Monday, August 28, 2006

This was my first day in Naples. I got to do some research on the Internet, and I found out that the Archeological museum was good and had some art in it that I have been very interested in seeing. I decided that that was going to be the trip of the day. Public transportation in Naples is horrible; I would say that it is among the worst in the world. The whole city is smelly and dirty, and I felt the whole time that I was going to turn a corner and step on a rotting dead carcass. The streets are not navigable, and no maps or other sources are provided to navigate the transportation and the streets. When I finally made it to the museum, I was happy.

I spent hours in the museum. It was very nice. I was able to see mosaics from Pompeii and Erculano. They were amazing. I really got a chance to see the beginnings of painting, and I was able to understand some of the mechanics that I had studied earlier with Angeliki during my first semester. Many of the pieces were great masterpieces in my estimation, and it is interesting to note that they were just there on the walls of the houses of the normal noble people. The stonework and stone cutting for a time period that was 2000 years ago just astounded me. I was also able to see many of the erotic works that have been preserved. These works are revolutionary because they showed the outlook of the Romans on sex and procreation, and it gave a look into an aspect of life that doesn’t often get recorded from time to time. Many of the works in the erotic area I had seen in books that I was reading about the role and relationship of man and woman in Classical Rome and Greece.

In addition to those things, I was able to see a fantastic set of works from Rome. They were Classical marble sculptures. I was able to see and understand the form of the bust, which I consider to be a very incredible work or art. Many of them were amazing often combining more than one type of stone together into a portrait. Some of them were big, and some of them were small. I was not familiar with all of the people that were being carved, but I did the best that I could to put them into history. I got to see works from the baths in Rome as well as other sculptures from other areas of Rome that used to stand in very famous areas. One of the sculptures is the largest marble sculpture from antiquity, and it was massive and amazing. I spent a good 30 minutes sitting in front of it evaluating it and understanding it.

There was also a special display in the museum of gold and silver dinnerware that was found in the ruins of Pompeii and Erculano. I was fascinated by it. A lot of it was the same, but the fact that the bowls and plates were so well made really surprised me. Additionally, they were very small, which indicated to me that these people ate very small courses in their meals.

When I was exhausted from looking at all of the art, I went home. I ended up eating two ham sandwiches and talking to Jared over the Internet. It was nice to be able to talk to him. When we were done, I watched some TV until I was tired and then headed off to bed.