I Musei Vaticani

This blog is a follow-up to Red Baron's pilgrimage to Rome, where our group paid a visit to the Vatican Museums. These exhibitions alone are worth a trip to the Holy City.

We German pilgrims queued up (sorry), stood in line at the entrance with the rest of the crowds. 

There was no chaos; the masses were channeled, ended up in a reception hall, were badged, grouped, and waited for their guides to appear.

While waiting, did I see Karol Józef Wojtyła on guitar? No, this is Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.

Our charming Italian guide took our group outside to the Pine Tree Courtyard.

 

From there, we enjoyed a breathtaking view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

This nearly four-meter-tall bronze pine cone was crafted in the 1st or 2nd century AD as part of a fountain near the Pantheon. In 1608, Pope Paul V finally placed it in its current niche in the Cortile della Pigna. 

Renaissance and Baroque architects admired the Pigna for its scale and classical pedigree. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the poet likens the giant Nimrod’s head to “the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s” to convey a testament to the sculpture’s fame in Rome’s cultural memory.

On the other side of the courtyard, a neoclassical structure bearing the Latin inscription: PIVS VII P M FECIT AN XXII. His translates to Pope Pius VII, Pontifex Maximus, made [this] in the 22nd year [of his papacy].” The building provides room for the immense collections of the Vatican Museums.

Pius VII guided the Church through the difficult times of the Napoleonic era.

Inside the museum, the Laocoön Group was inaccessible because of the crowds besieging it. So, instead of showing the usual Vatican highlights, I’ll entertain you in the following with some personal impressions.

We passed a 1.6-metre-tall fragmentary marble statue of a male nude believed to be a 1st-century BC original known as the Belvedere Torso.

The well-preserved mosaic floor depicting hunting scenes comes from the buried-by-lava Pompeii.

Before entering the Gallery of Maps, I read the following proud statement: “Religion has ennobled and perfected the profane arts, having redirected them to the worship of God."

Here is an example. The ceiling fresco depicting the discovery of the Holy Cross. St. Helena is lightened and guided by the Holy Spirit.

To my right-hand side, an old fisherman’s statue. My first impossible thought was, "That's me." But I'm not a fisherman, and I walk with a cane.

On this tapestry, cardinals are counting money; I assume it is indulgences that have just come in.

Mephisto in Goethe's Faust knew that "The Church has a big stomach," and the construction of St. Peter's Basilica cost money, a lot of money.

New Italy

Pope Gregory XIII commissioned the 120-meter-long Gallery of Maps in the late 16th century. It features 40 large frescos, surprisingly accurate maps of Italian regions and islands, each of about 3 x 4 meters.

  

Sicily

Bella Venezia

 

This painting depicts the clash between Constantine I and Maxentius on October 28, 312 AD, at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber. Constantine’s victory paved the way for his sole rule of the Western Roman Empire and ultimately led him to favor Christianity as the main religion. This work is attributed to the circle of Raphael, painted around 1519–20 as part of the Vatican Loggia.

The Latin inscription beneath the scene reads: “Gaius Valerius Aurelius Constantine, whose righteous victory over Maxentius has secured the resources and safety of Christians.”

This Renaissance fresco shows Emperor Constantine kneeling before Pope Sylvester I, symbolically handing over control of Rome and the Western Roman Empire to the papacy. The Donation of Constantine was later exposed as a forgery.

During the early persecution of Christians, King Herod Agrippa I persecuted the members of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. He had the apostle James, the brother of John, executed. When he saw that this was well received by the Jews, he also had Peter arrested during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (i.e., around Passover).

Raphael and his workshop executed “The Liberation of Saint Peter” in a dramatic way between 1514 and 1516.

 
The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 12, describes the events in Jerusalem in the year 44:

On the night before Peter’s trial, an angel of the Lord suddenly appears in the prison. Light fills the cell, but the guards notice nothing. The angel nudges Peter to wake him up. The chains fall from his hands, and the angel says, "Put on your clothes, put on your sandals, and follow me!" At first, Peter thinks he is having a vision, but the iron gate to the city opens by itself. The angel guides Peter through a street - and then disappears. It's only now that Peter realizes all this has really happened.

Peter goes to the house of Mary, the mother of John and Mark, where many people have gathered to pray for the apostle. The maid Rhoda recognizes Peter by his voice and is so surprised that she forgets to open the door. At first, the others do not believe her - they think it is "his angel." Finally, they open the door, see Peter, and are amazed. He informs them of what has happened, asks them to share the news with James and the others, and then leaves the city for safety reasons.

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Alsfeld

On the return bus ride to Freiburg, the experiences of the cultural trip to Thuringia in Meiningen, Gotha, and Kochberg were still fresh in our minds when our driver announced a lunch break at Alsfeld, Hesse.

In the Middle Ages and early modern times, this small town lay on the trade route between Frankfurt and Leipzig and was therefore wealthy. However, as elsewhere in Germany, the situation changed abruptly with the devastations of the Thirty Years' War.

But here it was neither the Imperial nor the Swedish forces, but the North Hessian brothers who brutally attacked Alsfeld, the town in Hesse-Darmstadt. The Hessian-Kassel troops beleaguered Alsfeld, blew a breach in the medieval wall, and set the town on fire. "Thirty buildings were set alight by grenades thrown into them; all the suburbs were razed to the ground and 200 houses were demolished." Subsequently, Alsfeld degenerated into a farming hamlet.

  

©Otto Rohse/Wikipedia

The old glory of Alsfeld becomes evident in its preserved, half-timbered, and richly decorated stone buildings that even adorn German postage stamps.

Our guide told us the following legend about the origin of the town's name: Around the year 1200, the Landgrave of Hesse-Thuringia was riding across the Vogelsberg. On a hill near the present town, the Homberg, a strong wind blew the count's hat off his head. He remarked, "Als* fells my hat off my head (Als fällt [> Alsfeld] mir der Hut vom Kopp)." Hurray, this pun can be translated.
*"Als" is Upper Hessian for "always."

During our tour, we passed the remains of the Medieval wall, against which the Augustinian monastery nestled. In 1522, the Augustinian monk Tilemann Schnabel, a friend of Martin Luther, preached the Reformation from the top of this wall. 

The courtyard of the former Augustinian monastery.

The ruling Landgrave was not amused and ordered Schnabel to leave town. However, in 1525, the citizens voted for the return of their beloved preacher, and subsequently, the Alsfelders converted to the "new" religion.

Alsfeld is located on the Fairy Tale Road, which runs from Bremen to Hanau in Hesse. Therefore, the town features a fairytale house offering special entertainment for children. The late Vicepresident of the Museumsgesellschaft would have enjoyed the view.

The Minnigerode patrician stone house was built in 1687 in baroque style. Note the rich wood carving.

On our way to Alsfeld's market square, we passed Pius Bucket's butcher shop.

The town hall is Alsfeld's most famous landmark. It is a so-called Rähmbau, i.e., a several-storied construction.

The ground floor was used as a market hall.

The Weinhaus was built in 1538 to store and sell wine. Note the stepped gable decorated with rosettes.

The parish church of Walpurgis. Our guide is in full action.

A Lutheran church.

Christ is my life, and dying is my gain.

An impressive epitaph of 1632 for Senator Justus Stumpf and his wife Susanna Bucking, both names latinized. The couple had ten children, four boys, four girls - one unmarried without the bonnet - and two stillborns. Click to enlarge for the two squaddled babies below their eight siblings.

Due to the small size of the churchyard, older bones had to make way for the new dead. This chapel, built in the late Gothic style in 1386, served as an ossuary to store these bones. Since 1982, the historic building has been used as the town archives.

In the square in front of the chapel is an iron cage where, in the Middle Ages, miscreants were locked up and exposed to public ridicule.

We had lunch on the market square at the Wedding House, built in Renaissance style between 1564 and 1571.

I finished my lunch drinking a Pharisee, i.e., a hot drink made from sweetened coffee, brown rum, and a dollop of whipped cream.

On the way back to the bus, we read that Alsfeld has been a European model town for monument preservation for 50 years.

©Osthessen News

Another postal stamp pays witness.

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Kochberg

The next stop on our cultural tour to Gotha was Kochberg Castle.

On the way to the summer residence of Baronesse von Stein, we passed on smooth roads "flourishing landscapes" that Chancellor Kohl once had promised to the residents of the GDR.

Freifrau von Stein in 1753. Oil painting by A. C. Meuser

There are wild rumors about Goethe's relationship with the married Frau von Stein. But first of all, how did the 26-year-old Frankfurter end up at the Weimar Court?

It was astonishing that the Duchess Anna Amalia of Weimar chose the young Goethe as an educational companion, mentor, and conversation partner for her son Karl August. But she was an educated, enlightened princess who recognized that her small court in Weimar needed to raise its cultural and intellectual profile.

So when the author of "The Sorrows of Werther," famous throughout Europe, arrived in Weimar in 1775, he was just the right man for the job. And Crownprince Karl August, who had just come of age, was delighted, because he was not looking for dry instruction, but an intellectual role model, a comrade with stature.

Anna Amalia trusted that the intensive exchange with a creative mind like Goethe would shape the young prince into a modern, enlightened ruler.

Young Goethe's appeal lay in his blunt, direct, and mostly conventional nature, but this did not go down well at court.

This is where Courtlady Charlotte von Stein, seven years his senior, came into play. This educated, cultured, courtly, and socially adept mature woman encountered the talented, passionate, impetuous, but also somewhat uncouth young Goethe.

A close relationship developed in which Charlotte made Goethe's behavior socially acceptable and, above all, adjusted his relationship between emotion and reason. Not quite as his following poem dedicated to her shows:

Why did you give us those deep insights? To look forebodingly at our future, Our love, our earthly happiness Never daring to hope for bliss? Why did you give us, fate, the feelings To see into each other's hearts, To get through all the unusual bustle To discern our true relationship? Ah, so many thousands of people, Drifting, barely knowing their own hearts, Floating aimlessly back and forth and running Hopelessly in unforseen pain; Re-cheering when an unexpected dawn Breaks on the quick joys. Only we, the two poor lovers Are denied mutual happiness, To love each other without understanding each other, To see in the other what he never was, Always setting out fresh on a dream of happiness And to waver even in the danger of dreams. Happy is he who is occupied by an empty dream! Happy is he whose foreboding is vain! Every moment and every glance confirms Dream and foreboding, alas, even more. Tell me, what does fate have in store for us? Tell me, how did it bind us so purely and precisely? Ah, you were in times long past My sister or my wife. You knew every trait of my character, You peered into the purest nerve, You could read me with a glance, Which mortal eyes can hardly penetrate. You dripped moderation into my hot blood, You steered my wild, errant course, And resting in your angelic arms The broken heart was restored; You held him bound with magical ease And beguiled him for many a day. What bliss was comparable to those hours of delight, When he lay gratefully at your feet, Feeling his heart swell against yours, He felt good in your eyes, All his senses brighten And calmed his rushing blood. And from all this, one memory remains Only around the uncertain heart, Feels the old truth eternally the same within, And the new state becomes painful to him. And we seem only half alive, The brightest day is dim around us. Happy that the fate that torments us Does not know how to change us.

Warum gabst du uns die tiefen Blicke, Unsre Zukunft ahndungsvoll zu schaun, Unsrer Liebe, unsrem Erdenglücke Wähnend selig nimmer hinzutraun? Warum gabst uns, Schicksal, die Gefühle, Uns einander in das Herz zu sehn, Um durch all die seltenen Gewühle Unser wahr Verhältnis auszuspähn? Ach, so viele tausend Menschen kennen, Dumpf sich treibend, kaum ihr eigen Herz, Schweben zwecklos hin und her und rennen Hoffnungslos in unversehnem Schmerz; Jauchzen wieder, wenn der schnellen Freuden Unerwart´te Morgenröte tagt. Nur uns armen liebevollen Beiden Ist das wechselseitge Glück versagt, Uns zu lieben, ohn uns zu verstehen, In dem andern sehn, was er nie war, Immer frisch auf Traumglück auszugehen Und zu schwanken auch in Traumgefahr. Glücklich, den ein leerer Traum beschäftigt! Glücklich, dem die Ahndung eitel wär! Jede Gegenwart und jeder Blick bekräftigt Traum und Ahndung leider uns noch mehr. Sag, was will das Schicksal uns bereiten? Sag, wie band es uns so rein genau? Ach, du warst in abgelebten Zeiten Meine Schwester oder meine Frau. Kanntest jeden Zug in meinem Wesen, Spähtest, wie die reinste Nerve klingt, Konntest mich mit einem Blicke lesen, Den so schwer ein sterblich Aug durchdringt. Tropftest Mäßigung dem heißen Blute, Richtetest den wilden irren Lauf, Und in deinen Engelsarmen ruhte Die zerstörte Brust sich wieder auf; Hieltest zauberleicht ihn angebunden Und vergaukeltest ihm manchen Tag. Welche Seligkeit glich jenen Wonnestunden, Da er dankbar dir zu Füßen lag, Fühlt´ sein Herz an deinem Herzen schwellen, Fühlte sich in deinem Auge gut, Alle seine Sinnen sich erhellen Und beruhigen sein brausend Blut. Und von allem dem schwebt ein Erinnern Nur noch um das ungewisse Herz, Fühlt die alte Wahrheit ewig gleich im Innern, Und der neue Zustand wird ihm Schmerz. Und wir scheinen uns nur halb beseelet, Dämmernd ist um uns der hellste Tag. Glücklich, dass das Schicksal, das uns quälet, Uns doch nicht verändern mag.

Goethe's revelation renders the typical male question, "Did he or didn't he?" void.

However, there are rumors that Goethe wanted to flee Weimar with Charlotte and live "without status or name" in the free world. Despite her deep love for him, Charlotte had to refuse for quite rational reasons. So Goethe is said to have fled alone in 1786 to the land of all Germans' dreams, Italy. After his sudden disappearance, Charlotte was left frustrated, feeling he had abandoned her forever.

In Rome, Faustina, "a merry widow," is said to have "enlightened" the no longer young man:

That is why Faustine makes me happy: She gladly shares her bed with me, And remains faithful to those who are faithful to her.

Darum macht Faustine mein Glück: Sie teilet das Lager gern mit mir, Und bewahrt Treue dem Treuen genau.

Later, Goethe sang of sensuality in his Roman Elegies:

And so I sit, loving and beloved, on the lap Of my beloved, with one arm around her neck, I beat time with my finger, and sing the little song She learned from me and really enjoyed it.

Und so sitz’ ich denn, liebend und geliebt, auf dem Schoße Der Geliebten, und ein Arm um den Nacken geschlungen, Geb’ ich den Takt mit dem Finger und singe dazu das Liedchen, Das sie gelernt von mir und das ihr so gefallen.

Although Goethe still struggled for Charlotte's love, dedicating her his travel diary, he resigned himself to a "platonic love affair."

After his return to Weimar, Goethe continued to live out his sensuality outside of marriage with Christiane Vulpius, his Bettschatz (bedmate), which not only upset Frau von Stein, but the entire Weimar court.

It took several years for the two platonic lovers to find their way back to each other, with Goethe saying that Frau von Stein's influence had "educated" and "refined" him. 

Secret Councilor Goethe, 76, as a porcelain figurine

Even at the age of 66, he still learned, loved, and suffered, as the following Christmas greeting to her proves.

That you were born on this day, together with the Holy Christ
And August* too, the noble, slender one,
For which I thank God in my heart,
This gives me, in the depths of winter, 
The most welcome opportunity
 To greet you with a little sugar,
To sweeten my absence,
Who, as always, far from the sun,
In silence, love, suffer, learn.

on 25. Dec.1815   Goethe
*August was Goethe's only son who turned 26 on December 25, 1815.

Kochberg village and castle

Back to Kochberg Castle, the memorial to an unfulfilled love.

 

Kochberg's walls exude the spirit of Goethe ...

... and Frau von Stein.

Schloss Kochberg. Pencil, pen, and ink drawing by Goethe 1777/1779

Goethe visited his love frequently at her summer residence and tried his drawing talent.

When he was absent, he would send her notes ...

... sometimes urgently via messengers, "To Frau von Stein at Kochburg with a basket of fruit."

Before I left the exhibition, I hopped into a canopy swing offered by the Kochberg Museum.

For lunch, Red Baron refreshed himself with a touch of GDR nostalgia, enjoying carrot and apple soup and an LPG* cake.

*Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft (Agricultural Production Cooperative)

After lunch, the vast park of Schloss Kochberg invited our group.

A reminder that everything is temporary.

    

The bathing spot was suitable for feet.

In the early evening, a treat awaited us.

Goethe's comedy "Die Mitschuldigen" (The Accomplices) was performed at Kochberg Castle in the small amateur theater that Charlotte's son Friedrich had built.

Goethe wrote the play in 1769 during his time in Leipzig. The plot is finely woven with witty dialogue, reminiscent of Molière's comedies, such as Tartuffe, with their double standards and hypocrisy. Lessing's bourgeois Enlightenment themes also influenced the young Goethe when he wrote the play.

All members of the family are morally guilty, whether through fraud, blackmail, deception, or self-deception. By showing the spectator that everyone is complicit, Goethe uses theater for the moral self-education of the audience.

Did he anticipate Schiller's maxim from 1784, "The theater is a moral institution"?

The long-lasting applause for the actors was well-deserved.

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