Chasing Dawn: Experiencing Guercino’s Aurora at the Casino dell’Aurora in Rome
Monthly Photo Journal - December
This month I’m trying something new by combining the photo journal and audio postcard into one video post that embodies the wonders of Baroque Rome.
On this Winter Solstice day I am sharing video of Guercino’s famed Aurora, his rarely seen fresco depicting dawn at the Casino dell’Aurora, as a way of marking the coming light after this longest night of December.
Rome is filled with once in a lifetime opportunities. There is always a never before seen masterpiece on display, a chapel briefly unveiled, a crypt passage or stretch of the Aurelian Wall made accessible for a day, a private palazzo opened for a scant few hours. I can now a visit to the elusive Casino dell’Aurora to my list.
As part of the Guercino exhibit at the Scuderie Quirinale, a limited number of tickets were available to visit the rarely opened - and currently unoccupied - Casino dell’Aurora to see the Aurora fresco. So on a very rainy and cold Roman morning we walked up a path to one of the remaining buildings of the Ludovisi family estate, of Pope Gregory XV fame.
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