A trip to the Borghese Gallery... The highlight of all of Rome :)

I am in Roma! It has been a TIRING day. It's been a full day. We've seen so much. The Parthenon, Colosseum, Roman Forum, the Borghese Gallery, sweat, tears, sunburns, rashes, and moans to return home. It's been quite the day. While I'm exhausted and still quite sweaty and dirty from the day, and so ready to sleep, there is one particularly striking thing that I just HAD to blog about. Located in the Borghese Gallery. Probably the most beautiful, dynamic, and emotive piece of art I've ever seen or will see. The Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Here's the first view I got. So overwhelmingly beautiful and striking. 

There is so much tension yet harmony, and so much movement and emotion.

The detail is AMAZING. Pluto's beard and Proserpina's hair is so beautifully done. It amazes me that it could be sculpted. From marble. With nothing but a range of chisels or other tools.

This, too me, is the most amazing part. As I look at the beautifully sculpted hands and skin, I honestly can't believe that this is marble. It is so beautifully crafted, so magically convincing. 

She even has tears! The expression on her face, the tears, the tension between the two bodies is absolutely amazing. Oh MEINE GUTE! It is amazing. I have never seen such a moving piece of solid marble.

I love sculpture. It's beginning to affect me so much more than painting, because it has so many views. It is 360 degrees, and every angle and side from which you view this creates an entirely new experience. I can't fathom Bernini and others' abilities to create a figure that is so realistic and so convincing. I know it is solid marble, yet my mind still tries to convince me that it is a moving, living, breathing human form.

I was so happy to see this work of art. Of all the things I hoped to see in Rome, this was the most important to me and I think the most impactful. I think I could happily go home at any moment feeling my experience was completed by this single visit to the Borghese Gallery :)