They looted the old structures (what was left to loot) then peed on them and said, “These are mine now.” (A professor I had once said, “What the barbarians didn’t do, the Barberini’s did.”)
On one hand, it helped preserve some significant and important art/architecture.
On the other hand they looted, “christ-washed”, and destroyed so much. Even their own art over the centuries.
They looted the old structures (what was left to loot) then peed on them and said, “These are mine now.” (A professor I had once said, “What the barbarians didn’t do, the Barberini’s did.”)
On one hand, it helped preserve some significant and important art/architecture.
On the other hand they looted, “christ-washed”, and destroyed so much. Even their own art over the centuries.
What your professor (and mine, too) told you was a satirical bit of writing, known as pasqinata:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasquinade
It was left there after the Barberini took the marble from the Colosseum of clad their own villa.