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The Evolution of a Monumental Space: The Baker's Tomb and Porta Maggiore |
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written
by peeter / 09.14.2005 |
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Personal Observations |
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Riding into Rome on the smooth tracks leading to Stazione Termini, I saw Porta Maggiore and the Baker’s Tomb for the first time. Immediately, what had always been just fragments in my mind began to take solid form. Goethe captured my state of mind well when he wrote, “Now I have arrived, I have calmed down and feel as if I have found a peace that will last for my whole life. Because, if I may say so, as soon as one sees with one’s own eyes the whole which one had hitherto only known in fragments and chaotically, a new life begins” (129).
I was then better able to speculate as to how people venturing into Rome would have felt as they were bombarded by the two monuments on the eastern border of the great city. Describing the experience, I would later write the following piece in my journal:
You are nearly assaulted by the massive Porta Maggiore, boasting its provision of precious, life-giving liquid to the world’s greatest city. But then you are surprised as your attention is suddenly grabbed away by this strange, proud tomb sitting in its shadow, whose walls promise a loaf of bread to accompany the water already flowing into your now-Roman cup.
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