Hello everyone, I’m Elena from Italy and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia- your resource on Alexander the Great and Hellenism. Today I’m sharing with you photos from a special day I spent ten days ago. August 12th was my birthday and I went to visit something I had been wanting to visit for a couple of years: Villa Carlotta in Tremezzina, on Lake Como.
It was my wish to see Bertel Thorvaldsen’s frieze dedicated to Alexander the Great and in this period there is also the exhibition L’Olimpo sul lago (from 22 June to 30 September 2024) and I visited it with great pleasure. This exhibition featured works by Antonio Canova, Francesco Hayez and Bertel Thorvaldsen in particular. I show you some photos of the day and I also have two little surprises for you!
It was an exciting and unforgettable day, dedicated to my research and love for Alexander the Great.
Bertel Thorvaldsen, the “Phidias of the North”, born and died in Copenhagen (17 November 1770 – 24 March 1844), perpetuates the deeds of Alexander the Great in his masterpiece, the Frieze with the “Triumphal Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon”, a very high quality marble version that recalls the first stucco test for the Quirinale (Rome). The frieze is in elegant and precious Carrara marble, is 38 metres long and is the absolute protagonist of the Sala dei Marmi, the first room you see upon entering Villa Carlotta. The Carrara marble frieze was produced in Rome between 1818 and 1828 by Bertel Thorvaldsen. The Danish sculptor worked for Giovanni Battista Sommariva the owner of Villa Carlotta.
It’s impressive to see that splendid marble being the absolute protagonist of that room and the museum’s visitors find themselves in front of this beauty as soon as they enter into. Villa Carlotta is also located in a splendid place, it has a unique view of Lake Como, also hosts a rich botanical garden and has a very large park. I found it a bit out of place that some foreign girls took possession of a small wing of the first floor to be filmed and have their photos taken to post on social media. After all, it’s a museum, not a fashion show. But that is up to people’s common sense and evidently for them the visit to Villa Carlotta was aimed at the souvenir photo to show to others.
I found the shop very well stocked, with many gadgets dedicated to the exhibition (with gadgets on Cupid and Psyche) and I bought a couple of books that I will reveal to you later. Here are two surprises for you: below I leave you the video of the frieze that I uploaded to my YouTube channel (@alessandro3dimacedonia) and a map on Google Maps that I slowly update with my Alexandrian travels, in search and discovery of Alexander the Great. Since this month was my birthday and I treated myself to a few nice books about Alexander, at the end of the month I’ll post a book haul of my gifts and purchases on my YouTube channel!
Thank you for reading, have a good day,
Alessandro III di Macedonia 