6 February 1778 Friday
Vases, Candelabra, Grave Stones, Sarcophagi. Tripods, Lamps and Ancient Ornaments volume I
To your Dearest Friend Mr. Giacomo Byres Scottish Architect
Cavalier Piranesi.
Perspective view of an ancient marble candelabrum of great size. It can be seen in the Cavalier Piranesi Museum. It is made valuable for the elegant variety, and idea of ??the carvings with finesse of sculpted taste, and its sculptures with graceful distribution ŕ grotesque arranged; so that they do not encumber the general idea of ??the whole. It was found among other antiquities in the excavation made in 1769 in the site called Pantanello two miles away from Tivoli owned by the family of Messrs. Lolli, and in ancient times the site was called a lake belonging to the delights of Villa Adriana, it was dried up at great expense by Mr. Gavino Hamilton Cav.re, and English Painter, as it is found today, in the aforementioned year, and can be seen from the drains of the waters of those hills, which surround it, exit by that expurgated ancient conduit, had it cleaned by the said English Lord, to make said excavation; where large quantities of very beautiful sculptures were found, some which adorned the same lake, and some purposely brought in later times to fill the lake itself. The site of which, and its circumference is hardly recognized today.
Cav.re Piranesi F.
6 February 1812 Thursday
Morning clear, wind NW. Therm. 15°. Ground frozen almost white. Wm. Wharton came hither to breakfast. He informs that his sister Sally has a letter from her husband Wm. Craig, London Nov. 23 who writes that our Redwood was well a short time before his ship not cleared. We had at meeting John Bailey of Massachusetts, Richard Mott & Willet Hicks of New York. The latter spoke largely on the subject of the two commands, the love of God and our neighbor, he treated in a masterly manner and with very powerful persuasion. R. Mott followed on the same subject tho with a different text, the eulogy od Paul I Corinthians 13--on charity and especially those qualities of it. Charity ..... hath no evil and it failith not; both which he explained in a beautiful manner with a copious flow of elegant and moving diction. Now [Greek word] used by Paul is the same as that in the commandment of love and then two discourses may be considered as one. Richard took up the subject where Willet left it. The first meeting set 2 1/2 hours and the latter on business as long. Twas nearly 5 PM when we got home. Wm. Wharton was an agreeable addition to our evening friends company. The weather continued cold, therm. rose to 29°.
6 February 1996
revolution
…concerning the metabolic imagination, and it has to do with political revolution. From the American Revolution onward, i.e., the French, Russian Communist, and Chinese Communist, all the major political revolutions have been metabolic, meaning the forces behind the revolutions had to first destroy in order to create. The American Revolution destroyed the tyranny of British Colonialism and in turn created a new government based on liberty and taxation with representation. The French Revolution destroyed the French absolute monarchy and in turn created a modern republic of the people. The Russian Communist Revolution had to destroy the Russian Tsarist Imperial Court and the vast gap between the rich and the poor and in turn establish a new government based on the rule of the common worker. The Chinese Revolution was also a communist revolution but it was also a revolution that successfully destroyed centuries of Chinese culture and in turn created a very new Chinese culture.
…Germany and Japan also went through metabolic changes, although not because of political revolution, but rather because of the devastation (destruction) of war. Their change was consummately metabolic in that enormous creation occurred after enormous destruction.
…the notion of American culture and assimilation... …metabolic political change combined with a global assimilation process (of American) culture… assimilation and metabolism coexist, however, the process of assimilation is on its way out and metabolic change will become the ongoing and dominant force behind political change.
…the psychological metabolism of Freud…
6 February 2006
Thesis Semester [blog] 25 years ago
Because of Roma Interrotta and related genius loci issues, I've been doing a lot of reading/research, and thus I now know that when I look out my mother's living room windows I'm looking at the site where the oldest house [sic] in Pennsylvania once stood.
6 February 2017
6 February 2023 Monday
Vases, Candelabra, Grave Stones, Sarcophagi. Tripods, Lamps and Ancient Ornaments volume II
Three fragments found in Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli
It can be seen in the Marquis Casali vineyard in S. Stefano Rotondo.
Cava. Fran.co Piranesi inc. 1790.
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