Carol's "Art" This Quarter . . .

...is almost, but not quite, art history. While we've all come to expect to see her latest digital collage in the quarterly newsletter, Carol's work has begun to take her in directions that tap her know-ledge and expertise in world religions as well as art. In short, she's doing research and will eventually begin to produce articles and books that explain it all. We got her to share a brief glimpse into what she's doing, though, and here it is. We think you'll find it as fascinating as we do. Carol writes:

"In the months since the midwinter, I have been exploring remnants of early Mediterranean cultures. As an experiment in using art as a way of knowing, I study sculpture, painting, architecture, ceramics—whatever I can find in high-resolution photographs. Each thing comes to me as a human creation from an ancient land. I choose to know only a minimal context for each piece—a century, a culture, a place. I seek to learn whatever I can from the hands and hearts of the creators themselves, without historical valuations distorting my vision. As I discover more art from particular times and places, commonalities appear, and I begin to get a feel for a culture’s visual language. The path lies open from there.

Ok, that was the introduction—now you have some idea why I’m about to talk about ancient Rome!

I forget sometimes, living in the United States, how very old some urban areas are. Our cities are mostly built on cleared earth. When a building outlives it usefulness we demolish it and clear it away. Of course there are exceptions, like the under-city in Seattle, where one city has been built upon the ruins of another, but overall, we are a fresh-start kind of people. Not so the city of Rome. We’ve all grown up on images of ancient Roman ruins excavated and preserved for posterity; but if you’re like me, you never thought much about what buried them originally. Apparently the city buried itself. Rome is sinking, but that’s not the whole story. Under one Romanesque church (the Basilica of St Clement) modern excavations have uncovered the intact structure of the smaller 4th century church it replaced. Some of its arches were filled in, and extra columns added for support, but the new church simply rose on top of the old, and it was forgotten. Under the old church visitors can continue down through visible time into a narrow Roman street and the remains of a 1st C apartment building. Beneath these are the ancient Roman aqueducts and the rubble of Rome that burned in Nero’s great fire. The end wall of a Roman church in the Forum has recently been replaced with windows so that visitors can look two stories down into the excavated interior of the 3rd C BCE Temple of Jupiter Stator, which had been incorporated into the 6th C church’s outer wall and foundations. The story is repeating itself all over the city.

Somehow, these images leave me awestruck. They seem so rich in symbol and metaphor that I hesitate to intrude. I feel as if I have been balancing on the fragile surface of a deep crust of life, unaware of the secrets beneath my feet. Mysteries lie there, and perhaps answers. Our pasts. Whole lives. Worlds we never suspected. And beneath it all, tunneled in the tuff (a soft volcanic stone that hardens when exposed to air), are the labyrinthine passages of the catacombs where the dead lie in their painted chambers.

I’m not sure why, but it leaves me feeling hopeful."



The photo on the "Spring Fun" page and above show the inside of the basilica Santi Cosma e Damiano. That image is from the Wikipedia commons, Nina Aldin Thune the photographer. The church has a more ancient temple to Jupiter beneath it that's being excavated. Its exterior can be seen in this image below taken by Anthony M., also posted on the Wikipedia Commons. More of Anthony's work may be seen on his Flickr site.



The image below shows what it looks like from the inside where the glass wall has been installed so worshippers in the Basilica can see down into the excavation of the older temple to Jupiter. This photographer is Lalupa, and the image is again from the Wikipedia Commons. The doors you see are the same ones seen from the outside in the previous image. That gives you an idea of how far above the old street level the new street level -- and the Basilica floor -- are!



Obviously, Carol is using more detailed images in her research, but those are not yet available for use in public media. We very much appreciate the resource of images provided by the Wikipedia Commons, and thank the photographers who've contributed.