this: 1 meter and 10 centimeters high; the nose is 62 cm long, 100 kilo weigh and they are of cast iron.

BUT A NEW GENERATION OF SMALL FOUNTAINS

But a new generation of small drinking fountains begins to live since the 20’s of the XX century. The young Pietro Lombardi, just 31 years old, graduated in architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Via Ripetta, won the national competition to built a fountain in Testaccio.

Lombardi was inspired by "Monte dei Cocci" and invented a fountain composed of many amphorae, evoking an indian pagoda.

But above all, this fountain tells about the era in which it was born: the search for a linear and stylized dimension, in the city that was the capital of the overabundance and theatrical Baroque.

The idea was entirely successful, and it's still there, in Piazza dell’ Emporio.

 

Piazza dell'Emporio

The following year, on a proposal from the Superintendent, Lombardi was entrusted with the implementation of other fountains, in which the characteristics of the place had to be present in the compositional elements.

And so these fountains offer you a wealth of suggestions and they tell about Rome in its traits most essential and true.

The Barrel in Via della Cisterna, to remember the many taverns in the area; the fountain of the Tiaras, close to the colonnade of St. Peter's Square, with its three papal keys surmounted by popes tiaras; the Books in Via degli Staderari, close to an ancient library; the fountain of Pigna in front of Piazza Venezia, in which two blooms of tulips support the pinecone, symbolizing the name of the ward; the fountain of Cannonballs, in Via di Porta Castello, near the military fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo; the fountain of the Helm, close to the complex of San Michele, to evoke the ancient harbor of Ripa Grande on the banks of the Tiber River; and, in Via Margutta, the fountain of Arts where brushes and colors symbolize the painters and sculptors who, as always, crowding Rome.

Piazza San Pietro

 

 

Via della Cisterna

Via degli Staderari

the fountain of the Helm

 

Piazza Venezia

Via Margutta

Via di Porta Castello

A ROMA LE FONTANELLE RACCONTANO ROMA

english http://traipinidiroma.blogspot.it/2014/04/in-rome-small-fountains-tell-about.html


QUANDO ARRIVI A ROMA

Quando arrivi a Roma i primi abitanti della città che incontri, oltre ai secolari pini, sono le fontanelle.

Fontanelle in ogni angolo della città che, ciascuna a modo suo, ti raccontano Roma.

Roma deve la propria vita anche alle fontane che da sempre sono una grande risorsa.

All’inizio c’era solo il Tevere che bagnava i campi, era una barriera di difesa per gli antichi che qui vivevano ed era anche la “strada” che permetteva a Roma di essere in contatto con il mondo che nel Mediterraneo si affacciava.

Poi vennero gli Acquedotti con il primo della lunga serie, lungo 16 km, costruito 312 anni prima che Cristo nascesse e che venne chiamato Appio.

Ma l’arrivo capillare dell’acqua in ogni angolo della città è stato sempre assicurato dalle fontanelle e fu proprio l’abbondante presenza di acqua che fece ribattezzare Roma come la “regina aquarum”, la “regina dell’acqua”.

Il “padre” dell’archeologia, Rodolfo Lanciani ne sottolineò l’abbondanza: oltre alle terme, nell’antica Roma erano presenti 212 fontane, alimentate da 11 acquedotti accanto ai quali 247 serbatoi di raccolta garantivano 1 miliardo di litri al giorno di acqua potabile limpida e fresca.

L'ACQUA "VIAGGIAVA"

L’acqua “viaggiava” attraverso la città mediante ponti e viadotti che ancora oggi puoi vedere nel parco degli acquedotti dell’Appia Antica o inglobati all’interno di edifici in pieno centro a due passi da Largo di Torre Argentina. Questi strumenti di ingegneria erano infatti necessari per fare superare all’acqua i dislivelli di una città cresciuta fra i suoi Sette Colli.

Gli acquedotti e le fontanelle ti parlano ancora ed ognuna ha una storia diversa da raccontare in una città come Roma che ne possiede più di qualunqe altra: c’è chi dice che qui ce ne sono 2000, e chi dice di aver contato fino 2500 fontanelle.

I "NASONI"

Ma quello che è certo è che Roma è l’unica ad avere i “nasoni”.

 

un "nasone"

Li volle il primo sindaco, Luigi Pianciani, e questo nome deriva dal tubo ricurvo metallico che dà alle fontanelle l’aspetto di piccoli nani.

Nei caldissimi pomeriggi estivi, infatti, stanno lì sorridenti a guardarti mentre ti catapulti con la tua bottiglietta  vuota alla ricerca di acqua!

Il loro identikit è questo: altezza è 1 metro e 10; il naso è lungo 62 centimetri, pesano 100 chili e sono di ghisa.

MA UNA NUOVA GENERAZIONE DI FONTANELLE

Ma una nuova generazione di fontanelle iniziò a vivere a partire dagli anni ‘20 del XX secolo quando il giovane Pietro Lombardi, appena 31 anni, diplomato in architettura all’Accademia di Belle Arti in Via Ripetta, vinse il concorso nazionale per la fontanella da realizzare a Testaccio.

Lombardi si ispirò al vicino “monte dei cocci” e ideò una fontanella composta da tante anfore l’una sull’altra, che evocava perfino una pagoda indiana.

 

fontana a Piazza dell'Emporio

Ma soprattutto questa fontanella ti racconta dell’epoca in cui nacque: la ricerca di una dimensione lineare e stilizzata nella città che era la Capitale del barocco sovrabbondante e teatrale.

L’idea ebbe successo, e sta ancora là, dove inizia via Marmorata, a Piazza dell’Emporio.

L’anno dopo, su proposta della Sovrintendenza, a Lombardi venne affidata anche la realizzazione di altre 9 fontanelle rionali, nei cui elementi compositivi dovevano essere presenti le caratteristiche del luogo.

Ed è così che queste fontanelle ti offrono una profusione di suggestioni e ti raccontano Roma nelle sue note caratteriali più essenziali e più vere.

La Botte in Via della Cisterna, per ricordare le numerose osterie in zona; la fontana delle Tiare, tra il colonnato di Piazza San Pietro ed il Passetto di Borgo, con le sue tre chiavi papali sormontate da altrettante tiare pontificie; i Libri vicino a dov’era la biblioteca a Via degli Staderari; la fontana della Pigna, posta di fronte alla Basilica di San Marco, vicino al Vittoriano di Piazza Venezia, nella quale due corolle di tulipani sostengono la pigna, che simboleggia il nome stesso del rione; la fontana delle Palle di Cannone, situata in Via di Porta Castello, vicino la fortezza militare di Castel Sant’Angelo; la Fontana del Timone, a ridosso del complesso del San Michele, ad evocare l’antico porto sulle sponde del Tevere, quello di Ripa Grande; e a Via Margutta la fontana delle Arti dove compassi, pennelli e colori simboleggiano i pittori e gli scultori che, da sempre, affollano Roma.

 

Via della Cisterna

 

La fontana delle Tiare

Via di Porta Castello

Via degli Staderari

Fontana del Timone

Via Margutta

Piazza Venezia

A MYSTICAL VISION IN VITERBO

in italiano una visione mistica a Viterbo

Today my fluxes of thought change location and go outside of Rome, into the beautiful Tuscia, because during my Christmas holidays I took the opportunity to enjoy a little of medieval-fantasy atmosphere: walking through the Via Francigena, along the alleys of magical neighborhood San Pellegrino in Viterbo, I came across a "vision".

Kept inside the Chiesa del Gonfalone indeed “La Natività Mistica” has still now exposed to view; a masterpiece of Ignazio Stern, an artist yet to be discovered, who worked in the late Seventeenth century and the first half of the Eighteenth century.

The most beautiful thing is that the canvas has generously offered to the eyes of anyone who wants to enter into this baroque church: no barrier, no glass prevent from enjoying the view of the brushstrokes that magically, for people like me who is unable to paint, have formed these figures.

And that's how they show themselves, towards the eyes of the diligent traveler who knows how to seize the right opportunities to elevate his spirit from the daily monotony, those "characters" that had made the history of the Western world, both for those who believe and for those who have no faith.

The skin looks suffused and the pores become the invisible passages from which intimate essences exhale.

The drawing, soft and warm, accentuates the sinuous figures, but it is mainly the chiaroscuro enraptures myself and catches my glance into a vortex where everything seems disjointed, wrapped in light.

In Rome together with Ignaz Stern a lineage of artists accompanied the transition from the Late Baroque to the Neo-Classicism and to the Romanticism; the latter, an era which will feature vivid colors,  gauzy atmospheres and delicate sentimentalism.

Contemplating “The Nativity” you can feel the vibration, the music, and the sensibility of the pictorial genius of Stern, sweet and intense at the same time.

Painted in 1724 “The Nativity” was depicted as a night where, by candlelight, the visions seen by St. Bridget of Sweden in the cave of Bethlehem became material.

The time portrayed is the one when Mary is holding the Child into her arms while she is thanking God, praying but not bowed but turning her eyes to the sky, still in the grip of the ecstasy’s effect she had had before childbirth.

Then the little cherub is very delightful portrayed while he is kissing the little feet of the Child Jesus and I consider marvelous the Nordic atmospheres that envelop the scene into misty and impalpable shades: “ which are covering shapes and colors of dewy powder, leaving the flashes of light running at the same time winning darkness and reverberating on meat” as Vittorio Sgarbi poetically describes the masterpiece, the canvas’s owner who made possible the temporary loan in Viterbo.

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