My favourite squares - People's Square in Rome

If you ask me about the most beautiful square I have seen during my travels around the world, I will be hard put to answer you. From Sukhbataar square in Ulaan Bataar  (Mongolia) to the futuristic square of the Brazilian National Congress building in Brasilia (Brazil), the world is full of beautiful squares. Still, the People's square in Rome, called Piazza del Popolo by the Italians, would be near the top of the list. This post is for sharing some of my favourite photographs from the People's square in Rome.

An overview of Piazza del Popolo Square

"Piazza del Popolo" is an oval shaped square, elongated at the two ends. The picture above, showing a night view, gives an overview. It was taken from a small hill (Pincio hill) on the eastern side of the square  and shows the back of the Rome statue with two rivers sitting on his two sides.

In the middle of the square, there is an Egyptian obelisk surrounded by fountains. On the opposite end, there is the Neptune statue and the road behind it goes towards St. Peter's.

On the right side, to the north, where we see the branches of a tree, is Santa maria del Popolo church and the Flaminia gate. On the left side, we can see one of the twin churches, and the three streets between them (the Trident) going towards the centre of Rome.

Story of Nero's shrine

Historians say that this square was the site of a shrine to the Roman emperor Nero and that shrine was destroyed in 11th century, replaced by a church.

Some people believe that Nero was greatly loved by the Romans. The church did not like Nero's cult so his shrine was destroyed and his reputation was deliberately smeared by saying that he had made Rome burn and then played fiddle, while people were running around, trying to salvage their belongings. Others' say that Nero's shrine was destroyed because his ghost used to trouble the Romans.

Another story about this square is that once there was a forest of Poplar trees that gave this square its name, though now the word "popolo" is understood as "people".

The gate & the church from "Angels and Demons"

Any way, let us start a virtual tour of this square. We shall start from the northern end, which has the Aurlian walls and the Flaminia gate. Flaminia was one of the ancient roads of Roman empire that went towards Rimini on the north-eastern coast. Along the Aurlian walls was Muro Torto (crooked wall) with the un-sanctified cemetery where criminals, prostitutes and other marginalised persons were buried.

The picture above shows square side of the Flaminia gate and on the right, Santa Maria del Popolo church. This gate was designed by Michelangelo and built by Vignola in the 16th century. In 17th century, to welcome the queen Christina of Sweden, who had converted to Catholicism, welcome words were written above the gate.

The picture below shows the same gate, also called Porta del Popolo (People's gate) from the outside, from the side of the Flaminia metro and railway station.

The picture below shows Santa Maria del Popolo (St. Mary of the people) church, next to the gate. This church is full of mosaics, paintings, sculptures and is made in rich baroque style. I love the two paintings of renaissance artist Caravaggio in this church. It became even more famous because of the popular writer Dan Brown, whose book "Angels and demons", on which a film was also made, had scenes based in this church. Thus, this church is often on the tourists' visit list.

The almost twin churches

On the other side, opposite the Flaminia gate, are two churches, also known as twin churches. I love the picture of the twin churches below because it was taken on an early morning, around 6 AM and thus, the square was almost empty.

If you just take a casual look, the two churches look similar, however they are not exactly the same. The church on the right, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, has an octagonal (8 sided) dome while on the left, Santa Maria di Montesanto church, has a ten-sided dome. If you look again at two domes above and count the number of sides you can see, clearly the dome on the left has narrower sides.

As the whole square is so imposing and monumental, it is not easy to stop and look at the details. However, if you have time, stop and look carefully and each building is full of interesting details. As an example, the next 3 images show some details from the Santa Maria dei Miracoli church.

3000 years old Egyptian obelisk

Now let us look at the Egyptian obelisk at the centre of the square. The picture below is from my early morning visit in 2005 when this obelisk was undergoing restoration. Except for that one occasion, I have always found this place teeming with persons.

In the image below, you can see the dome of St. Peter's in Vatican city, against the Rome skyline. This view of the square is from the Pincio hill. Coming back to the obelisk, it is more than 3000 years old. It was brought to Rome in 10 AD by Roman emperor Augustus when Egypt had become part of the empire. For centuries, this obelisk was placed in Circo Massimo, the site of Roman sporting events, near Colosseum.

This obelisk, from the times of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, was shifted to this square in 16th century. In 19th century, 4 fountains with Egyptian looking lions were built at its base.

The images below can give you an idea of this place in summer, when the whole square seems full of people and there is hardly a place to sit here.

Piazza del Popolo in films

Gus Van Sant's "My own private Idaho" was shot here, and there was a scene where Mike (River Phoenix) wakes up at the base of the obelisk.

Many other films have been shot here. In 1945, Rossellini had shot here "Rome, open city". Via Margutta, a side street of Via del Babuino, near Santa Maria di Montesanto has the house which was shown as Gregory Peck's home in Roman Holidays (1953). In 1974, Italian director Ettore Scola had shot  here "We all loved each other so much" (C'eravamo tanto amati). In 1978, Weber had shot "Hotel Locarno" at the eponymous hotel on the side of this square.

However, the most significant film shot here was probably, "In the Year of the Lord" (Nel anno del signore) by Italian director Gigi Magni in 1969. This film was about rebellion against the rule of the Pope Leo XII in Rome in 18th century when two Carbonari resistance fighters, Angelo Targhini and Leonida Montanari were executed here. A plaque on one of the walls of the square commemorates their fight.

Rome and Neptune fountains

Let us take a look at the two fountains and sculptures on the eastern and western corners of the square. On the east, the group of three sculptures has Rome standing with the two rivers, Tiber and Anniene, sitting by his sides. In the centre, in front of Rome, is the symbol of Rome - a female wolf feeding the twins, Romulus and Remus. According to this story, Romulus had founded the city of Rome.

I was a little surprised by these statues because I would have imagined Rome and the two rivers in female forms and not as men. Around the central sculptures, there are many other sculptures on the sides and at the back, as you can see in the 2 images below.

Below, in the night image of the Rome sculpture on the eastern end of the square, you can see also see the Egyptian sphinx as well the fountain underneath.

Above the Rome group of sculptures, you can also see the terrace at the top of Pincio hill.

On the opposite side of the square, the group of sculptures is dominated by Neptune, holding the trident in his hand.

Arts, Events and People in the square

Piazza del Popolo is a hugely popular place, often the venue of music concerts and art exhibitions. The images below present some of those special events.

The image below has a Michael Jackson look-alike showing the dance steps of his idol in the square.

The two images below are from a sports function in the square, where Rome statue seems to be playing the role of the referee.

The image below has a street artist called Fabio Cicirelli showing acrobatics.

The next two images are of a wonderful art installation called "Trash People" made by Hu Schult in 2007.

Finally, to close this post, the group picture from the marriage of a naval officer in front of the Santa Maria del Popolo church.

Conclusions

I hope that you have liked this virtual tour of the Piazza del Popolo square.

For almost 20 years, I have crossed this square so many times, on my way to the meetings, as usually I needed to change the bus at Flaminia. I have enjoyed visiting this square so many times, sometimes only rushing through, at other times, sitting under the obelisk and thinking of the history this place must have seen.

This post is my way of saying thank you to this square for all the pleasure I have received from it!

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Meet the artists - Introduction to Nicola and Sara

For a long time, I did not understand the links between the artists and their art. I mean, I knew the artists responsible for their works, but I didn't understand the importance of learning about their lives for a better appreciation of their art!

Once I understood that link, I realized that artists have their own contexts, relationships and personalities that influence the decisions they make when they work on their art. So now when I like a piece of art, I want to learn more about the artist who made it and often I find that it gives me new insights into their art. This changes my appreciation of that art, it makes it deeper and more satisfying.

This post is about two of my my favourite Italian sculptors - Nicola Zamboni and Sara Bolzani. In May 2013, I went to meet them at their home in Sala Bolognese, not very far from Bologna (Italy). I am planning three posts regarding this meeting - this first post is about how I discovered their art. The remaining two posts will be about the discussions with them, where they talk about their art and give a glimpse into their lives.

The Humanity Exhibition

I first discovered the works of Nicola Zamboni and Sara Bolzani at their joint exhibition called "The Humanity" in 2011. This exhibition was held in the inner courtyard of the Accursio Palace in the city centre of Bologna. This is a square-shaped space surrounded by medieval buildings that is commonly used for art exhibitions.

The exhibition was composed of different human-size figures in bronze, with medieval soldiers on horses, scenes of violence, women running away with their children in their arms and their belongings on their heads, horses falling down and persons dying, soldiers raping and abducting women. I was mesmerized by this exhibition and went back to look at it a couple of times.

On one hand, I felt that some of the middle-eastern figures of this exhibition, such as the women covered in black chadors, were stereotypes. On the other hand, the unmistakable vitality of the figures had a strong emotional impact on me.

One of my favourite figures in this exhibition was that of a thoughtful angel waiting near a dying horse and a soldier.

The 12 women of Villa Spada

A few months after the Humanity exhibition, I went to visit the textile museum of Bologna hosted in a 16th century building called Villa Spada. This villa had an Italian garden on a hill - a garden where plants are made to form geometric shapes, which had some medieval sculptures that were damaged. In their place, they had put 12 terracotta statues of women, each woman representing one month of a year.

I fell in love with those statues and felt that they were among the most beautiful pieces of sculpture that I had ever seen. Some time later, I wrote a blog post about that building and about its terracotta statues, in which I expressed my love for those statues and wondered who was the artist behind them?

A few months later, some one from Villa Spada, perhaps its owner, wrote back on my blog, specifying that the statues were the work of Nicola Zamboni. I immediately remembered Nicola's name from the Humanity exhibition. I was impressed by the fact that Nicola seemed equally good with bronze as with terracotta.

The Strange People of Pilastro Park

In the beginning of 2013, I visited a park located in the Pilastro area of Bologna. The park had some strange sculptures - of people walking from one corner of the park towards its centre, where they had an open air theatre. The people were without faces near the corner of the park and as they came near the theatre, their faces became more defined.

Looking for Nicola Zamboni

I was a little intrigued by those sculptures in the park. They were completely unlike any other sculptures that I had seen.

One day I did an internet search to learn more about those sculptures and found that they were also the work of Nicola Zamboni. So finally I decided that it was time for me to search for Nicola and try to meet them.

A search on internet helped me to find Nicola's webpage and contact, so I called him. When I told him that I was from India and I wanted to meet him, suddenly I felt his voice change - he was immediately warm and enthusiastic about the idea of my visit to meet him.

"It must be destiny that you searched for us, because we have been thinking and talking so much about India these last few months", he gushed.

Later when I went to visit him, I discovered the reason for his enthusiasm! About this, you can read more in the next post about Nicola and Sara.

In the mean time you can admire this sculpture of Nicola Zamboni from Villa Spada, that I love so much. I think that the woman of this sculpture is disabled, a woman without her right arm, but I am not sure about it. Her face expresses so much tenderness! For tourists coming to Bologna, I always tell them that they should not miss a visit to Villa Spada - these sculptures should be a must for all art lovers visiting Bologna!

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Read More About Nicola Zamboni & Sara Bolzani

Meet the artist: Sara Bolzoni

Meet the artist: Nicola Zamboni

Working together Sara Bolzoni & Nicola Zamboni 

Making of a Play - A tyrst with destiny

Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi ji were sitting and discussing on a mattress in the living room. Gandhi was spinning on his charkha, the spinning wheel.

I thought I was hallucinating. I was sitting in the corner of the living room of a person that I had never met before. More precisely, at that time, I didn't know whose house was it. It was evening when I had arrived in Washington DC and the actors were already rehearsing.

I knew that it was only a play. Yet, for some moments, I had been transported to a room in India, where Gandhi and Jawaharlal must have sat together more than eighty years ago.

That morning, I had left home in Bologna (Italy), more than 15 hours earlier. From the Dulles international airport, we had come straight to the rehearsal. The play is called "A tryst with destiny". It is about the people involved in events leading to independence and partition of India. It is written and directed by my younger sister, and I had gone to US especially to watch it.

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I was intrigued by Jinnah. The suave, impassioned man played with raw intensity by Subhojit during the rehearsal. Why had he joined the All India Muslim League, when he was a member of congress party? At that time, in 1913, his views were nationalist and about Hindu-Muslim unity? Few years later he had even married a Parsi girl.

Suddenly I remembered the time when Altaf Tyrewala had come to a literary meeting in Turin, a couple of years ago. Altaf, a writer from Mumbai, didn't see himself in religious terms, but during the meeting he was presented as the "Muslim writer" by the organisers. Often others decide to underline our religious identities, for whatever reasons. When it happens again and again, perhaps it changes the way we look at ourselves?

Had something like that happened to Jinnah? Or, was it a quest for power, an understanding that "minority politics" could give him greater role? Or a combination of both?

I don't know much about Jinnah. He was not a welcome figure in our family discussions, because of the friends, lands and homes they had been forced to leave in Pakistan during partition.

"Subodh, how does it feel to play Jinnah?" I had asked Subhojit.

Everybody calls him Subodh. He is a research scientist, a Bengali from Mumbai, with music as his passion.

"Actually Amita wanted someone older to play Jinnah", Subhojit smiled, "but she couldn't find someone who was old and slim, and I got lucky that way. Initially it was a big challenge. I knew about Gandhi and Nehru, but I had no clue about Jinnah. In India, we learned that Jinnah was president of Muslim League and that he wanted Pakistan, but we didn't really study about him as a person. So to prepare for this role, I read a lot about him."

"By that time, we had started doing the play but I was not really feeling the role. Then I talked with my Pakistani friends to understand how they saw him. That changed how I saw him! When I could put myself in their shoes and see him from their eyes, it changed my understanding. After that, when I spoke my dialogues and I spoke about Muslims, I changed 'the Muslims' to 'us Muslims'. It became 'us', 'we' and 'I', then I felt the character", he continued.

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Manoj Singh, a shy and gentle looking person, has a triple role in the play - he plays Motilal, Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Jinnah's Hindu servant. It was his scene as Ambedkar, where he asks Gandhi ji to break the fast, that spiked my interest.

Dalit leaders did not like the word "harijan" that Gandhi ji had proposed for them. How did Ambedkar feel about the word "harijan", I suddenly wondered.

Gandhi ji was sitting on the mattress in the centre of the room, spinning his charkha while Ambedkar was pacing around. I could understand Gandhi's view when he said "Hinduism has a remedy for this evil of untouchability. Hinduism can reform itself, caste system is not about that, Hinduism is an open religion and can transform....". That is the way we often think.

However, Ambedkar was impatient and scathing, "Please don’t lecture me on the glory of Hinduism . You were not born an untouchable in this country. You don’t understand what it is to live life as an untouchable."

Natwar Gandhi, who played Gandhi, imbued him with an air of vulnerability and disarming innocence, "That is why I pray that I am born as an untouchable in my next life."

"No Gandhi ji, we don’t want this problem going into our next lives. We need to end it in our present life times. I am here to discuss the issue of separate electorates for untouchables as agreed by the British", Manoj's Ambedkar was resigned and a little resentful, "I want you to end the fast. This is emotional and political blackmail on your part. If you die, caste Hindus will kill every untouchable in this country, the very people you consider so dear, your harijans."

What word did Baba Saheb use in his head when he thought about his fellow persons from the "low" castes? Harijan? Untouchables in English or Acchuts in Hindi or did he use a Marathi term?

During my time in the school, our history books in India talked about kings and queens of England but they didn't explain the different roles and positions of persons involved in our freedom struggle. Today it is much worse in India. Today talking about our history is treated like some dangerous perversion that must struggle continuously with political and popular censorships!

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Two hours before the show was supposed to start, all preparations were done and the actors went to the green rooms to get ready.

Looking at persons putting on their costumes and getting their make up done was equally fascinating. Deepti Rattan, the production in charge, ran around doing hundred things.

"During my growing up years, I had no knowledge about plays and theater", Deepti explained, "but when I was in college, I met Sushil during a play competition. He was very involved in theater. We started going out together and I became interested in plays." After coming to USA, for many years, Sushil had become busy in his work as a gastroentrologist, and they were not very active in theater. Then one year ago, they had shifted home from Philadelphia and theater had come back into their lives.

Rita was doing the make-up. Putting the foundation and the eyeliners. Accentuating features so that actors' expressions were easier to make out for the audience. Even if Natwar is not thin like Gandhi ji was, still he did look very much like Gandhi ji. Next to him, Subhojit traced dark lines on his neck and face. It did make his face look thinner and more like Jinnah's.

Deepti, Reshma and Sangeeta struggled with Malviya's turban, wrapping and unwrapping it, many times before finding the turn that satisfied him.

Manoj has his hairs dusted with white and a white moustache, transformed into Motilal Nehru. But it was Krish who really surprised me. He looked so much like Jawaharlal Nehru!

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Then it was the time for me to take my seat among the spectators. The theater quickly filled up. The theater staff was amazed. They had not had a houseful like this for some time. Among the audience there was the mayor of DC, who had come especially for Natwar, playing Gandhi.

Scenes of the play are mostly short pieces, presenting a collage of events, passing from one event to another, from one set of persons to others, with three central characters - Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah. In the play, the historical video clips connect the scenes and the point where a video clip stops, is the starting point of the next scene.

During the interval, people were a little cautious and guarded with their comments. There had been some good moments in the play, with occasional exchanges eliciting laughter. However, I think that, the first half of the play had not touched any deep emotions in the audience.

The second half of the play had much more life and passion. Almost from the first scene I could sense the excitement and engagement of the audience around me. The concluding moments of the play with the anger and frustration of Jinnah asking for a separate homeland for the Muslims, the shouting and crying Nehru justifying his decision to accept the partition of India and passionate plea of Azad for not dividing India, were truly magical.

During the rehearsal the evening before, this part had not been very convincing. During the play, Sushil as Azad, brought a lump to my throat with his helpless anger, "And what is the hurry for freedom, this divided freedom? Who decided we should be free on 15th August 1947 anyway? Mr. Radcliffe, Mountbatten? And who agreed? You? Sardar Patel on behalf of Congress? Gandhi ji?"

It was a crescendo. The last scene with parts of independence speeches made by Jinnah and Nehru, and with the wonderful voice of Sajeev singing "Vaishnav Jan to", had the audience give a rousing applause for the play.

The evening had concluded with a discussion that saw two South Asia experts, Teresita C. Schaffer and Walter Anderson, sharing their views about the play and that period of history. Both of them agreed that the play had caught the spirit of those troubled times and presented the events and persons in their complexity, rather than simplifying them to give facile answers about the partition of India and Pakistan.

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Even after more than 60 years, the events around the end of the British India are able to provoke heated debates and anguished discussions. Today, often these discussions take place without a real knowledge of pre-independence era and its events. Rather, these discussions are shaped by deformed versions of our histories taught in the school books and by the events of the past decades such as the wars between India and Pakistan along with nationalistic jingoism.

During the discussions after the play, Altaf Kabeer, had raised up the issue of representations of the partition events by Indians exclusively in tragic terms with use of words like holocaust while for persons like him, it is an event linked to the birth of his country, Pakistan.

I think that Kabeer is right. It does not matter, how objective and neutral we try to be in these discussions. In the end, for most Indians, this part of our history is about death and suffering of so many, coupled with mutilation of our country. On the other hand, across the border, the stories of death and suffering are a means to a noble end, they are linked to birth of their country. This basic difference in the perspectives cannot be erased.

The morning after the play, I and Amita were walking back from a visit to the Potomac falls, when we were stopped by a young woman. She was Shabnam and she had been at the play with her father. They were from Pakistan. "When we had gone to the play, we didn't know what to expect but actually the play presented the different sides in a balanced way. I had not much idea about the events that had led to the birth of Pakistan, so it was learning for me. My father also appreciated the play", she had said.

I think that was great praise for "A tryst with destiny", that a play could give us a greater understanding about a moment of our history.

In the introductory booklet prepared for the play, Amita had explained, "As a psychiatrist, I help people make sense of their history and how it impacts their present. I deeply believe that we as humans carry not only our individual history but also our social, political and cultural histories, the history of our communities and nationalities in us."

The play was a way to look back with sympathy and understanding. Without our minds and eyes clouded by mists of anger. If we can understand our past, may be we can build a better future for us.

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A more extended version of this article is available on Kalpana.it.

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Best of People's pics, 2011

The summing of my photography experiences of 2011 continues today with a selection of best of people's pictures from 2011. I love taking candid pictures of people in all countries where I go. It is difficult to click pictures of persons who are complete strangers in a new city of a new country. Fortunately, my work requires me to travel often in small towns and villages where I can spend some time in knowing persons and their lives. This helps in creating a rapport that helps in getting better images. I especially love clicking pictures of children.

So here is a collection of twenty of my best people's pictures from 2011:

(1) Ice-hockey fan from Prague: The day I was visiting Prague city centre, there was final match of ice-hockey between Czech Republic and USA. The match was being shown on a giant screen in the city centre. I met many fans of their team, with their faces coloured in Czech Republic's national flag colours.

(2) Children in the music class in Goias Velho: I like this picture as it shows the diversity of races in Brazil and also because of the lovely blue background of the classroom.

(3) The boy rowing the tiny boat in Abaetetuba, a small city along Amazon coast, with his undervest over his head to save him from harsh sunlight, is one of my big favourites. These small water-hugging rowing boats in the huge never-ending river look fragile and dangerous, but in this area, these seemed to be very popular.

(4) The girl in Goias Velho: I had spent 4 days with these children and their idealist teachers, who dream of building a new Brazil, that is curious, modern and open, and yet is respectful of the African and Amerindian roots of its people.

(5) Dancing for life: My friend Pio teaches dance to in-mates of a house for elderly and mentally ill persons. It is a dance for becoming aware of our own bodies and for creating a relationship with others. The woman in the picture didn't join the dancers, she preferred to sit at a distance, hugging her doll and yet, laughing at the persons dancing with Pio.

(6) Man in the cattle market: I visited a cattle market in the town of Hegri Bomanahalli, about 40 km from Hampi. It was a lovely experience. I like this man's gentle expression, the lines on his face, and his barely perceptible Monalisa-like smile.

(7) Girl in the village: We had just come out of a health centre where I had interviewed a group of village health workers (ASHA workers), when I had seen this girl. Isn't she beautiful?

(8) Mumtaz and her new born baby girl: That village had some rows of Muslim households and then some rows of Hindu households. Imam Bi, the president of the village women's self-help group, was an energetic and enthusiastic woman, and had taken me around in the village, introducing me to the persons and their families.

(9) The village boy: If I have to choose only one of my pictures from 2011, I think that I will choose this one. I love the expression in the child's face and the specks of light shining like stars in his eyes.

(10) The fish sellers from Tungabhadra dam near Hospet.

(11) The artist in the museum: When I was a student in Europe (long long time ago!), I used to love going around with my sketch book. Watching the art student sketching the statue in Victoria and Albert museum of London had brought back the memories of those forgotten days.

(12) Morning exercise in Manila: People all around the world, especially in hot tropical climates, wake up early morning to do exercises in a some park. I like the slow-motion kind of exercises done in Tai Chi. It looks like a dance.

(13) Chess and dama players of Geneva: Huge chess and dama playing boards drawn on the ground and persons of different countries joining together to play a game, including some persons in ties and suits who seem to have come out of some meeting, is a wonderful sight.

(14) Autumn and remembering the dead: The yellow of autumn leaves and the serious faces of people standing near the graves, it all fits in together so beautifully.

(15) The gondola and the tourists of Venice: T-shirts with red (or blue) stripes and caps with matching ribbons of the gondolieros make for beautiful pictures.

(16) The astronaut: He is Paulo Nespoli, an Italian engineer who has been many times in mission to the space station. He was being interviewed by some TV channel when I had clicked this picture. I like the expression and the light on his face. I makes me think of Star Trek.

(17) The protestor: On her cheeks she had written "Berlusconi Resign".

(18) The changing world: FIOM, one the workers' unions of the main Fiat factory in Turin, continues to fight for workers' rights, but it is increasingly alone even among workers' unions, in a world dominated by globalization. At a workers' protest meeting in Bologna.

(19) A newly married couple walking out from the marriage registration office of the municipality. The carnation in his jacket's lapel and her beautful dress with the veil, they look so good together. Yet number of marriages (and number of children) continues to go down in the old continent.

(20) Prayers in St. Petronio cathedral: The rows of candles illuminating the faces of the people makes for a magical ambience.

So do let me know which of these 20 pictures you liked most. Today is 1 January and I wish you all a 2012 of joy and peace.

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