THE CITY AND THE SACRED
CASE STUDIES FROM BAROQUE ROME
Thursday, October 24
4:00 PM EDT, followed by a reception
Emerson Hall, Room 210, Harvard University & Livestreamed
Professor Joseph Connors
Harvard University
Rome entered the Renaissance as a bipolar city, with two hubs of power: at the Vatican, seat of the popes, and on the Capitoline Hill, the center of civic government. Both poles underwent complete transformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through building projects of genius, guided most importantly by the two most famous architects of the age, Michaelangelo and Bernini. But much of the old city was replanned, too: powerful patrons and their architects, especially Borromini, refashioned the major basilicas and the icons enshrined in them into islands of sacred order. These islands projected both stunning beauty of form and the religious values of the Catholic Reform into the multi-layered urban fabric of Rome. Reception to follow.
FREE & OPEN TO ALL
IN PERSON & LIVESTREAMED
Gaspar van Wittel, Piazza Navona in Rome, painting, 1699, Carmen Thyssen Collection, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
Professor Joseph Connors
Joseph Connors is an emeritus professor in the History of Art & Architecture Department at Harvard. He has written a wide range of books and articles on Italian architecture and urban history, including Borromini and the Roman Oratory: Style and Society (1980), and Bernard Berenson: Formation and Heritage (2014), with Louis Waldman. His interests include the early modern library as well as architectural books, prints, drawings and maps. Professor Connors has served as director of the American Academy in Rome (1988-92) and of the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Villa I Tatti (2002-10), and was also president of the Renaissance Society of America (2014-16). Before coming to Harvard, he taught at the University of Chicago and at Columbia. His PhD is from Harvard.