L’arte non è mai finita, solo abbandonata. Those are the truest words. We lost the right to finish created works, long ago. The Fall and The Temptation, opposite of each other in the chapel, high above, reminded me of that. That is why the background of the Temptation is blank—we could no longer see divine beauty. But still, we remain somehow close to it: the angel casting out Adam and Eve said that much. Massacio's Brancacci Chapel (1425-27) “You’re at the feet of your ma

I swayed on the bench, hunching forward to stare at the plain, sand-colored wood floor. Nausea both from exhaustion of having gotten lost last night—not getting to our apartments till one in the morning—and from rushing to hurry to the Vatican—that would not even let us in properly (it is a pdf, guard!)—were taking their toll. Fifteen of us crowded the white bench before the staircase to the chapel. The most infamous one. The Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel (15

A poem and a prayer, inspired as I sat crying over the meaning of Michelangelo's lesser known pieta, featuring a portrait of himself holding the body of Christ.