The Triumphal Arch of Totti

The name Totti is ubiquitous in the streets of Rome. His name can be found on AS Roma and Italia jerseys. His name can be found in the headlines of Rome's “Il Messagero” or “Corriere del Sport” journal. On TV his goals glorious celebrations are omnipresent. To the Romans, Italians and even foreign fans, Francesco Totti is a God-like soccer player.

Because of Totti's status we felt that a triumphal arch dedicated to Totti's glory would best capture the famous player's strong presence and his impact on the city. As we learned from Kristin's presentation, triumphal arches were constructed during the Roman empire and served to celebrate the victories of generals in war as well as the success of emperors.

This triumphal arch does not follow the exact sequence of events that can be found on the triumphal arches in the Roman Forum but takes a modern twist to these arches. This one begins with Totti's recent injury against Empoli F.C. where he broke his ankle. The images show his tragic fall, follow through his miraculous recovery and dominance of the competition, as he finally reaches the pinnacle leading Italy to the World Cup gold this summer. The triumphal arch is a celebration of the greatness and newly crowned deity of Totti.

The narrative on the arch starts with his career threatening injury, but thanks to his hedonistic revelry and association with Bacchus, Totti was nursed back to health by his ladies and sweet wine. With Bacchus’ divine hand he directed Totti and eventually crowned him the new victorious emperor of Rome with a grand triumphal arch procession.

Apartment 2: La Chiesa de San Tempus Temporis

San Tempus was an orphan and left on the child box in the piazza of the Florentine Duomo. At the age of seven, he was sent to Rome and was taken in by the Dominican brothers there. He was found to be exceptionally apt at ringing bells on time, and had an internal sense of the passing of time. As he grew older, San Tempus worked in a clock tower in Vatican City as a bell-ringer. In 1413 there was an outbreak of war between the northern region of Sloth and the Catholic Church. The Church wouldn’t allow the Slothian prince, Indolence, to run for the vacant spot in the papacy. He plotted to invade Vatican City during the elections for the new pope.

Unfortunately, the security level during the 1413 elections was incredibly high, with armies from several regions called in to protect the contenders. One evening, San Tempus was in his bell tower, patiently waiting to ring the bell. He saw the opposing army come in and rang the bell at 4:13 in order to alert the piously Catholic town. The guards were alerted, and San Tempus then immediately prepared to battle. However, the Slothian army saw him doing so, scaled the side of the campanile, and stormed the clock tower. He tried to hide on top of his bell, but was found and immediately thrown to his death below.

If it were not for dear San Tempus, Indolence may have been able to invade the city, and while he probably would have lost, he may have done some major damage. The Slothian army was defeated, and the few survivors were publicly beaten to death with bells, both as a warning for other regions and to commemorate the death of the town’s beloved bell-ringer. Because he was so popular with the people, San Tempus was beatified and canonized quickly, and achieved sainthood in 1494.

Every year on the day of his death (April 4, 1413), the bell tower miraculously goes off every four minutes from 4:13 in the morning until 4:13 at night. San Tempus has become the patron saint of the ages. In the Chiesa di Dan Tempus Temporis, the passing of time throughout Rome is represented from Antiquity to Baroque. The church was erected in 1504, and the ancient chapel was included with the original building of his church.

Later in the 16^th century, the medieval chapel was constructed. With a mosaic floor commemorating the famous mosaics of the medieval period leading up to the altar and gilding everywhere, this exemplifies what a medieval church would have looked like. The entire background of the altar is a typical medieval altar artwork, with two-dimensional figures, perfect symmetry, and a shiny gold background. The “soaring verticality” in the center, demonstrated with the medieval church in Orvieto, depicts how the Gothic churches were built. The Gothic arch on the top completes the medieval feel to the altar.



Renaissance Chapel


Baroque Chapel

The Baroque Chapel was the last addition to the Chiesa di San Tempus Temporis. It was comissioned under the Borghese, Barberini and Chigi Popes. All of the Popes have their symbols crowning the altar. Bernini completed the fountain leading to the altar. The Borghese Pope wanted to show off Caravaggio's depiction of the risque Virgin Mary and Child so they snuck the piece in to the chapel in the dead of night hoping no one would notice. There is little light around the picture in order to take attention away from the rather scantily clad Mary. The chapel is meant to engage the viewer and focus their attention both on the Popes who comissioned the chapel as well as direct their attention to the heavens.

(More information on the other chapels and photographs to come!)

Cimitero delle Spoglie: Apartment 312

This is where we keep our dead.
Many a tear you're about to shed.
Boxes, bottles, postcards too
Will show our fondest memories to you.

For our altar project, we chose to create a cemetery with altars to our fondest memories of Rome. We constructed our cemetery after the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, including a large pyramid (or two). Memory played a huge role in many of the discussions we had as a class this quarter as we talked about the effect that monuments had on later generations - although a person may be gone, his or her legacy can live on through monuments, thus keeping the person "alive" through memory. In our Cimitero delle Spoglie, or "cemetery of spoils," we chose to pay tribute to certain things about Rome that we are going to have to leave behind, but that we still wanted to remember and keep alive in our hearts and minds.

As you walk into the cemetery, the first altar you come across is the altar to Laundry, since our apartment was widely popular among the whole group since it possessed the only free washer in the palazzo:

Laundry is easy to do
When the washer belongs to you
Two hours a load
We want to explode
Should've charged a euro or two.

The next altar inside the kitchen was a tribute to food, namely Nutella and arance, since both were consumed in large quantities during the quarter. For Nutella, we created the Eternal Flame of Nutella on top of Julia's 7-pound jar of Nutella, stating "May your chocolate-y goodness never be extinguished."

This Nutella never ends
Yes, it goes on and on my friends
Some people started eating it
Not knowing what it was
And they'll continue eating it
Forever just because
This Nutella never ends...

We also made a tribute to oranges, but Julia ate one of them, so we were missing that piece of the altar...

After food, we moved through the cemetery to Ancient Rome, where a Colosseum of wine bottles wrapped its arms around a slide show of some of the ancient sites we visited in Rome. The gravemarker read, "One column, two column, marble column... that's it." This was because we couldn't think of a type of column that would rhyme with the word "two."

Ancient Rome
You feel like home.
Augustus was hot
He built a lot.
Triumphal arches
and lots of marches.

As you walk down the path through the kitchen, you can see the walkway of shoes illuminating the way, marked by gravestones reading: "Here lies the money I spent on shoes, but with boots this cool, I've got nothing to lose. RIP Visa... and Mastercard... and all the rest of my money."

On the left, we constructed a Chigi pyramid of cereal, complete with Chigi star on top, out of cereal boxes. Our apartment consumed A LOT of cereal this quarter. We made each layer of the pyramid out of a different type of cereal box, then wrote a eulogy for each brand:

Fitness & Chocolate: You were chocolate-y, but fit.
Fruiti Rossi: Our days we spent together were so few, yet so sweet. I will forever cherish your delicate and delicious raspberry taste.
Corn Flakes: You were just a simple flake, but so hearty and nourishing. Fitness & Fruit: I ate you like trail mix, and loved you like a brother.
Rice Krispies: You brought Fabio to me, and for that I am forever grateful.

The last altar in the kitchen was for Renaissance and Baroque art, which was illustrated by a mobile of artsy postcards and a slideshow of some of the pieces we looked at in our class.

Oh Michelangelo, thou art so grand.
Thine "David" has a really nice behind.
Thou carveth such fine wonders by thine hand
Even unfinished works are quite divine!
*
Thou art a tempest, Caravaggio!
The darkness of thine soul shows through thine art.
Despite the murderous tantrum thou didst throw,
Emotions in thine paintings touch our hearts.
*
Bernini, thou art master of the stone.
I love to circumambulate thine work
But Borromini's work was not thine own!
Thou might be gorgeous, but thou art a jerk.
*
The church and Botticelli faced such strife,
But "Primavera" gave our art new life!

We were fortunate enough that the cloister was open for our visit, since it's only open for 15 minutes on Wednesdays (those elusive cloisters...). We made our way through the cloister on our balcony to these poetic words:

Sunlight shining down
Strange men whistling at me
Many naps out here.

The first exhibit in the bedroom was the modern art altar, with our Italian language chair and modern art slideshow. For a special treat, Whitney performed an emotionally moving freestyle poetry reading about "Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaapodimonte," complete with bongo beat provided by Julia:

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaapodimonte!
So large, so blue and red!
Why are you in Napoli
Instead of my back pocket?
Not just Bacchus, not just Vesuvius, not just wires, not just flashing lights, nor Judith, nor Andy, chandeliers, skulls, numbers, newspapers, books, mirrors, pots, blood, steel, stripes, portholes or white.
Fresh air revives my soul.
You are that breath, breathing room.
You, Galleria Moderna exemplify my soul.

The last altar in our cemetery was a tribute to us: we built a pyramid out of Fanta bottles (beverage of choice) and put our beloved dinosaur friend Fabio next to a slideshow of pictures from our class.


As we go our separate ways
We look back on our Roman days.
Though we leave these things behind
We'll keep them always in our minds.

Roma, ci manchi!

Love, Apartment 312