Description: The Italian Renaissance is often considered the beginning of the modern period and the end of the long, dark, superstitious Medieval era. It is known as a time of tremendous change in fundamental attitudes as well as a great rebirth of art. Why did such a transition occur? Does it really represent a sudden revival of long lost antique ideals? What were the actual changes and why did they occur? Join us for a two-day seminar that seeks to answer these questions by looking closely at the city itself, its Renaissance monuments, and the political, economic, social and cultural conditions behind this famous era of transition and artistic genius. 

Our point of departure is the momentous day of April 18 1506. On that day the powerful Pope Julius II founded the current Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's). The 1,200 year- old basilica on that site, Old St. Peter's, built by the first Christian emperor of Rome would be dismantled. After the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Old St. Peter's was the most sacred site in Christendom. In 1506 that status, as well as the weighty spiritual significance built up over centuries of pilgrims' prayers, canonizations, miracles, and relics had to give way to a modern monument. This new monument was to enshrine not just the bones of St. Peter and the Christian faith, but it was to glorify the worldly power and the artistic ambitions of the Papacy.

While no single day in history, no single event or person truly can be said to have "changed everything" or to have begun a new era, we can speak of certain times or occasions as the culmination of ideas, events, power struggles, ect. that bring change over time.  So a day, or a war, or a place might come to stand--symbolically above all--for a significant transformation. Pope Julius's new basilica is one such symbol.

The seminar proposes new St. Peter's as a model monument of the High Renaissance, behind whose symbolic status we will find the complex interaction of numerous political, economic, social and cultural factors. Our goal will be to learn not just about the physical structure and the art it contains, but also to situate it within its context of secular and religious power and symbolism, urban regeneration, and self-conscious reclamation of the glory of ancient Rome. In fact, such elements of the Renaissance are visible all over the city, and St. Peter's represents the pinnacle of rebuilding projects begun as early as 1420, encompassing streets and piazzas, churches and palaces.

Thus we will also visit famous urban sites such as the Campo dei Fiori and the adjacent Piazza Farnese where we can compare the physical spaces and their respective histories and see elements of the transformation for ourselves. A bit farther off the standard tourist itinerary, we will visit other very important Renaissance monuments such as the Tempietto and chiostro by Bramante, the churches of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and Santa Maria in Ara Coeli which contain stupendous Renaissance frescoes by Filippino Lippi and Pinturicchio, and a sculpture by Michelangelo. We will of course also visit the Basilica of St. Peter, the Vatican Pinacoteca (Picture gallery), the Papal apartments with frescoes by Raphael, and the Cappella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) with frescoes by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Perugino, and others.

To gain a better understanding of these great works we will explore some of the key ideas and attitudes of the Renaissance: humanism and the revival of ancient art and literature, the rise of the individual, the secular turn, the emergence of scientific attitudes toward the physical world. We will think about what they mean, when and how they developed, and how they relate to fundamental economic and political changes as well. We will examine how this combination of factors produced transformations in the way people imagined their place in the universe and their relationship to their religion, their role as individuals in the community, and the ways in which in the urban fabric and daily life changed as a result of the new conceptions. We will analyze the changes in art, in the definition of the artist, and the phenomenon of so many great masters in the same place at the same time.

Also, since one of the changes associated with the Renaissance was a new cultivation of the senses, an awareness of beauty, and an ability to evaluate it, we will learn and practice techniques for visually analyzing and being critically aware of the forms of buildings, paintings, and sculpture and the urban environment in general. With Rome as our classroom we will have short lecture/discussions outdoors, alternating these discussions with visits to the important sites.

It is recommended that you be prepared to walk considerable distances and sit on the ground. Please dress appropriately for visiting churches. Please bring paper (preferably graph-ruled) and pencil, and some (4 to be safe) bus tickets that you can purchase at any tabaccaio, or from the automatic machines in the subway stations.