Professor Barry Goldsmith – the architectural-travel historian whose specialty is recommending sites around the world missed by most tourists (and even missed by many natives) – will reveal his favorite seldom-visited sites in Italy’s most popular tourist destinations.
See Milan Expo’s great architecture – by many of the world’s leading architects – and then see the inspiration for all architecture: Italy. Prof. Goldsmith will show you architecture and art in well-known Italian cities that many natives don’t even know exist.
And thanks to Italy’s great high-speed trains – covering more and more of the country and getting faster and faster every year – you can now do day trips all over Italy — even as far away as Naples.
In Collaboration with the Italian Tourist Office
Part of a series of events linked to Milan’s EXPO 2015 “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” [May – October 2015]
RSVP
Please click on “Make a Reservation” by April 24, 2015 at 2 PM
Reservations are available until we reach
capacity or by the above date/time (whichever comes
first)
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DISCLAIMER
PHOTO ID REQUIRED
LOCATION
Embassy of Italy – Auditorium
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
MORE INFO
PROFESSOR BARRY GOLDSMITH
Professor Goldsmith has been recommending great unknown sites in 117 countries for over five years in his monthly travel column, Been There, Haven’t Done That. Goldsmith has lectured on six continents for government tourist boards, universities, museums, travel-trade shows and organizations such as New York’s prestigious 92nd Street Y. His Y lecture series on European Jewish Architecture & Architects — taking Jewish heritage tours out of the ghetto and into the 20th and 21st century — is being turned into a television series.
Professor Goldsmith’s “Only Pack Once” Tours (which he introduced at New York’s Italian Tourist Office) is being turned into a guidebook series for National Geographic. For over three years Goldsmith has been working on a British/Russian television series, Secrets & Palaces of the Romanovs. It’s no secret that Goldsmith’s love for Italian architecture brought him to St. Petersburg’s palaces designed by Rastrelli, Quarenghi, Rossi, Monighetti and many other great Italian architects.
FROM BEEN THERE, HAVEN’T DONE THAT: The Fricks of Rome by Prof. Barry Goldsmith
New York has a few private mansion art museums: The Morgan Library, The Carnegie Mansion, and the Frick. I like the Frick so much, that I identify my favorite smaller muse- ums (around the world) with them. Rome has many “Fricks” – but centuries older, and all with magnificent frescoed ceilings. Here are just a few:
Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi: One of Rome’s greatest private art collections with paint- ings by many greats such as Boticelli, Poussin, Rubens. In the basement you can even visit ruins of Constantine’s baths. However, the highlight is Guido Reni’s magnificent ceiling fresco, Aurora, (1613) which looks like moving sculpture. (Tours by appointment.)
Palazzo Barberini: The magnificent ceiling is by Pietro da Cortona (1630s). The Glori-
fication of the Reign of Pope Urban VIII (Barberini) breaks the barrier of real space, painted
fresco, sculpture and architecture. The frescoed painting bursts through the painted architectural ceiling frame and runs down the walls. You don’t know what’s real and what’s an optical illusion. The corner “statues” holding the ceiling frame are illusions, painted in tones of gray. Breaking out of its defined “real” space into painted infinity (toward a light signifying heaven) is a Baroque characteristic.
Palazzo Barberini: is also a wonderful museum (National Museum of Antique Art) Renaissance Art with such masterpieces as La Fornarina by Raphael, Hans Holbein’s famous Henry VIII, and Metsys’ Erasmus. Many other great artists are represented such as Bronzino, Tintoretto, Caravaggio
The Palazzo Pamphili: (1730s) has a magnificent long gallery with windows alternating with mirrors like Versailles famous “Hall of Mirrors,” but Pamphili’s is more coherent. The frames of the mirrors and windows blend into the ceiling and frescoes obscuring where one begins and the other ends. The angle between where the wall meets the ceiling ends is replaced by a curve. Unlike Versailles, the sconces blend into the woodwork rather than exist merely as added torchieres. However, the main attraction, like the Piazza Barberini, is the paintings gallery with some paintings by many old masters such as Caravaggio, Velazquez, Titian.
The Palazzo Colonna: is another gem of a private art collection, which includes furnished period rooms from the Renaissance through the 18th century. A new “Yellow Gallery” and Chapel recently opened to the public.
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