Rothko, the "red" paintings, and Rome

Like his contemporary, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko was a figurative painter before he made his reputation as one of the great Abstract Expressionists of the postwar era. As the New York Times notes in a recent (March 18, 2026) article on a major exhibition of his paintings now mounted in Florence in multiple locations through August 23, both facets of his work were influenced by time spent in Italy: in 1950 (before his famous "red" color-field paintings), 1959, and 1966. The painting at the top of this post was accomplished in 1957.

Rothko was deeply influenced by two sojourns in Florence, where he was much taken with the frescoes of Fra Angelico at the former convent of San Marco, and with Michelangelo's vestibule in the Laurentian Library, both sites for the current Rothko show. 

What the Times doesn't say is that each of the trips to Italy involved substantial time spent in Rome, and that his time in the Eternal City may have been seminal in developing the color sensibility that was critical to his painting. 

Rothko

In 1950 Rothko toured the Forum with his wife, and overall he was impressed with the city's "layered" history, an aspect of Rome that would also directly influence the American architect Robert Venturi.

In 1959 he visited the Pantheon as well as Paestum in Italy's south. "I have been painting Greek temples all my life without knowing it," he commented. Visiting the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, he described a "deep affinity" for the "dirty" reds of Roman frescoes.  

Rothko

He was in Rome once more, in 1966, when he again admired the Pantheon and had the time (he was there for 2 months) to walk the city.

We're tempted to claim that Rothko's "red" paintings were a product of his time in Rome. The problem, based on our extensive walks in the city and environs, is that Rome's walls are not red. We can think of one exception--the "Red Hotel" in Garbatella. Had Rothko been enamored of Bologna, where there are many red walls, we might be closer to an Italian explanation for his famous "red" series.  

Rothko's famed red paintings may have been inspired by Matisse's "The Red Studio," (1911), which depicts the French artist's studio. Rothko was attracted to the painting.

Matisse, "The Red Studio"

Nietzsche's work was also influential, leading Rothko to think of red as a "blood-like" color that could convey the tragic side of human nature.

Bill 

For information on tickets to the principal exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, see here.

La Scoperta del Giorno (Today's Discovery): The Walls of Stazione Nomentana

The latest in the now-and-then series La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or
“discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

When we last visited Stazione Roma Nomentana in 2016, it proved to be a celebration of the elaborate street art that lined the extensive walls of the station, located on viale Etiopia in the "Africa" section of Rome, just south of the Circonvallazione Nomentana and just east of Piazza Gondar. Here's what the main corridor of the station looked like then:

And here's what that same corridor looked like 9 years later:

And that's the Scoperta del Giorno for October 15, 2025. 

Bill 

The Drugstore Museum: One of Rome's Underground Secrets

Want to see Ancient Rome without the crowds or the fees? There are wonderfully preserved 1st-century tombs and funerary relics, also well-curated and explained, within a kilometer* of Stazione di Roma Trastevere.

Above, a large family tomb, with frescoes and mosaics.

If you know RST, you can imagine we were intrigued by the name and the off-the-beaten-track location, near where we had scootered many times and couldn't envision an archeological site.

The name: The building, built in 1967, was occupied for many years by what some say was the first drugstore in Italy. In the 1980s the necropolis was discovered and the decision was made not to interfere with it, but simply to integrate some of it into the drugstore. (Wish we had seen it then too!) With the drugstore bankrupt by the 1990s, the necropolis remained inaccessible and untouched (there are advantages to lack of development) until the city and state were convinced in 2005 to take over the site. It took until 2020 for the museum to get to full use, and since then it has been closed now and then (for months at a time) - who knows why. We didn't write about it after we saw it in 2023 because we could not be assured it was open. Now it appears it is, with good programming as well.

A selection of amphorae. Someone complained about the colored lighting.
I rather liked it.

There are frescoes, mosaics, monuments. All one could ask for in digestible pieces.

In a post-modern approach, the bars and struts holding up the building above the site are highly visible, and the spaces for presentations and colloquies sponsored by the museum are not separated from the museum itself. All good design decisions, imo.

The multiple levels and explanatory panels are beautifully done.

I may not know what "syncretism" is,
but I appreciate this explanation, and the 
lovely statuette below.

Panels are in Italian and English,
and are both general and specific.

Many years ago Ingrid Rowland told us about a 

columbarium in a grocery (we thought) store in the 

Trastevere area north of the station. We never

found it. Maybe it was this columbarium,

now in the Drugstore Museum.

And there's more. The site here is part of a vast necropolis that existed outside the walls, near the Tevere, stretching out from Trastevere along what was the via Campana (the oldest road on the right bank of the Tiber, and now mostly absorbed by via Portuense). The city/state have identified several other sites, and have done some excavations nearby, forming what they call the "Portuense Necropolis Circuit"--stay tuned for our next trip out that way. Bottom line: we were wowed by this small, but nicely curated "Drugstore Museum" (yes that's the name in Italian).

Via Portuense 317 (set back from the street along a concrete wall - not easily visible - see red circle in photo below). Opening hours are given as 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. daily. But I wouldn't count on that. Here's a website that has other links that do not function. There's also a telephone (landline) - you might try that. Or just go out there and if it's not open, peek in the moto shop next door, or have a coffee nearby. The Museum is only about 1 km from the Stazione, but Google Maps will take you on a 3-4 km route to avoid your endangering yourself on the crossroads between the Stazione and the Museum. (another photo below of crossroads underpasses. We'd take the 1 km route, but that's us.

location circled - hardly eye-catching!

The crossroads and underpass (under the tracks to/from Stazione di Roma Trastevere;
 our trusty Honda in the foreground.

Dianne 

La Scoperta del Giorno (Today's Discovery): Architrave Shadows

 La Scoperta del Giorno (Today’s Discovery)

The latest in the now-and-then RST feature, La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or “discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

We came up with the idea of La Scoperta del Giorno, as well as our first “scoperta,” while having cokes outside a small bar on via La Spezia, in sight of Piazza Lodi in the San Giovanni district.

Across the street was an apartment building—actually two of them—the one on the right of roughly 1920 vintage, the one on the left postwar. Looking at the 1920 building more closely, Dianne noticed that the trim/architrave above some windows on the 2^nd floor (where Dianne’s finger is pointing) was uneven, intentionally incorporating a raised section on the left, and creating the shadow that drew our attention. (Just the sort of thing a builder could do when craft work was relatively inexpensive.)

And that, trivial as it may seem, is “La Scoperta del Giorno” for September 29, 2025.

Bill 

Trouble in Via Panama: What's a car to do?

 There's trouble on via Panama. Congestion. Delays. Honking horns. And most of it was   avoidable.

The street is located on the edge of the swank Parioli neighborhood. It may have been intended to be used mostly by locals, but instead it's a busy thoroughfare, running along the south end of Villa Ada (a massive park). Because it connects two main roads/places—the notorious via Salaria and the very popular, heart of Parioli, Piazza Ungheria—some motorists would be tempted to use it to bypass always hectic viale Liegi, with its buses and trams. 

Last year, the city decided to reconfigure about half of via Panama, adding a wide new lane for bicycles, turning the existing bike lane into a pedestrian sidewalk, and adding cut-outs for buses. Already a one-way street heading south, vehicular traffic on via Panama was smushed into one lane. Locals don't like it.

As it turned out (reading the papers the next day), we arrived to inspect the damage just after a protest demonstration occupied the still-under-construction street. We found a remnant of the manifestazione: a chalked sign on the street, reading "Con le stampelle/Niente Bici/Serve Auto!!!" ("With the divisions, no bicycles, cars are needed")

In our humble opinion, there's just too much build-out, too much concrete (especially to provide space for people to wait for buses), and too little space for cars and trucks and scooters. 

The photos that follow (and the one above) are more or less in order, beginning at the "top" of via Panama (at Piazza Ungheria) and continuing down the street, to the point where the reconstruction ends. The photos were taken in October, 2025.

In many cities, including ones with nasty winters like our own Buffalo, New York, municipal authorities are bending over backwards to provide bicycle lanes, as if the bicycle is the solution to to the automobiles that clog our streets. It's beginning to happen in Rome.

The idea that bicycles can materially replace cars in Rome is questionable, at least, and the reconstruction of via Panama demonstrates that it can be taken to an unhelpful extreme. There is already talk of redoing the project, of cutting it back. That won't be cheap.

Bill