La Terza Settimana

Week three was full of new content and new sites. On Monday we met in the classroom to discuss the transformation of the altarpiece. We centered our discussion around Raphael and Sansovino’s Saint Anne altarpiece in Sant’ Agostino. After establishing some context for the readings, we traveled to Sant’ Agostino together to view the work, as we so often now get to do, in person.

On Tuesday we met in the field in front of the Pantheon. Our nine o’clock meeting time granted us about thirty minutes of precious quiet with the ancient monument, before the throngs of tourists arrived. Rachel gave her site presentation, leading us in a discussion in the possible numerical interpretations of the architectural elements of the Pantheon.

We narrowly escaped the formidable crowd, hungry for photos of the dome and oculus. We slipped past them up Via della Scrofa to the Ara Pacis for our next site visit. Augustus’s Ara Pacis (altar of peace) had been under restoration for many years while a new building was constructed for the monument. The Richard Meier museum looks like a fairly standard modern building from the outside, but the white interior and ubiquitous windows create a beautiful viewing environment for the ancient object. Shannon led us in a discussion of the scholarly approaches to the Ara Pacis. We considered its iconography as well as its function as an object of ritual worship.

On Wednesday we met in the classroom initially to begin our discussion of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. We dealt with the reception of the fresco within the changing climate of religious reform in the early to mid sixteenth-century. To continue this thread we packed our bags and walked up the street, once again, to Santa Maria sopra Minerva for a discussion of Michelangelo’s Risen Christ. Ryan led us in considering the possible viewpoints of this highly criticized sculpture. As it is not in its original position, we attempted to reconstruct the period-viewer’s experience of the work.

On Thursday our professors arranged for us a special treat – but it meant an early meeting time. At eight o’clock we gathered in front of the Rome Center to meet Bill Guillon, a local chef who had agreed to take us on a market tour of the Campo de’ Fiori. We learned where to buy fish, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, groceries and vegetables, all within a short walk from our school.

After our market tour, we fueled up on cappuccini and caught a bus taking us well outside the city walls to Santa Costanza and Sant’ Agnese Fuori le Mura. This day marked our transition in Art H 397 from ancient material to early Christian. At Santa Costanza we analyzed the fourth century mosaics, replete with potentially Dionysian imagery. At Sant’ Agnese, we were able to consider the transition of the Roman meeting house – the basilica – into the basic architectural plan of the early Christian church.

On Thursday night, our week of hard work was rewarded. We met at the Mamelli apartment and Bill the Chef rejoined us for a cooking lesson. We learned to make Penne all’Arrabbiata, pork roasted with balsamic vinegar and panna cotta. It was delicious. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we had the chance to properly celebrate Dabney’s birthday. Buon compleanno!

La Seconda Settimana

Week two of our program was a short week, but very rigorous and fruitful. On Monday we had presentations on-site from two of our five graduate students, Kit and Meg. We first traveled to Santa Maria sopra Minerva to view the Filippino Lippi's Carafa Chapel. Kit asked us to recall our reading on chapel and consider the strange placement of the patron in relation to the Annunciation. The patron seemed to be dividing the attention from the Virgin just as she is visited by the angel, Gabriel. This is a most unusual arrangement for such a scene.

The same afternoon we continued on to San Clemente for Meg's presentation on Masolino's Branda Chapel. We managed to all pile onto a Roman city bus together for a ride across town, catching views of the Roman Fora and the Colosseum on the way. When we arrived at San Clemente, the church was unexpectedly closed for another half hour. We decided to make a quick dash up the street to Santi Quattro Coronati, a medieval church home to a beautiful cloister and a well-preserved fresco cycle of the Donation of Constantine. Bonus church!

Returning to San Clemente, Meg led us in a discussion of Masolino's early fifteenth-century chapel for Cardinal Branda. We discussed the patron's specific architectural and narrative programs to communicate his presence in the church despite the fact that he spent very little time in Rome or in the church itself.

On Tuesday we had a whirlwind day of Etruscan sites with visits outside of Rome to Cerverteri and Tarquinia. We saw the round tumuli of Cerveteri and the sunken painted rooms of Tarquinia. We discussed the difficulties in studying a culture for which we have so little evidence and we engaged in the methodological issues of projecting our contemporary views back onto that of a society we do not totally understand yet. We had a great lunch in the town of Tarquinia, paired with a sarcophagi-rich trip to the Etruscan museum. It was a long day, but the weather was spectacular and everyone agreed it was a worthwhile addition to our study of Italian art.

On Wednesday we had another classroom day, which was a welcome respite after our Etruscan marathon. We did some preparatory work for our upcoming visit to St. Peter's by discussing Michelangelo's Roman Pietà. We also engaged in some challenging scholarship on Michelangelo's London Entombment, which ties into our continuing consideration of the changing status of the image and the altarpiece in the early modern period.

We were lucky enough to have our only four day weekend of the program this week. Many students took advantage of the opportunity to travel. We had groups visiting Pompeii, Naples, Vicenza, Bologna, and Barcelona.

La Prima Settimana

Benvenuti!

We had a busy first week of the program. On Monday our group began arriving bright and early at the UW Rome Center to move into their apartments. We have students living near the Campo de' Fiori, the Pantheon and in Trastevere. Everyone is spread out in the city, but all within easy walking distance to the UW Rome Center.

Monday night we went out for our first group dinner at Trattoria Moderna - a nearby restaurant, where the chef, Livio, updates traditional Roman fares. It was delicious. I think the dolci options were a particular hit with the group.

On Tuesday we had orientation at the UW Rome Center. The group had the rest of the day to continue settling into apartments, buy groceries, acquire cell phones, and orient themselves to their new surroundings.

Wednesday we had our first seminar meeting in the classroom. We had a productive and lively discussion, introducing our course on the transformation of the religious image. The material for this seminar was very challenging, but group participation was excellent, setting a positive academic standard for the rest of the quarter.

Thursday was an intense day in the field. We started by meeting the UWRC in the morning. The topic for the day was urban renewal and the layers of Rome - this being a fitting theme for our ancient day. Our route took us through the Jewish Ghetto, stopping along the way to see the the Theater of Marcellus. We were able to walk down next to the theater and pass through amongst the ruins. Our journey towards ancient Rome then led us to the Campodoglio and Santa Maria in Aracoeli. From these vantage points on the Capitoline Hill, we were able to get a sense of the way life in modern Rome continues to function and progress around and on top of its past.

We had our first student presentation led by Becca on Trajan's Column. Seeing the monument in person, we were able to assess and discuss our previous night's reading concerning the visibility of the sculptural decoration and the column's function as a funerary monument.

Next we traveled down Via dei Fori Imperiali to the hot bed of Roman tourism, the Colosseum. Our destination, however, was not the impressive Flavian amphitheater, but rather the Arch of Constantine. This was Anisha's presentation site. She raised interesting issues regarding the mixing of imperial Roman styles on the arch and the subsequent historiographic debates.

We had absolutely beautiful weather for our day traversing through ancient Rome. We can only hope for more bel tempo! Our maneuvering through the city as a large group has so far been successful and pleasant. Here's to many more site visits paired with lively discussions. Andiamo!