As you know, I am fascinated by the Palazzo Altemps in Rome, which is one of the four buildings of the National Museum of Rome.
The collection of historic sculptures is not only rich and interesting, it is also wonderfully displayed in an elegant Renaissance setting.
As some of you know, I did my Master's degree in Renaissance Literature, so the genre and the atmosphere of that era is truly close to my heart.
When I walk into the Palazzo Altemps, I feel my heart become tender with the joys and tears of past centuries.
I think of the swirling of past emotions still trapped within these walls.
I think of people who walked the same corridors, slept in the same rooms, rested on the same loggias and looked at the same frescoes.
What must have gone through their minds? I believe the same things that go through ours...
we are the same, there is nothing new under the sun.
There is one piece in the palace that has never left my heart: Erinni.
It is the beautiful head of a wounded Amazon or of a water nymph resting on a marble cushion, a piece in the famous Boncompagni Ludovisi collection that resides in this palace.
It is a 2nd century Roman copy of an earlier, Hellenistic work.
The left side of the delicate face was cut horizontally to make sure it can rest on the cushion with more stability.
When I saw this delicate face with its eyes closed, resting and sleeping on the cushion, my heart was filled with tenderness.
How helpless and vulnerable this beautiful creature is in front of me, I thought.
I did not even know if it is a young man or women I was intruding upon.
Peace surrounds this sleeping beauty, and I could approach it only with soft steps as if walking on fragrant leaves in a dense forest.
I was alone in the room and silence surrounded me.
I stood in front of this beautiful face, staring at it with love, waiting for its eyes to slowly open.
Of course, that did not happen, but the sculpture is so vivid and has so much soul that not seeing a small stir, a little smile or a fragrant breath left me sad and dissatisfied.
I looked around and slowly planted a kiss on its lips.
But not even that caused a stir.
Then I left him to his eternal dream.
I envy the person who had Erinni as their imaginary companion.
I would have loved it and protected its fragile beauty.
The only thing that consoles me is knowing that it had always been treated with love, and its final resting place at the Palazzo Altemps surrounds it with the loving elegance it deserves.
Oh, Erinni...
The collection of historic sculptures is not only rich and interesting, it is also wonderfully displayed in an elegant Renaissance setting.
As some of you know, I did my Master's degree in Renaissance Literature, so the genre and the atmosphere of that era is truly close to my heart.
When I walk into the Palazzo Altemps, I feel my heart become tender with the joys and tears of past centuries.
I think of the swirling of past emotions still trapped within these walls.
I think of people who walked the same corridors, slept in the same rooms, rested on the same loggias and looked at the same frescoes.
What must have gone through their minds? I believe the same things that go through ours...
we are the same, there is nothing new under the sun.
There is one piece in the palace that has never left my heart: Erinni.
It is the beautiful head of a wounded Amazon or of a water nymph resting on a marble cushion, a piece in the famous Boncompagni Ludovisi collection that resides in this palace.
It is a 2nd century Roman copy of an earlier, Hellenistic work.
The left side of the delicate face was cut horizontally to make sure it can rest on the cushion with more stability.
When I saw this delicate face with its eyes closed, resting and sleeping on the cushion, my heart was filled with tenderness.
How helpless and vulnerable this beautiful creature is in front of me, I thought.
I did not even know if it is a young man or women I was intruding upon.
Peace surrounds this sleeping beauty, and I could approach it only with soft steps as if walking on fragrant leaves in a dense forest.
I was alone in the room and silence surrounded me.
I stood in front of this beautiful face, staring at it with love, waiting for its eyes to slowly open.
Of course, that did not happen, but the sculpture is so vivid and has so much soul that not seeing a small stir, a little smile or a fragrant breath left me sad and dissatisfied.
I looked around and slowly planted a kiss on its lips.
But not even that caused a stir.
Then I left him to his eternal dream.
I envy the person who had Erinni as their imaginary companion.
I would have loved it and protected its fragile beauty.
The only thing that consoles me is knowing that it had always been treated with love, and its final resting place at the Palazzo Altemps surrounds it with the loving elegance it deserves.
Oh, Erinni...