SPQR Fellowship

If you’ve been following my ‘Italy – Round Two!‘ blog, you may have already picked up on the fact that Borromini is one of my favorite architects and most definitely my most favorite Baroque architect. You may also have read, on our last visit to Rome, Dave and I were left very disappointed by that fact that Sant Ivo della Sapienza closes for the summer, the time in which we were visiting. S. Ivo is one of Borromini’s few works that we were not able to enjoy two years ago and for that reason, yesterday morning was a very special one for me. We were on the road, walking, by 9 am because the church only opens for three hours on Sunday mornings, no other time during the week. I realized walking that we should have left an hour early so as not to be sketching during the mass. We ended up being there all through mass though which gave me many mixed feelings. Firstly, I thought it was special to be able to be in the work of architecture during the event for which it was built. The congregation that participates at this church, however was meager to to say the least. At first I thought there would be nobody there for the mass, but a couple minutes before it started maybe seven people showed up…

I think the reason why people would choose to go elsewhere has to do with the fact that the church is catering to two sets of people at the same time – something I thought to be exceptionally unfortunate. David and I were being relatively respectful, sitting quietly, participating minimally – we began the mass participating, but as we became engrossed in our sketching, we quickly lost track of what was going on. Because the church only opens one time a week for three hours – part of which mass is going on – tourists are allowed to continue coming in to take their pictures – shuffle around – and yes, sketch. There were actually a lot of sketchers that were doing much the same as Dave and I, but noise making cameras… terribly sad and disturbing to the people that are there for mass. We left the church a little after mass was over – not before giving an offering to the priest, who laughed at us – we’ll never know why. I just wanted to help the church out… I don’t know where that money goes, but if they were able to open it up for one more day a week for tourists like me, I feel that their congregation could grow – everybody wins? (later that day we visited St. Peter’s and I got all confused again as to why the Catholic churches all over the world needed so much help from their communities when their ‘capital’ could give them any number of the thousands of art pieces and relics worth of profit and they would probably be doing fine… ) aaaand maybe I just don’t understand. Anyway, Sant Ivo was everything I hoped it would be from an architectural stand point. I did a poor job of capturing it with my hand on the exterior, which I’ll have to post at some point, but my cherub from the inside looks pretty good.

Thank you Borromini for another fantastic work of genius!