Friday, June 16, 2017

200 Reviews of Rome: Church of St. Augustine









4 Stars




Dime a dozen Roman Church (Mainly Renaissance, I believe). This means it would be hardly worth the 15 minutes trouble in Rome, but in any American city it would be worth planning half a day around. This church though is elevated up even from there by a middle of the pack Caravaggio (again the relativity thing: worth building a fifty million dollar museum around the painting in other cities, and yet in Rome merely worth popping in for if you find you're walking by it, but don't sweat it).

Nevertheless, for all my off-the-cuff casualness, it's kind of a gorgeous painting (check out those dirty feet, the shoulders...) and it's a three minutes walk from either Piazza Navona or, more to the point, The Church of St. Louis of the French (San Luigi dei Francesi) which holds three more Caravaggio masterpieces. And, if you can set aside that perhaps just recently you've been in nine churches, 4 prettier, 3 about the same, and 2 not quite so nice, and instead trick your mind into this being the only church you have ever seen, the beauties of San'Agostino are capable of burning ice out of your heart.





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