Doria Pamphilj Gallery

Last Tuesday, I was able to go to the Doria Pamphilj Gallery with a few of my classmates. This is a gallery that is owned by the Doria Pamphilj family and is the same building as our classroom. Actually, our classroom is part of the palace where the family lived. I was trying to figure out what our classroom, office and computer lab could have been used for in the 17th-19th century when the family was still living there. I decided that it was used for the servants or maybe some sort of storage for the palace. One of my favorite pieces in the collection was a piece by Caravaggio called “Rest on the Flight into Egypt.” This is a painting from around the year 1600 and features the Holy Family resting while they are fleeing from Herod because he threatened to kill Jesus. This painting not only features the Holy Family, it also pictures an angel with its back facing us. The angel is playing music on a violin and is reading a score that is being held by Joseph. The attention to detail and the realness of the humans in the painting is mesmerizing. I also really enjoyed seeing the parts of the palace where the family used to live. It was neat to see the rooms that they used to sit in every day still preserved just as they were when they family was there.