The course is a survey of the architecture and the urban history of the city of Rome, from the early Renaissance to contemporary Rome. Rome is an exceptional city in that it represents more than 2700 years of uninterrupted history, reflected in its architecture. Through a close examination of the history of buildings, gathering places and routes, students will gain an understanding of the key historical and cultural issues that informed urban developments throughout the Renaissance, the Baroque and the 19th and 20th centuries. Religious, artistic and political ideologies have in turn often shaped Western architecture and urban form. Interrelationships will be discussed between rituality, cultural and political changes and their counterparts in architecture and urban design, as well as the importance of the "multilayeredness" of each of these significant periods. The course is taught both in the classroom and on-site.
Learning outcomes:
BY the end of the course, students will be able to:
- gain knowledge of the basic principles of architecture and urban design that shaped a great part of Western culture;
- acquire the fundamental skills in visual reading and analyzing architecture and urban form;
- master terminology used by architects, art historians and urban planners;
- describe and recognize the work of individual artists and demonstrate relationships through comparison and contrasts.
- understand the interrelationships between architecture and the culture of a people.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, power point presentations, field studies to sites and monuments
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Mid term exam (30%); Final exam (30%); Research Paper (30%); Class Participation (10%).
Given the nature of the course, breadth and variety of the material covered, attendance is mandatory. Students will be required to take notes during lessons.
Course requirements include a mid-term exam, a research paper with a bibliography and a final exam.
Research papers are based on a topic that is course related. Students are required to submit an outline for their research papers after the mid-term exam. Research papers must include a complete bibliography for all source material, inclusive of citations and paraphrasing. Sources quoted in the content of the paper must be given the appropriate citation in a footnote, endnote, or embedded reference. Visual material must be captioned. Not documenting or citing sources will result in the loss of a full grade point.
On-site visits are considered classrooms lectures. Students are required to arrive on time and to follow the lecture as in a regular classroom setting. As the on-site classes will take place outdoors and often in places of worship students are requested to dress appropriately (walking shoes, covered shoulders and legs...).
Attendance: Class participation includes attendance, keeping up to date with the readings and participating in class discussions.
content:
Week 1 - A survey of the early history and architecture of Rome from the Republican Period to the Middle Ages.
Field study: A Palimpsest: Castel Sant’Angelo.
Week 2 - The Renaissance in Italy. How the Renaissance tradition found its roots in the princely courts of Northern Italy.
Reading: Alison Cole, Virtue and Magnificence, Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts, Introduction and Chapter 1
Week 3 - The Early Renaissance in Rome: Bramante and Raphael
With the beginning of the 16th century Rome attracts the greatest artists of its time and with the works of Bramante and Rapheal rises to become the greatest artistic center of the period.
FS: Villa Lante on the Gianicolo
Reading Christopher Hibbert, Rome the biography of a city, Chapter 9 and 10 Patrons and Parasites and The Sack of Rome (pg 139-161)
Week 4 - Michelangelo
The turning point of history of Art especially in the architecture of the period his work coincides with a great crisis in the history of the church which ushers in new avenues of artistic and architectural development
FS: Campidoglio
Reading: James Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Michelangelo's theory of Architecture (pg 37-52)
Week 5 - Vignola and Mannerism
With the end of the 16th century patronage of the church gives way to great wealth of artistic production both religious and profane as a reaction to protestant reformation.
FS: Chiesa del Gesù
Reading 1)Georgina Masson, Italian Gardens, Chapter 4: Roman renaisance Gardens.
2)Siegfried Gideon, Space Time and Architecture, Sixtus V and the Planning of Baroque Rome
(pg 75-106) (photocopies)
Week 6 – Review and mid-term exam
Week 7 - The Early Baroque: Pietro da Cortona and Bernini
The most important period of urban development in the history of Rome: great patrons and architects reshape the city as we see it today.
FS: St. Peter’s Square
Reading Anthony Blunt, Roman Baroque, Rome 1575 1625 (pg 28-41)
Week 8 - The Late Baroque: Borromini
The most eccentric and creative artist who ever worked in Rome, is the person who probably most influenced the later history of architecture.
FS: Baroque churches on Via XX Settembre
Reading Siegfried Gideon, Space Time and Architecture, The Late Baroque (pg 107-120) (Photocopies)
Week 9 - Piranesi and Neo-Classicism
By the 18th century Rome lags behind in the currents of artistic developments and becomes a living museum in which artists from all of Europe come to rediscover Roman antiquities.
FS: Villa Torlonia or Villa Borghese
Reading: Christopher Hibbert Rome the biography of a city Chapter 13 and 14 Il Settecento and Napoleonic interlude (pg 200-242)
Week 10 - Rome: Capital of a Nation
IN 1870 Rome finally becomes the Capital of a new unified Italian Nation which determines radical urban transformations and the creation of new building types.
FS: Vittoriano
Week 11 - Rationalism and Fascist Architecture
The Fascist Regime brings new needs for the symbolic representation of power and hence leads to great changes in the urban layout of the city and to the building of gigantic structures designed to glorify the Dictator.
FS: Foro Italico
Reading:Christopher Hibbert, Rome the biography of a city, Chapter 17: Roma Fascista (pg 286-303)
Week 12 - The post War period
The most recent urban transformations in the city are the result of the arrival of great numbers of immigrants from the countryside which led to the development of new housing projects. Olympic Games of 1960 and Jubilee Year 2000.
FS: Nuovo Auditorium della Musica MAXXI.
Week 13 - Review and Final exam.
Required readings:
Stefan Grundman; The Architecture of Rome - London 1998
Recommended readings:
Anthony Blunt: Roman Baroque - London 2001
James Stephen Curl: Oxford Dictionary of Architecture
Irene De Guitry: Guide to Modern Rome from 1870 until today - Roma 2001
Ludwig Heydenreich: Architecture in Italy 1400-1500 - Yale 1996
Christopher Hibbert : Rome, The Biography of a City - London 1985
Anthony Hopkins : Italian Architecture from Michelangelo to Borromini - London 2002
Wolfgang Lotz: Architecture in Italy 1500-1600 - Yale 1995
Rudolf Wittkover: Art and Architecture in Italy. 1600-1750. - London 1958
James Ackermann, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Chicago 1986.
Georgina Masson, Italian Gardens, London 1961
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Barbara Briganti is an architect and works as a free-lance in the field of landscape and garden design. She also teaches, as part time staff, History of Garden Architecture at the Facoltà di Architettura "Valle Giulia" in Rome. As an art historian, she writes on the cultural pages of the national paper La Repubblica, and has translated and edited various books on interior decoration and garden design.
The course is a survey of the architecture and the urban history of the city of Rome, from the early Renaissance to contemporary Rome. Rome is an exceptional city in that it represents more than 2700 years of uninterrupted history, reflected in its architecture. Through a close examination of the history of buildings, gathering places and routes, students will gain an understanding of the key historical and cultural issues that informed urban developments throughout the Renaissance, the Baroque and the 19th and 20th centuries. Religious, artistic and political ideologies have in turn often shaped Western architecture and urban form. Interrelationships will be discussed between rituality, cultural and political changes and their counterparts in architecture and urban design, as well as the importance of the "multilayeredness" of each of these significant periods. The course is taught both in the classroom and on-site.
BY the end of the course, students will be able to:
- gain knowledge of the basic principles of architecture and urban design that shaped a great part of Western culture;
- acquire the fundamental skills in visual reading and analyzing architecture and urban form;
- master terminology used by architects, art historians and urban planners;
- describe and recognize the work of individual artists and demonstrate relationships through comparison and contrasts.
- understand the interrelationships between architecture and the culture of a people.
Lectures, power point presentations, field studies to sites and monuments
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Mid term exam (30%); Final exam (30%); Research Paper (30%); Class Participation (10%).
Given the nature of the course, breadth and variety of the material covered, attendance is mandatory. Students will be required to take notes during lessons.
Course requirements include a mid-term exam, a research paper with a bibliography and a final exam.
Research papers are based on a topic that is course related. Students are required to submit an outline for their research papers after the mid-term exam. Research papers must include a complete bibliography for all source material, inclusive of citations and paraphrasing. Sources quoted in the content of the paper must be given the appropriate citation in a footnote, endnote, or embedded reference. Visual material must be captioned. Not documenting or citing sources will result in the loss of a full grade point.
On-site visits are considered classrooms lectures. Students are required to arrive on time and to follow the lecture as in a regular classroom setting. As the on-site classes will take place outdoors and often in places of worship students are requested to dress appropriately (walking shoes, covered shoulders and legs...).
Attendance: Class participation includes attendance, keeping up to date with the readings and participating in class discussions.
Week 1 - A survey of the early history and architecture of Rome from the Republican Period to the Middle Ages.
Field study: A Palimpsest: Castel Sant’Angelo.
Week 2 - The Renaissance in Italy. How the Renaissance tradition found its roots in the princely courts of Northern Italy.
Reading: Alison Cole, Virtue and Magnificence, Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts, Introduction and Chapter 1
Week 3 - The Early Renaissance in Rome: Bramante and Raphael
With the beginning of the 16th century Rome attracts the greatest artists of its time and with the works of Bramante and Rapheal rises to become the greatest artistic center of the period.
FS: Villa Lante on the Gianicolo
Reading Christopher Hibbert, Rome the biography of a city, Chapter 9 and 10 Patrons and Parasites and The Sack of Rome (pg 139-161)
Week 4 - Michelangelo
The turning point of history of Art especially in the architecture of the period his work coincides with a great crisis in the history of the church which ushers in new avenues of artistic and architectural development
FS: Campidoglio
Reading: James Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Michelangelo's theory of Architecture (pg 37-52)
Week 5 - Vignola and Mannerism
With the end of the 16th century patronage of the church gives way to great wealth of artistic production both religious and profane as a reaction to protestant reformation.
FS: Chiesa del Gesù
Reading 1)Georgina Masson, Italian Gardens, Chapter 4: Roman renaisance Gardens.
2)Siegfried Gideon, Space Time and Architecture, Sixtus V and the Planning of Baroque Rome
(pg 75-106) (photocopies)
Week 6 – Review and mid-term exam
Week 7 - The Early Baroque: Pietro da Cortona and Bernini
The most important period of urban development in the history of Rome: great patrons and architects reshape the city as we see it today.
FS: St. Peter’s Square
Reading Anthony Blunt, Roman Baroque, Rome 1575 1625 (pg 28-41)
Week 8 - The Late Baroque: Borromini
The most eccentric and creative artist who ever worked in Rome, is the person who probably most influenced the later history of architecture.
FS: Baroque churches on Via XX Settembre
Reading Siegfried Gideon, Space Time and Architecture, The Late Baroque (pg 107-120) (Photocopies)
Week 9 - Piranesi and Neo-Classicism
By the 18th century Rome lags behind in the currents of artistic developments and becomes a living museum in which artists from all of Europe come to rediscover Roman antiquities.
FS: Villa Torlonia or Villa Borghese
Reading: Christopher Hibbert Rome the biography of a city Chapter 13 and 14 Il Settecento and Napoleonic interlude (pg 200-242)
Week 10 - Rome: Capital of a Nation
IN 1870 Rome finally becomes the Capital of a new unified Italian Nation which determines radical urban transformations and the creation of new building types.
FS: Vittoriano
Week 11 - Rationalism and Fascist Architecture
The Fascist Regime brings new needs for the symbolic representation of power and hence leads to great changes in the urban layout of the city and to the building of gigantic structures designed to glorify the Dictator.
FS: Foro Italico
Reading:Christopher Hibbert, Rome the biography of a city, Chapter 17: Roma Fascista (pg 286-303)
Week 12 - The post War period
The most recent urban transformations in the city are the result of the arrival of great numbers of immigrants from the countryside which led to the development of new housing projects. Olympic Games of 1960 and Jubilee Year 2000.
FS: Nuovo Auditorium della Musica MAXXI.
Week 13 - Review and Final exam.
Stefan Grundman; The Architecture of Rome - London 1998
Anthony Blunt: Roman Baroque - London 2001
James Stephen Curl: Oxford Dictionary of Architecture
Irene De Guitry: Guide to Modern Rome from 1870 until today - Roma 2001
Ludwig Heydenreich: Architecture in Italy 1400-1500 - Yale 1996
Christopher Hibbert : Rome, The Biography of a City - London 1985
Anthony Hopkins : Italian Architecture from Michelangelo to Borromini - London 2002
Wolfgang Lotz: Architecture in Italy 1500-1600 - Yale 1995
Rudolf Wittkover: Art and Architecture in Italy. 1600-1750. - London 1958
James Ackermann, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Chicago 1986.
Georgina Masson, Italian Gardens, London 1961
Barbara Briganti is an architect and works as a free-lance in the field of landscape and garden design. She also teaches, as part time staff, History of Garden Architecture at the Facoltà di Architettura "Valle Giulia" in Rome. As an art historian, she writes on the cultural pages of the national paper La Repubblica, and has translated and edited various books on interior decoration and garden design.
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