Study Abroad Journal May 16, 2014

Walking along the Tiber today after visiting Austugus’ tomb, I thought of the significance of this body of water and felt some nostalgia for the way it used to run wild.  The Tiber has been tamed like most rivers by embankments, dykes, and dams that control the flow of this mighty stream that  is the whole reason

May 16, 2014.  The Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio, 1601 in a Cerasi chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo.  Baroque oil on canvas.  Caravaggio's use of real people for models, his tenebristic use of light and shadow are different from most artists and lend realism to the pictures that enter the viewers space.  Saul's rapture is captured well here and I wanted to highlight just his part of the canvas in this picture, the beginning of the horse and groom are visible, but Saul is the visual focus of this canvas.

  that Rome was founded here.  I think that we don’t pay attention to the role that bodies of water played in every major city that has been founded since the dawn of time.  Even in small towns in America where we can bring in a water supply, you still see Big Rapids on the Muskegon or White Cloud on the White River.  Because we live in a car happy world with bottled water available at every 

May 16, 2014.  Auguste Rodin's The Kiss completed in 1889 in marble, on loan at the Baths of Diocletian.  While this work is not Italian, not ancient or Renaissance, I loved the juxtaposition of the newer marble sculpture that fits in with counterparts in Rome with the mosaic of a skeleton behind them with "Know thyself" in Greek.  The mosaic is 1st century CE from excavations on the Appian Way and fits so perfectly with the entwined couple.

 convenience store, we have started to lose touch with the incredible necessity that water was for any civilization. 

I read a book about the history of the world through our alcohol which explains why beer, wine, etc were essential and drunk more than water.  The water was not clean in ancient times and the Romans were the first to really bring in pristine water to their city.  This is again, something that we take for granted in modern days.  I think about Bob Costas’ eyes during the Sochi Olympics as 

May 16, 2014.  The Boxer at Rest, Hellenistic Greek Bronze, artist unknown, 4th to 2nd century BCE and the Hellenistic Prince 2nd century bronze, artist unknown, both found on the Quirinal hill in Rome.  I like how this room is set up with these two very ancient bronzes looking as if they were made yesterday.  The details on the Boxer especially are fascinating with little cuts, cauliflower ears, and blood running down him.  I never knew that bronze could be so detailed.

an example that there are still places in the world where you can’t just turn on a tap and get clean water running into your hands and glass.  We do stupid things with our water like waste it, or sell it to Nestle, so that they can bottle our aquifer and sell it to us as at a profit and leave us high and dry when the supply runs out.  There are times that I want to go buy cases of water and hoard them in my

I wanted to include a close up of his face with his cuts for everyone who couldn't get close enough to set off the alarms surrounding him like we all did.  You can see the alarms around him in the above picture and you just have to lean over them to get another shot of his ears or his face...

 basement for the inevitable time when things break down in our current society.  These are thoughts that I fight against and try to ignore, but they are there.  With the recent flooding in Newaygo County this spring, I can see why we have set up these barriers and security systems to avoid the damage that these life –giving rivers bring on when they flood, but it is also an example of how even when we try with all of our knowledge and technology, we cannot control nature the way that we think we can.