Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Feb 9th, 2012 at 3:49pm
Hallo people!!
Last weekend I managed to visit a new museum that finally opened to the public after some years of restorations.
Well, some years.... it was bombed by the Allied in 1944 and, while the building was soon successfully restored, the stock inside was not. So it keeps 60+ years for restorers to finish their works. Oh well. The other archaeological Museum was bombed too, and more than 50% of the stuff inside has disappeared. Miracles of war!
By the way: we now have 3 archaeological museums in my town: the biggest one show stuff from the whole Region, dating from the Paleolithic (100'000 years bp) to the Roman Empire (2nd Century A.C.). The Museo della Cittą (town's museum) has stuff from the Greek phase of my town (385 b.C.) to the 50ies. And this third museum is the Museo Diocesano: it has religious stuff from the Greek phase to the early 19th Century.
There're Byzantine, Arab, Catholic relics; Jew and Orthodox ones. As a busy sea port, my town has been inhabited by people of different religions and beliefs. The Museum has also a complete shroud made in Constantinople (now Istambul, Turkey) in 1000 A.D., made of pink silk and golden wire, needless to say it's still very fashionable :D
By the way. Among other things, there's a sarcophagus that contained the bodies of Roman Emperor's legatus, who worked in my town during the 4th Century A.D. (300 - 399 A.D.).
This guy collected taxes, administred justice and did a lot of smart things to improve the town's wealth.
Obviously he was buried in a stone box so strong that not even Allied bombs were able to break.
And of course he ordered to decorate it with scenes taken from the Bible, in order to remember his benevolence toward the new religion (Catholicism became the official Roman Empire's religion in around 325 A.D.) and how hard he worked for the town.
One of these rhetorical and allegorical decorations was the relief of David fighting Goliath.
And here it is:
I know, David seems to wield a basket and that he's going to collect strawberries for his mom.
But he's fighting Goliath and that's a sling, as seen in the IVth Century A.D., I swear!
And this's the sarcophagus, with the fighting scene:
See? there's Christ, with the legatus and his wife at his feet, smaller than him.
The style and allegory of these decorations really anticipate Rennaissance's of about 1200 years!!
Greetings,
Mauro.
Last weekend I managed to visit a new museum that finally opened to the public after some years of restorations.
Well, some years.... it was bombed by the Allied in 1944 and, while the building was soon successfully restored, the stock inside was not. So it keeps 60+ years for restorers to finish their works. Oh well. The other archaeological Museum was bombed too, and more than 50% of the stuff inside has disappeared. Miracles of war!
By the way: we now have 3 archaeological museums in my town: the biggest one show stuff from the whole Region, dating from the Paleolithic (100'000 years bp) to the Roman Empire (2nd Century A.C.). The Museo della Cittą (town's museum) has stuff from the Greek phase of my town (385 b.C.) to the 50ies. And this third museum is the Museo Diocesano: it has religious stuff from the Greek phase to the early 19th Century.
There're Byzantine, Arab, Catholic relics; Jew and Orthodox ones. As a busy sea port, my town has been inhabited by people of different religions and beliefs. The Museum has also a complete shroud made in Constantinople (now Istambul, Turkey) in 1000 A.D., made of pink silk and golden wire, needless to say it's still very fashionable :D
By the way. Among other things, there's a sarcophagus that contained the bodies of Roman Emperor's legatus, who worked in my town during the 4th Century A.D. (300 - 399 A.D.).
This guy collected taxes, administred justice and did a lot of smart things to improve the town's wealth.
Obviously he was buried in a stone box so strong that not even Allied bombs were able to break.
And of course he ordered to decorate it with scenes taken from the Bible, in order to remember his benevolence toward the new religion (Catholicism became the official Roman Empire's religion in around 325 A.D.) and how hard he worked for the town.
One of these rhetorical and allegorical decorations was the relief of David fighting Goliath.
And here it is:
I know, David seems to wield a basket and that he's going to collect strawberries for his mom.
But he's fighting Goliath and that's a sling, as seen in the IVth Century A.D., I swear!
And this's the sarcophagus, with the fighting scene:
See? there's Christ, with the legatus and his wife at his feet, smaller than him.
The style and allegory of these decorations really anticipate Rennaissance's of about 1200 years!!
Greetings,
Mauro.