In June 2011, a redesign and reconceptualization of the website of the American Academy in Rome subsumed the SOF Weblog.

Please see here for AAR features of the type previously presented on this blog, and here for news of the Society of Fellows of the AAR.

It was on 12 July 1921—precisely 90 years ago today—that noted architectural historian William L. MacDonald (FAAR’56) was born in Putnam, Connecticut. His death in March 2010 deeply touched his numerous friends, colleagues, and former students, many of them linked by their connections with the American Academy in Rome. Three distinguished scholars from this group—Diane Favro (California, Los Angeles), Fikret Yegül RAAR’98 (California, Santa Barbara), and Trustee John Pinto FAAR’75, RAAR’06 (Princeton)—have aimed to celebrate his achievements by organizing an international conference on Roman architecture.

The American Academy in Rome will host the conference on 6-7 December 2011 in its Villa Aurelia. Entitled “Paradigm and Progeny: Roman Imperial Architecture and Its Legacy”, scheduled presenters include Corey Brennan (FAAR’88), Diane Favro, Elizabeth Fentress, Sandra Gatti, Pierre Gros, Lothar Haselberger, Tom Howe, Guy Metraux, Eugenio La Rocca, Tom Morton, Luisa Musso, James Packer (FAAR’64), John Pinto, Gianni Ponti, Marcello Spanù, Mark Wilson-Jones, and Fikret Yegül. Panels are projected on “Rome Builds: Construction and Design”, “Urban Armatures: The City Shaped”, “Hadrian, the Empire, and Beyond”, “The Nature and Legacy of Classicism”, and more. Further details to follow in the months to come.

At St. Peter’s, William L. MacDonald (1951). Photo: Alice Sedgewick

What follows below is an appreciation of the relationship of William L. MacDonald (1921-2010) to the American Academy in Rome, by John Pinto and AAR Trustee Emeritus Henry A. Millon (FAAR’60, RAAR’65), with the first part composed jointly, then with individual remembrances.

“Through his inspired teaching and award-winning publications, Professor William L. MacDonald (FAAR’56) exerted a powerful influence on the field of Roman imperial architecture, injecting vitality and shifting its study in significant new directions. As an architectural historian, MacDonald extended his interest to the nature and legacy of classicism, ranging from Late Antiquity through the present. “

“Bill’s enduring legacy is the series of seminal books he published over the arc of three decades. The first of these, a slim volume on Early Christian and Byzantine architecture published in 1962, reveals his sensitivity to the molding of space and effects of light that would emerge powerfully in his later work. In the first volume of his Architecture of the Roman Empire (ARE I), which appeared three years later, Bill examined the revolutionary role played by materials and structures in shaping monumental design.”

“One of the key monuments examined in ARE I was the Pantheon, on which Bill wrote a general book (1976), which still provides the single best introduction to the design, meaning, and progeny of this architectural icon. Ten years later ARE II appeared, in which Bill explored the shaping of public space through the fashioning of urban armatures in cities throughout the Empire. All of Bill’s books spoke not only to specialists, but also to a wider audience that, significantly, included architects. This was particularly true of ARE II, which drew on contemporary theories of urban design and employed illustrations and analysis that elucidated design principles, as well as interpreting archaeological evidence. The theme of the legacy of the classical world, specifically the reception of ancient monuments by the architects of the Renaissance and later periods, was evident in The Pantheon; it was taken up again in his final book, Hadrian’s Villa and its Legacy (1995, written with John Pinto), in which the rich and complex site near Tivoli emerges as a paradigm of classicism’s role in Western art.”

“Our purpose in what follows is not to provide a detailed assessment of Bill’s scholarship and academic career, but to explore in a more personal way Bill’s long association with the Academy and with Rome. We each knew Bill at different times and in different ways, and it is our hope that by joining forces we may better capture his unique qualities as a friend, colleague, and mentor.”

“When Bill and wife Dale MacDonald arrived at the American Academy in Rome in the fall of 1954, they were fortunate to encounter two seasoned second-year fellows in the School of Fine Arts who knew the Academy, its staff, Monteverde Nuovo, and Rome.  The painter James Hoffman [FAAR’56] and composer Yehudi Wyner [FAAR’56] had traveled in various parts of Italy and were eager to pass on useful knowledge. Arriving with the MacDonalds were new fellows with a spread of generations—architects Warren Peterson [FAAR’55], James Gresham [FAAR’56] and Robert Venturi [FAAR’56];  painters Alfred Blaustein [FAAR’57], Alan Gussow [FAAR’55, RAAR’87] and Walter Hood [FAAR’55]; sculptors Robert White [FAAR’55, RAAR’69] and Ira Matteson [FAAR’55]; composers Billy Layton [FAAR’57] and Robert Moevs [FAAR’55, RAAR’61]; writer Richard Wilbur [FAAR’55]; and four additional members of the School of Classical Studies: William Anderson [FAAR’55], John Hanson [FAAR’55, RAAR’71], Martha Leeb Hadzi [FAAR’55], and Kathy Geffcken [FAAR’55].”

“In addition to the members of this distinguished group, Bill also enjoyed the companionship of two Fellows who arrived during his second year: the writer Ralph Ellison [FAAR’57] and the archaeologist and architect Norman Neuerburg [FAAR’57]. The poet Anthony Hecht [FAAR’52, RAAR’69] became another friend, whom Bill visited on Ischia during the summer of 1955 and with whom he maintained a lively correspondence.

“Director Laurance Roberts and his wife Isabel, opened the year in October leading a tour of Umbria and Tuscany for fellows in the School of Fine Arts.  Lily Ross Taylor [FAAR’20] (Bryn Mawr), serving her second term as Professor in Charge of the School of Classical Studies, led her fellows to a number of sites in and around Rome.  Bill’s second year, the Residents included Mason Hammond [RAAR’52], William Thon [FAAR’48, RAAR’56, ‘65], Edmund T. Silk [FAAR’31, RAAR’56], William B. Dinsmoor, Richard Krautheimer [RAAR’56, ‘68], Goffredo Petrassi [RAAR’56] and Van Wyck Brooks [RAAR’56], who all contributed to the community. Professor Paul McKendrick [FAAR’50, RAAR’58] directed the Summer Session, assisted by Bill. By all reports the fellows, residents and guests were a convivial group. In the diary Bill and his wife Dale kept in Rome, almost every entry mentions encounters with friends, other Fellows and visitors, often over drinks before or after dinner or both. (We thank their sons Nick and Noel for giving us access to Bill’s unpublished journals.)”

“Judging from the entries in MacDonald’s journals, it was colleagues who arrived with him, Residents and guests of the Academy, and—with them—visits to sites that garnered most of his attention and time. And it was during the first of his two years that he and Dale made a lengthy, March to May, spring trek by automobile to Syria and back, passing through Greece and Turkey, then returning from Syria overland through the former Yugoslavia. In two months they covered over 7,600 miles. Prior to their departure, the Academy Director, Laurance Roberts, remarked that he was confident they would run out of money while on the road and that when that happened they should wire him and he would take care of them. Bill was quite proud of the fact that they managed their limited funds well and thus did not have to call on Roberts’ generosity. The journal he kept with Dale records the total spent while traveling: $881.39, an average of $6.60 a day per person.”

“Bill referred to this as ‘the trip of a lifetime,’ and the journal entries bear him out. Many of the most lively and personal entries were written by Dale MacDonald; Bill’s were more concerned with bricks and mortar, illustrated by sketch plans and details drawn on site. Nonetheless, his entries convey the immediacy of the experience.  He notes that at Mistra they visited the convent of the Pantanassa: ‘Dale picked flowers for the pleasant and hospitable nuns. Lizards scattered as we walked, stopping now and then in the cool shade. Byzance at last!’ After having been admitted to the nunnery by one of eight sisters they were, as Dale described, ushered into a pleasant parlor overlooking the valley and Sparta, fed mastica—Abesse a very domestic, candid sweet lady who wanted to know about dacron…Again on the mountain, the carpet of daisies (red, yellow and white), snowdrops, lavender flowers—cool almost liquid shade.”

“In Istanbul, where they met up with Robert Venturi, they ascended to the dome of the Hagia Sophia.  Dale tells the story: ’Climbed on hands and knees in a circular staircase…by flashlight, crawling at the turns with our fingers gripping inches deep in pigeon droppings; climbed up and down on the exterior of domes, under buttresses—a forest of large and various mounds—from a ledge on a sheer drop I backed out on a more protected lead roofing….’”

“In Istanbul they were joined by John B. Ward-Perkins, Director of the British School at Rome and an authority on Roman architecture, who traveled with them as far as Baalbek. The professional respect they shared in later years, as the two men rewrote the history of Roman architecture, was no doubt forged by their experiences while travelling together. On a visit to the hilltop site of ancient Termessos they were accompanied by two soldiers (one fully armed), a young Turkish student and an older mountaineer. Camels had to be pushed off the narrow track going and coming. In the journal Bill records, ‘one of our splendid lunches of cucumber sandwiches, but this time in a mixture of light rain and hail. The boys built a fire for us.’ On the way down, Ward-Perkins became separated from the others. ‘Mustafa took the soldier’s rifle and went back after him. We expected JWP to return riding limp across tough Mustafa’s shoulders.’ Professor Ward-Perkins was eventually found and returned to the group, ‘fuming at being thus rounded up and at his herders’ familiarity.’”

“And Palmyra, first seen from the height of the entrance pass, was set, as Dale wrote, ‘in pale rose and purple sunset on acres of warm yellow columns (and carving on fallen capitals and entablatures)—silence and desert enclosing all. Then full moonlight!’ The images and memories of this trip stayed with Bill for his whole life and inspired his writing and teaching at every stage of his career.”

“Bill spent his teaching career primarily at Yale and Smith. He retired early from Smith, in 1980, but stayed on in Northampton for several years, after which he moved to Washington DC, to an apartment in McLean Gardens.  He was pleased to accept teaching invitations both before and after his move. From DC he lectured at Georgetown, Catholic and George Mason universities. In Washington and beyond, he could often be found at promising symposia, colloquia and lectures, pursuing old and new fields of interest.  He frequently participated in colloquia at the National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Study (where he chaired a colloquium), in addition to lectures and discussions at the Smithsonian, where he had lectured. “

“The move to McLean Gardens led to an initial dispersal of objects, prints, drawings, books and furniture to family and friends. His large slide collection went to Princeton. In spite of the downsizing, the apartment was replete with objects, works of art and other memorabilia-—including an Egyptian basalt head; a bronze trumpeting elephant by Tex Schiwetz (a guest at the academy in Bill’s years); a drawing of Pamplona by Kenneth Conant; photographs of Thomas Whittemore and Ataturk, Bill with a Patriarch, and Byzantine monks in a refectory; several Russian Byzantine icons with elaborate frames; Gaspare Fossati’s Interior of Hagia Sofia, an axonometric drawing of Trajan’s Market by Michael Boyle; several prints by sculptor Dimitri Hadzi [RAAR’74] (a friend from Academy days); a number of prints by Piranesi; Bill’s AAR Fellowship Certificate; Hitchcock Awards for both The Architecture of the Roman Empire II: An Urban Appraisal and Hadrian’s Villa and Its Legacy were among the collection.”

“The following memories of Bill give, we hope, a sense of the man as we knew him.”

Hank Millon Remembers

“Bill MacDonald first drew my attention in an encounter that is likely to have been similar for its striking effect on many of his students at Yale and Smith College. Our meeting took place in the spring of 1954, while Bill was a TA at Harvard for Kenneth Conant in a course on medieval architecture. A friend and classmate, Carl Weinhardt, and I chose as our term project to build a model (always required), and write a paper, about the medieval church built inside the ruins of the great Temple at Baalbek. MacDonald never passed up an opportunity to point out error and foolishness, but he was kind to us, his comments rewarding and instructive way beyond expectations. His interest and enthusiasm for the project, our report as well as the balsa model, were more than encouraging. They stimulated further serious study of the history of architecture. At this time, Bill must have known he had been awarded a two-year fellowship in the School of Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome, but he breathed not a word.”

“It was, I believe, the summer of 1969 that Bill, Milton Lewine (FAAR’61), sculptor Dimitri Hadzi and I went on a trip to visit both the ancient remains between Rome and Naples (among others, the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, the Grotto of Tiberius at Sperlonga, Minturnae, and Baia) and the battle sites of WWII between Anzio and Rome in the Pontine area. We visited the military cemeteries at Pontinia (German), Lavinio (British), and Anzio/Nettuno (US). Bill and Dimitri had read a great deal about the battles, the burning of the ancient ships in the Lago di Nemi, the famous Fly Over that figured in the battle near Aprilia, as well as the location of the military cemeteries of Germany, Britain, and the US, and they were well prepared to give a fascinating survey of these already historic sites. Dimitri’s and Bill’s time in the Air Force during WWII likely developed their interest in military history. They both read constantly about battles—ancient, medieval, modern—the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in the US, as well as World Wars I and II. In later years, Bill often spoke of interesting programs seen on the Military History Channel.”

“In 1959, and again in July 1969, Bill arranged visits to the top of the Pantheon. On 30 June 2008, he sent a xeroxed photo along with one of his always amusing post cards stating that he had ‘no memory at all of this railing rising toward the oculus,’ inquiring whether it might have been put in before July 1969 when we were up there together?  Or later? The embarrassed student, I could not recall the railing nor when it may have been installed. Questions, comments (often about the Pantheon), observations, useful tidbits, and humorous quotes, usually on cards, often stimulated shared thought and laughter.”

“Bill’s apartment in Washington was not far from The Two Amy’s Restaurant.  According to Washington sages, Two Amy’s prepared legendary Neapolitan pizzas.  Once a week or so in the academic year Bill, Chuck Brickbauer (FAAR’57), a colleague from their fellowship days, and I, or another who might know the Academy, would gather there for lunch.  The exalted reputation of the Two Amy’s notwithstanding, Bill always ordered Escarole Salad with a hard-boiled egg and a bottle of Peroni beer. Chuck, almost invariably, ordered the Two Amy’s pizza.”

“At this time Chuck had been asked to prepare plans for the conversion of a garage at Harvard’s Villa I Tatti to scholars’ studies. Permits for conversion and construction were less than rapid and we often engaged in anecdotal banter about Italian bureaucracy, as well as about the proposed architectural transformations. Conversation then often shifted to people and life at the Academy. Bill’s memory included a lengthy list of Fellows, guests, and staff from those rich years at the Academy, some deeply appreciated, others anecdotally rich in memories. Maria, Bianca, Margherita Rospigliosi, Antimo, Pietro, Alfredo D’Ettore, Nina Longobardi, and Nicola were often cited.”

“Many former students and admirers kept in touch with Bill and some would detour from commitments or professional meetings for coffee or a meal. Fikret Yegul, Diane Favro, John Pinto and Meg, were among his frequent visitors.”

“Bill’s doctor advised he relinquish the daily three-story climb to his apartment and so Bill moved again.  He chose the Chevy Chase House, he said, because of the existing bookcases adjacent to a well-lighted study, and the ability to retain his telephone number. The smaller quarters meant yet another dispersal of objects, prints, etc. of all sorts, including, for example, three chairs Bill had rescued forty years earlier from the renovation of the interior of H.H. Richardson’s Sever Hall at Harvard.”

“The Two Amy’s was replaced by meals at Ruccola, within two blocks of his new quarters. Conversations now had moved to reminiscences about Italy, Rome, the Academy, Middle East, North Africa, trips, and the more frequent visits from his sons. Always engaging was his conversation about work underway on two publications. One concerned the recent construction of sizeable columns in the US, usually historiated; their dimensions, materials, commemorations, dedications and ancient sources mined were artfully entwined in the MacDonald manner. Another project was ‘Climbing Famous Buildings: Inside and Out’ intended to include towers and spires, but also domes such as the Pantheon, St. Paul’s, London, and the National Capitol.”

John Pinto Remembers

“My relationship with Bill went through several stages from that of student at Harvard, where he was a Visiting Professor in 1968, to friend and colleague at Smith College in the late 1970s, and eventually to collaborator on the Hadrian’s Villa book. The research and writing of the book consumed the decade between 1985 and 1995, and the time spent together—on site and on numerous visits to the McLean Gardens apartment—understandably brought us closer together.”

“In the summer of 1987, with support from the Getty Foundation, we carried out a comprehensive photography campaign at the Villa. Based at the Academy, we left for Tivoli early each morning in a car driven by Nicola di Petto, whom we both recalled—and respected—from our days as Fellows. The drive out allowed us to plan the day, and the return trip provided valuable time to reflect on what we had learned while it was still fresh. The hours spent together on the site, broken by a simple picnic lunch in the shade of an olive tree, were intense. Bill memorably observed (in ARE I) that for architectural historians ‘there can be no substitute for leaning against one’s buildings,’ and lean we did, in search of new insights, but occasionally, towards the end of a long day, seeking support as well.”

“As our manuscript gradually took shape, we would meet to edit the latest drafts. Sitting across the table from one another in Bill’s study, we would take turns reading aloud, but with a twist: each read from the draft the other had written. Painful as these sessions were—Bill likened them to visiting the dentist—they ensured a consistent voice that mattered greatly to both of us. Over time, these sessions took on a ritual quality: my arrival around mid-morning, followed by discussion and reading around the table; a short break for lunch, then more work; a late afternoon walk down Wisconsin Avenue to observe the glacial progress of work on the National Cathedral (would they finish before we did?), followed by a final session on the manuscript. In the evening we would adjourn to the mezzanine, where, stimulated by a glass of wine and surrounded by evocative images of Rome and the Mediterranean world, our conversation would turn to family and mutual friends, literature, our love for Italy, and inevitably, the Academy.”

“And a final note from Bill himself, who, on the morning of his departure from Rome and the Academy in 1956, wrote: ‘Rome touched with a wash of orange: horizon seen through the domes of churches and their lanterns, from the Garibaldi terrace; night’s dusty dusk still settled well down between the domes, as yet unaroused by dawn.’”

Rome resident and beloved American Academy Trustee artist Cy Twombly died 5 July 2011 aged 83. Many obituaries worldwide have appeared, including that of Randy Kennedy inThe New York Times (in its full version here). Remembers AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor (FAAR’84):

“Cy has been involved in the American Academy in many ways over the years. In the 1950s when he moved to Rome, he was part of a wave of artists who came through after the war, albeit the iconoclast, but the Academy saw all the comings and goings in those days. In the 1990s, we had an absolutely perfect exhibition in our galleries, of a small number of Twombly sculptures, about eight, as I recall, curated by Martha Boyden, our arts liaison at the time. They were so beautifully placed, and scaled, and ghostly white, that the space seemed to have been made for the show. They still haunt the space. I will never forget this show.”

Poster for AAR show Cy Twombly: 8 Sculptures (28 September-15 November 1998)

The AAR exhibition in question was “Cy Twombly: 8 Sculptures”, which ran at the Academy 28 September—15 November 1998. Giorgio Agamben in the exhibition brochure found in Twombly’s art “a gesture where it is as if every ascension has been inverted and broken, almost on the threshold between doing and not-doing…it is this point of decreation where the artist…no longer creates but decreates.”

Adele Chatfield-Taylor continues: “More recently, in 2005, Cy designed the McKim medal for presentation at our annual McKim Medal Gala, and even more recently, he became a Trustee of the Academy. He loved our studios and felt it would be a wonderful thing to be able to work in one of them one of these days…what a loss.”

Cy Twombley’s 2005 sketch for the AAR’s McKim Medal

The McKim Medal, named for Academy founder Charles Follen McKim, has henceforth been awarded to an individual whose work and life exemplify creative and intellectual exchange across the arts, scholarship, language, and culture. The evening is supported by corporations and individuals committed to international exchange, especially between Italy and the United States; the proceeds from the event  benefit Italian scholars and artists taking up Affiliated Fellowships at the Academy. On the second occasion of this Gala—29 May 2006—Twombly found himself honored as McKim Laureate.

The Trustees of the American Academy in Rome with the whole AAR community grieve the loss of Cy Twombly, one of the greatest of American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Cy Twombly as 2006 McKim Medal Laureate; at right, AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor

Four years ago (19-21 June 2007), the American Academy in Rome hosted a conference co-organized by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and the Bibliotheca Hertziana—Max Planck Institute for Art History that explored the collecting of religious art in and of Italy. On Tuesday 28 June 2011 at 5 PM the Academy hosts the presentation of a new volume based on this conference: Sacred Possessions: Collecting Italian Religious Art 1500-1900, edited by Gail Feigenbaum FAAR ’78, and Sybille Ebert-Schifferer and published by the Getty Research Institute.

At the event a panel of distinguished scholars will offer their perspectives on the general topic and on the fourteen essays included in the book. Speakers include Francesca Cappelletti, Professor at the University of Ferrara and Director of the Fondazione Ermitage Italia; Giovanna Perini, Professor at the University of Urbino; and Rossella Vodret, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della Città di Roma. A reception follows the book presentation.

As the essays in the volume Sacred Possessions demonstrate, collecting is the primary mechanism by which sacred art survives when it is alienated from its original context, either through the passage of time or by change of location. The process exerts a powerful force of change in the reception, physical alteration and radical recontextualization of objects, and a recalibration of the commingling of aesthetic and religious meaning.  A famous example is the eagerness with which celebrated altarpieces by Caravaggio and Rubens were bought by private collectors when those same paintings were deemed unsuitable for their intended settings in churches, raising questions of decorum and exposing the allure of sacred possessions. Counter-reformation aesthetics brought a new recognition that a beholder could appreciate the beauty of an image while remaining indifferent to its sacred dimension.
Some of the authors in the volume consider the instrumentalization of collections for religious, political or diplomatic ends, as in an amazing and virtually unknown Holy Tower in southern Germany, or John Talman’s vast albums of drawings. Others look at the charged reciprocal interaction between sacred objects and their owners in cases of both real and fictional collections. These could be devotional, but also erotic, as in the case of the steamy Magdalens in bedrooms of heads of state, or the surprising displays of religious art in the bedrooms in novels by Oscar Wilde and Gabriele D’Annunzio.  And they chart how the sacred aura of a painting can be displaced by an aesthetic aura, for example how in a museum setting the spark of the divine came to dwell in Raphael’s painting itself rather than in the Madonna he depicts.

For more on the book, click here and (especially) here. Gail Feigenbaum is associate director, Getty Research Institute, and Sybille Ebert-Schifferer is director Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck-Institut fur Kunstgeschichte, Rome.

Whether it is climate, or the use and overuse of timber resources, or the extent and effects of urbanization, or a host of other issues, the history of the Mediterranean environment in antiquity is full of unresolved debates. The intention of the conference History and Environment in the Ancient Mediterranean is scarcely to resolve these debates but rather to redefine their terms and to think about what progress we can hope to make in the immediate future. Co-hosting the conference are the American Academy in Rome and the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. The speakers are environmental scientists, historians and archaeologists from some seven nations; the conference is free and open to the public.

The morning session of the first day (Wednesday 15 June) will take place at the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Villa Lante (Passeggiata del Gianicolo 10), while the afternoon session will take place at the Villa Aurelia of the American Academy in Rome (Largo di Porta San Pancrazio 1). Both sessions of the second day (Thursday 16 June) will take place at the Villa Aurelia. The conference is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and organized by William V. Harris (RAAR’79, ‘81), William R. Shepherd Professor of History at Columbia University. See below for the full program.

HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

FIRST SESSION: Villa Lante, Wednesday 15 June 2011

9:15 a.m. – 9:30: Welcoming remarks: Katariina Mustakallio (IRF), William Harris RAAR’79, ’81 (Columbia University)

Session chair: Katariina Mustakallio (IRF)

A FRAMEWORK

9:30-10:00: Paolo Malanima (Napoli), “Energy Consumption: a Quantitative Analysis”

10:00-10:15: discussion

10:15-10:45: William Harris, RAAR’79, ’81 “Deforestation in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Historian’s View”

10:45-11:00: discussion

11:00-11:30: coffee break

11:30-12:00: Lin Foxhall (Leicester), “Farming Out: Greek Agricultural Practices,   Overseas Settlement and Environmental Encounters”

12:00-12:15: discussion

12:15-12:45: Nicholas Purcell (Oxford), “Mountains and the Problem of Scale in Environmental History”

12:45-13:00: discussion.

13:00-15:00 LUNCH BREAK

SECOND SESSION: Villa Aurelia, 15 June 2011

15:30-15:35: Welcoming remarks: Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94 (AAR)

Session chair: Elio Lo Cascio (Università di Roma “La Sapienza”)

CLIMATE

15:30-16:00: Michael McCormick (Harvard), “What We Need to Learn from Climate Scientists to Reconstruct the Roman Climate”

16:00-16:15: discussion

16:15-16:45: Edward Cook (Columbia University), “The Climate of the Late Roman Period in Europe from Millennial-Length Tree-Ring Records: Progress and Needs”

16:45-17:15: coffee break

17:15-17:45: Sturt Manning (Cornell), “Available Macro-climate Contexts for History, and the Potentials for Micro-History from High-Resolution Climate Data, in the Mediterranean”

17:45-18:00: discussion

18:00-18:30: Saskia Hin (Rostock), “Climate Trends under the Roman Empire and their Implications for Mortality”

18:30-18:45: discussion

18:45-19:45: Reception.

THIRD SESSION: Villa Aurelia, Thursday 16 June 2011

Session chair: Corey Brennan FAAR’88 (AAR)

FORESTS AND RIVERS

10:00-10:30: Florence Mazier (Toulouse), “Pollen-inferred Quantitative Reconstructions of Holocene Deforestation in NW Europe—First  Results from the Landclim Project”

10:30-10:45: discussion

10:45-11:15: coffee break

11:15-11:45: Brian Campbell (Queen’s University, Belfast), “Fertilissimus amnis: Exploiting Rivers”

11:45-12:00: discussion

SITE REPORTS

12:00-12:30: Paula Kouki (Helsinki), “Problems of Relating Environmental History and Human Settlement in the Classical and Late-classical Periods: the Example of Southern Jordan”

12:30-12:45: discussion

12:45-15:00: LUNCH BREAK

FOURTH SESSION: Villa Aurelia, Thursday 16 June 2011

Session chair: Marco Maiuro (Columbia University)

SITE REPORTS (continued)

15:00-15:30: Elda Russo Ermolli (Naples), “Human-environment  Relationship in the Southern Tyrrhenian Coastal Area: Hypothesis from Neapolis and Elea-Velia”

15:30-15:45: discussion

15:45-16:00: Robyn Veal (Sydney), “Fuelling Ancient Mediterranean Cities: A Case Study from Pompeii ca 3rd c. BC to AD 79”

16:00-16:15: discussion

16:15-16:35: coffee break

MENTALITIES

16:35-17:05: Lukas Thommen (Basel), “Environmental Terms and their Impact on Human Behaviour in Antiquity”

17:05-17:20: discussion

DRAWING SOME CONCLUSIONS

17:20-18:00: Andrew Wilson (Oxford) and Salvatore Settis (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

American Academy in Rome: Via Angelo Masina 5, 00153 Roma

Institutum Romanum Finlandiae: Villa Lante, Passeggiata del Gianicolo 10, 00165 Roma

For further information: Anne Coulson: anne.coulson@aarome.org or Kristine Iara: kristine.iara@aarome.org

Images of the Mediterranean 14 June 2002, produced by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder experiment system aboard NASA’s Aqua spacecraft

Internationally-renowned artist Antoni Muntadas brought two Janiculum neighbors together on Tuesday 7 June 2011, when the American Academy in Rome and the Real Academia de España en Roma united to present two Muntadas events as well as a new project by Italian artist Giulio Squillacciotti.

At 6 PM, Muntadas spoke in the AAR Lecture Room about past work and his new project About Academia, which was seen in its European premiere in the Cryptoporticus of the McKim, Mead & White building. By means of simultaneous projections (texts, interview subjects and architectural spaces) on three screens, About Academia examines the complex interrelationship between “the university” and “academia” in American higher education, both as concepts and as practical entities. This lecture and installation at the AAR are made possible through the generous support of Poste Italiane.

Following the 6 PM lecture and a 7 PM opening of the Cryptoporticus installation, guests proceeded down the Janiculum to the Real Academia de Espana, where Muntadas’ installation Cassetti Aperti is on display in the Hall of Portraits, and where Squillacciotti’s film Casi la mitad de la historia was also shown.

The evening concluded with a large joint reception in the garden of the Spanish Academy. For a full description of the “Dialogue” events see here.

Carol Becker as featured in Antoni Muntadas, About Academia. Credit: Pelin Tan

Muntadas’ provocative installation About Academia considers the possible conflict between a faculty (and its values) and an administration (and its power), in any given American educational institution, extending even to the arena of international relations, with regard to Latin America in particular.

Noam Chomsky as featured in Antoni Muntadas, About Academia. Credit: Pelin Tan

Differing ideas and opinions are explored through interviews conducted by Muntadas with scholars and thinkers including Carol Becker, John Coatsworth and Mark Wigley (Columbia), Ute Meta Bauer, Noam Chomsky and Diane E. Davis (MIT), Thomas Cummins, Brad Epps and Doris Summer (Harvard), Fernando Coronil (CUNY Graduate Center) and Howard Zinn (Boston University).

The show About Academia runs at the AAR through Tuesday 28 June 2011, and can be visited by appointment (06 5846470).

Diane E. Davis (top) and Howard Zinn (bottom) as featured in Antoni Muntadas, About Academia. Credit: Pelin Tan

Antoni Muntadas

It was five full days, but still it seemed like a whirlwind when the AAR’s Board of Trustees made their annual visit to Rome from 25 May to 29 May. They convened formally in committees and as a whole, took a good look at  the institution they support throughout the year, and all across the city squeezed in what cultural activities they could.

While in Rome, the AAR Trustees attended some major annual spring events at the Academy—such as the Open Studios, the McKim Medal Gala, the Fellows’ Reading, and the Fellows’ Concert—learned about many of the Fellows’ projects on walks in and around Rome plus in a special installment of the Conversations That Matter series, and received more than a taste of informal community life (especially in the billiard room).

One of the many highlights of the week was the Saturday 28 May Conversations That Matter program on “Cosmopolitanism”, featuring contributions by six AAR Fellows in a discussion moderated by AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94

The week kicked off for early arrivals among the Trustees at the Villa Aurelia on Tuesday 24 May with the Patricia H. Labalme Friends of the Library Lecture. This year the FOL Lecture was in memory of Christina Huemer (1947-2010), who served as Drue Heinz Librarian at the Academy from 1993-2007.

The featured speaker was AAR Trustee John R. Clarke, RAAR’95, who is Annie Laurie Howard Regents Professor in the Department of Art & Art History, University of Texas at Austin. Professor Clarke discussed “The Story of the Villa ‘of Poppaea’ at Oplontis (50 B.C.-A.D. 79) and its Archives: Daybooks, Photographs, and Plaster Fragments.” Patricia Labalme’s husband George Labalme was in attendance for the Lecture and for each of the other events of the week.

Tuesday 24 May 2011, Friends of the Library Lecture with John R. Clarke (top photo), who spoke to a full Sala Aurelia (middle); at the reception that followed (bottom photo), SOF President and ex officio AAR Trustee Drew Beattie at left, with Trustee Robert Storr

On Wednesday morning 25 May, the Trustees and members of the AAR community the first of an ambitious series of a dozen and a half walks and trips that current Fellows and Advisors of the American Academy in Rome developed.

Serving as group leaders on various excursions were Seth Bernard, Holly Flora, Stephanie Malia Hom, Mark Rabinowitz, Laurie W. Rush, Carly Jane Steinborn, Michael J. Waters (2011 Fellows); Jeffrey Blanchard FAAR’79, Patrizia Cavazzini, Luciana Festa, Claudia La Malfa, Gianni Ponti, Lila Yawn FAAR’98 (Advisors of the American Academy in Rome); Corey Brennan FAAR’88, Alessandra Capodiferro, Karl Kirchwey FAAR’95 (AAR staff); and Life Trustee Michael C.J. Putnam FAAR’64, RAAR’70.

Wednesday 25 May 2011, Walk #1 (of 17): Cinecittà and the Archivio Istituto Luce. The visit included a glimpse of the sets of Gangs of New York and the HBO series Rome, as well as the conservation labs of Cinecittà Luce

Then the evening of Wednesday 25 May saw the Fellows’ annual Open Studios in the Academy’s McKim, Mead & White building. More than 700 members of the Roman public took in presentations by 2011 Fellows Dike Blair, Casey Lance Brown, Thomas Campanella, Felipe Dulzaides, Fritz Haeg, Ersela Kripa & Stephen Mueller, John Matteo, Jeremy Mende, Sarah Oppenheimer, Mark Rabinowitz, Laurie W. Rush, Joshua Stein, Adrian Van Allen, and Karen Yasinsky, with participation by Jennifer Scappettone.

Also featured were AAR Italian Affiliated Fellows in the Arts Giovanna Latis and Marco Raparelli. AAR Residents who opened their studios in the spirit of the event included AAR Trustee Emeritus Chuck Close RAAR’96, Hugh Hardy RAAR’11, and William Kentridge RAAR’11.

From left, current Resident William Kentridge; Stephen Greenblatt, RAAR’10, and Ramie Targoff

Studios of Joshua Stein (top) and Sarah Oppenheimer (bottom)

Elizabeth Minchilli (President, Friends of the Academy in Italy) and AAR/Rome Sustainable Food Program Executive Chef Mona Talbott

DJ Riccardo Gasparini

Roof terrace adjoining the studio of Fritz Haeg that he has transformed into an urban garden

Studio of Giovanna Latis, with her Brancusi 03 lighting installation above

Studio of Casey Brown FAAR’11. In group, from left, Paul Rudy FAAR’11, Aparna Keshaviah, Brown, Stephanie Malia Hom FAAR’11, Jay Hopler FAAR’11, Tyler Travillian FAAR’11

The afternoon of Thursday 26 May saw Walk #7 (of 17), led by Michael J. Waters FAAR’11, on “The Materiality of Fifteenth Century Roman Architecture: Tradition, Innovation, Reuse”.

Michael J. Waters FAAR’11 (standing, at left) at the mid-15th century cloister of S. Onofrio (on the Gianicolo). It was here that the poet Torquato Tasso died on 25 April 1595.

On the evening of Thursday 26 May the AAR held the McKim Medal Gala at the Villa Aurelia. This is a benefit dinner, and its proceeds provide funding for the Academy’s Italian Fellows. This year’s medal recipient was artist Luigi Ontani, whose work served as the overarching symbol of the April 2011 Galileo celebrations at the Academy. The Gala event was chaired by Valentina Moncada di Paternò, with a committee of volunteers, and the AAR’s own staff. You can see a full write-up from Vogue Italia here.

From left, AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94; Chairman of the AAR Board of Trustees William B. Hart; AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor FAAR’84; and Gala Chair Valentina Moncada di Paternò. Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

Luigi Ontani with television crew from TG1. Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

From left, Luigi Ontani, AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor FAAR’84, US Ambassador to Italy David H. Thorne, Rose Thorne. Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

From left, AAR Trustee Mercedes Bass; Chairman of the AAR Board of Trustees William B. Hart; Polissena Perrone. Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

Luigi Ontani receives the McKim Medal, after presentation by AAR Trustee Robert Storr (at left, applauding). Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

The Villa Aurelia. Credit: Gerardo Gaetani d’Aragona

But the truly virtuous were up early Friday morning for a day of themed walks, this time focusing on the age of Galileo.

Friday 27 May, Walk #8: Advisor to the AAR Claudia La Malfa orients her group at the church of S. Ignazio to the topography of “Dominicans and Jesuits in the Age of Galileo”. The walk took in (Jesuit) S. Ignazio and the Collegio Romano, as well as the (Dominican) Biblioteca Casanatense and S. Maria sopra Minerva

Friday 27 May, Walk #10:Castel Gandolfo and the Vatican Observatory. Above, Lago Albano (top) and one of two Vatican observatories (middle) from the roof terrace of the Papal Palace at Castel Gandolfo; at bottom, Vatican astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, points out the merits of the 1935 Zeiss reflector telescope to the AAR group. Consolmagno was the featured guest on a 7 April 2011 Conversations That Matter segment

Friday 27 May marked the Fellows’ Annual Reading at the Villa Aurelia, with performances by 2011 Fellows in Literature Jay Hopler and Heather McGowan.

Heather McGowan FAAR’11 reads from her 2006 novel Duchess of Nothing

Jay Hopler FAAR’11 (far right) receives a congratulatory bouquet from (from left) current two-year Fellow Elizabeth Robinson, Andrew Riggsby FAAR’11, Lisa Sandberg, and Tyler Travillian FAAR’11

From left, at the reception on the terrace of the Villa Aurelia, Emily Morash, Michael J. Waters FAAR’11, and Alexa Greist

That same Friday night, the façade of the Academy’s 1914 McKim Mead & White main building provided a spectacular backdrop to one of the year’s most memorable rituals, the presentation to Fellows of the rosettes that symbolize their status as alumni/ae, and to Fellows and Affiliated Fellows of “graduate” certificates.

Credit: Vera Khlebnikova

Above two photos: AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor opens the 2011 certificate and rosette ceremony on the steps of the MMW building

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the 2011 Fellows and Affiliated Fellows

And come Saturday, the walks continued…

Saturday 28 May, Walk #12: AAR Life Trustee Michael C.J. Putnam FAAR’64, RAAR’70 guides an AAR group through the old and new parts of the Protestant Cemetery, with stops at the graves of Keats, Shelley, Corso, Story, Mead, Gramsci and many others

Saturday 28 May, Walk #13: the EUR quarter. Top photo: approaching the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (=”Squared Colosseum”) constructed between 1938-1943. Bottom photo: John Matteo FAAR’11 contributes to the discussion of Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzo dello Sport, built for the 1960 Rome Summer Olympic Games

Saturday 28 May, Walk #14: 20th century architectural archives, with visits to the holdings of MAXXI in its iconic Hadid building, and more surprisingly, in the Hendrik Christian Andersen (1872-1940) house museum. Arch. Esmeralda Valente (MAXXI) guided the AAR group. Top: Andersen’s atelier; middle and bottom photos, Enrico Del Debbio’s designs (1928-1932) for Rome’s Foro Mussolini (now Foro Italico)

Then on the afternoon of Saturday 28 May the Academy’s Lecture Room hosted the latest installment of the Conversations That Matter series. This is the third in a string of Conversations that the Academy has held since Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94 arrived as Director in July 2010. The aim is to engage audiences on current issues that affect people across the globe.

In this Conversation, Fellows briefly discussed a text, a problem in their work, or an image related to “Cosmopolitanism”. Fellows of 2011 participating in the conversation were Seth Bernard, Stephanie Malia Hom, Ersela Kripa, Stephen Mueller, Stéphanie Nadalo, and Barbara Naddeo.

From left, 2011 AAR Fellows Stéphanie Nadalo, Stephanie Malia Hom, Seth Bernard, Stephen Mueller, Ersela Kripa, and Barbara Naddeo, with AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza FAAR’94

During discussion at the Conversation, AAR President Adele Chatfield-Taylor FAAR’84 (left) and AAR Chairman of the Board of Trustees William B. Hart

Following the Conversation, on the evening of Saturday 28 May, the Villa Aurelia played host to the Fellows’ Annual Concert, featuring Fellows in Musical Composition Huck Hodge and Paul Rudy.

Paul Rudy (left) and Aparna Keshaviah following the performance of Rudy’s Kinetic Play (2011), for drums, vocals and improvisatory classical Indian dance

Huck Hodge takes the stage to applaud the Freon Ensemble, which performed his 2007 composition Out of a Dark Sea

But wait, there’s more. The plenary meeting of the Board of Trustees on Sunday 29 May was framed by two more walks, on mosaics in medieval Rome (led by current two-year Fellow Carly Jane Steinborn and Holly Flora FAAR’11), and onother closer to home—on  archaeological spaces of the AAR. There Advisors of the AAR Gianni Ponti and Luciana Festa acquainted or re-acquainted Trustees with current work pertaining to the conservation of the over 8000 ancient artifacts in the Academy’s care.

Sunday 29 May, Walk #17 (of 17): recent restored statuary from the extensive study collection housed in the AAR’s Norton-Van Buren Seminar Room

Conservation student Giovanna Montesano vacuums a late second century AD relief of the god Silvanus, formerly part of the famed Ludovisi collection

A Roman timber (complete with original nail) from one of Caligula’s ships once submerged in Lake Nemi awaits restoration in an AAR storeroom.

AAR Advisors Luciana Festa (left) and Gianni Ponti (pointing, at right) discuss plans for the cleaning of a togate figure in the entrance vestibule of the MMW building

For the Trustees who remained in Rome through the evening of Monday 30 May, there was a real treat in store: a shop talk at the AAR by artist William Kentridge entitled “Meeting the World Halfway: A Johannesburg Biography”. William Kentridge is currently the Roy Lichtenstein Artist in Residence at the AAR.

William Kentridge showed a recently completed film and talked about its various starting points in the history of his home town, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he still lives. He also discussed some current projects. The Friends of the Academy in Italy joined members of the AAR community to hear Kentridge’s presentation.

Monday 30 May: current Resident William Kentridge delivers a shop talk for the AAR community

The 2011 Rome annual meeting saw visits by over 70 Trustees and their companions, some staying on a few extra days for a group trip to Padua and (later) the Venice Biennale. In addition, there was also a visit from about a dozen members of the Academy’s International Council, a friends group chaired by AAR Trustee Suzanne Deal Booth. The International Council participated in many of the Trustees’ Week events, as well as enjoying its own dazzling itinerary.

Three days in late May—Wednesday the 25^th, Friday the 27^th, and Saturday the 28^th—see one of the Academy’s oldest and most consistently rewarding traditions, the annual presentation of work by current Rome Prize Fellows in the AAR’s School of Fine Arts.

On Wednesday 25 May (6-9 PM) the Academy’s Open Studios in the McKim, Mead & White building offer the public an opportunity to see the studios of the current Rome Prize Fellows in the fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, and Visual Arts. On Friday 27 May (6 PM) the Academy’s Villa Aurelia provides a spectacular setting for a Reading by the two Rome Prize Fellows in Literature. And on Saturday 28 May (this time at 9 PM), the Villa Aurelia again is the setting for a Concert with music composed by the two Rome Prize Fellows in Musical Composition. Reservations for these events are requested; please click here to RSVP for one or for all of these May evenings.

Here is a list of events and participants of AAR School of Fine Arts events for 2011:

OPEN STUDIOS (Wednesday 25 May, 6 PM-9 PM, McKim, Mead &White building, Via Angelo Masina, 5):

Dike Blair, Chuck Close Rome Prize

Casey Lance Brown, Prince Charitable Trust Rome Prize

Thomas Campenella, Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize

Felipe Dulzaides, Jesse Howard, Jr. / Jacob H. Lazarus-Metropolitan Museum of Art Rome Prize

Fritz Haeg, Garden Club of America Rome Prize

Ersela Kripa & Stephen Mueller, Founders Rome Prize

Giovanna Latis, Elsa Peretti Italian Affiliated Fellowship in Design

John Matteo, National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize

Jeremy Mende, Franklin D. Israel Rome Prize

Sarah Oppenheimer, Gilmore D. Clarke / Michael Rapuano Rome Prize

Mark Rabinowitz, Mark Hampton Rome Prize

Marco Raparelli, Italian Affiliated Fellow in the Arts

Laurie W. Rush, Booth Family Rome Prize

Joshua Stein, Marion O. and Maximilian E. Hoffman Rome Prize

Adrian Van Allen, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize

Karen Yasinsky, Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize

with participation by:

Jennifer Scappettone, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Post-Doctoral Rome Prize

Maintaining the Manship Fountain in the Cortile of the AAR’s McKim, Mead & White Building.  Photo: Star Black

READING (Friday 27 May 6 PM, Sala Aurelia of the Villa Aurelia, Largo di Porta San Pancrazio, 1):

Jay Hopler, Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, a gift of the Drue Heinz Trust/American Academy of Arts and Letters

Heather McGowan, John Guare Writer’s Fund Rome Prize, a gift of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman

Portraits of past Fellows (especially ca. 1914-1939) of the AAR’s School of Fine Arts in the Academy’s Bar. Photo: Star Black

CONCERT (Saturday 28 May 9 PM, Sala Aurelia of the Villa Aurelia, Largo di Porta San Pancrazio, 1):

Huck Hodge, Luciano Berio Rome Prize

Paul Rudy, Elliott Carter Rome Prize

One of the undisputed highlights of the Academy’s year in Rome is the 

Patricia H. Labalme Friends of the Library (FOL) Lecture. This year the lecture is dedicated to the memory of Christina Huemer, Drue Heinz Librarian Emerita, who served as a spirited leader of the AAR’s Arthur and Janet C. Ross Library for fifteen years (1993-2007), retiring just a few years before her untimely death on 12 November 2010. The thousands of artists and scholars touched by Chris Huemer’s learning, creativity and curiosity will remember her forever; a memorial service was held in in New York City on 3 February 2011.

The date of this year’s FOL lecture is Christina Huemer’s birthday, 24 May. Honoring Chris’ memory will be Professor John R. Clarke, RAAR’95, AAR Trustee and Annie Laurie Howard Regents Professor in The University of Texas at Austin. His topic? “The Story of the Villa ‘of Poppaea’ at Oplontis (50 B.C.-A.D. 79) and its Archives: Daybooks, Photographs, and Plaster Fragments.” Clarke’s lecture takes place Tuesday 24 May 2011 at 6pm 
at the Academy’s Villa Aurelia (Largo di Porta San Pancrazio, 1). 

Reservations are necessary by Friday 20 May; you can register here. On the evening of the event, please present your e-mail confirmation and a document of identification at the entrance of the Villa Aurelia.

The 2011 FOL lecturer John R. Clarke has taught at the University of Texas at Austin since 1980. His teaching, research, and publications have focused especially on the visual culture of ancient Rome, on art historical methodology, and on contemporary art and criticism. He has published seven books. Two of these appeared in 2007 alone: Looking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.-A.D. 250 (University of California Press) and Roman Life: 100 B.C.-A.D. 200 (Abrams).

In all, Clarke has published also about 80 articles, chapters, and reviews, including several deriving from the Oplontis Project, for which he is co-director. The Oplontis Project is a collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii and the King’s Visualisation Lab, King’s College, London. You can read about the Oplontis Project here.

The Villa “of Poppaea” at Oplontis, interior

Clarke served on the Board of Directors of the College Art Association (1991-2001), and was its President from 1998-2000. Since 2000 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council of Learned Societies, serving, since 2004, as Vice-Chair of the Board.

John R. Clarke. Photo credit: Kirk Tuck

The current Drue Heinz Librarian of the American Academy in Rome is Rebecka Lindau; the President of the Friends of the Library is Michael C. J. Putnam, FAAR’64, RAAR’70, AAR Life Trustee, and Emeritus Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Department of Classics, Brown University.

On Thursday 7 April 2011 the American Academy in Rome hosted a public program on “Science and Faith” in its Conversations That Matter series. Academy Director Christopher S. Celenza (FAAR’94. pictured above at left) discussed the interrelationship between scientific and religious inquiry with bestselling author Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, astronomer at the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). You can view the entire Conversation here; see also below.

The Conversation was followed by the opening of the exhibition Historical Instruments from the Collection of the Specola Vaticana in the Academy’s Gallery. The exhibition featured one of the world’s finest collections of historical instruments for observing the sky and identifying stars and celestial bodies. Contributing to the exhibition was Florence’s Museo Galileo, which loaned to the Academy a replica of a 1610 Galileo telescope, one that traveled in 2009 on the space shuttle Atlantis. The AAR warmly thanks Finmeccanica for its generous support which made this anniversary commemoration possible.

Full video (ca. 75 minutes) of the 7 April 2011 “Conversations That Matter” on science and faith

The Conversation and exhibition opening marked the first events in a week-long celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s demonstration and naming of the “telescope” on Rome’s Gianicolo hill (14 April 1611), on what is now the grounds of the American Academy, culminating in the Galileo Cabaret of 14 April 2011. The celebration received worldwide media attention, ranging from the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano to any number of North American news outlets. You can read Nicole Winfield’s Associated Press coverage of the AAR’s Galileo events here and see various images from the week here and here.

Highlights from the Galileo Week of 7-14 April 2011

Shortly before the 7 April Conversation at the AAR, Christopher Celenza explained to Carol Glatz of the Catholic News Service (CNS) how in April 1611 a small group of Renaissance scientists and scholars—such as the Jesuit Christopher Clavius, who helped devise the Gregorian calendar 40 years earlier—“gathered here to celebrate Galileo and the invention of what they termed at this meeting, the telescope. It was the first time the word telescope was used” to refer to the device Galileo had perfected in 1609 and started using to study the heavens. Celenza detailed how the guests at the 14 April 1611 looked through Galileo’s embossed leather telescope in an effort to see what he had been reporting—a number of celestial bodies circling Jupiter.

7 April 2011: AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza, FAAR’94, and Vatican astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ

Christopher S. Celenza

Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ

Audience at 7 April 2011 “Conversations That Matter”

Brother Guy Consolmagno underlined to the CNS the significance of Galileo’s unveiling the telescope on the Gianicolo: “this is the first time that science is done with an instrument. It’s not something that just any philosopher could look at. You had to have the right tool to be able to be able to see it,” because one’s own eyes were no longer enough. Just a few weeks after he demonstrated his telescope on the Roman hillside, Galileo was “feted at the Roman College by the Jesuits, who were really impressed with the work he had done. At this point, he had burst onto the scene as one of the great intellectual lights of the 17th century,” said Brother Consolmagno.

10 April 2011 broadcast: Morley Safer (CBS) interviews AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza

And shortly after the 7 April “Conversations That Matter” event, CBS on Sunday 10 April aired an episode of its 60 Minutes television show where host Morley Safer asked Vatican Library experts, including AAR Director Christopher Celenza, the same question: if the building was on fire, what would you save? You can see Celenza’s response here, and the full 15 minute feature on visiting the Vatican Library here.

10 April 2011 CBS broadcast:Christopher S. Celenza

“Conversations That Matter” is a public series that Director Christopher Celenza first instituted at the AAR in 2010. Here Celenza and one or more distinguished panelists engage with an audience on current issues that affect people across the globe. The first installment focused on technology and the media, with guests Vivian Schiller and Sylvia Poggioli from NPR.

For the next scheduled Conversation (Saturday 28 May, 4.30 PM) the theme will be “Cosmopolitanism.” Six current AAR Fellows will briefly discuss a text, a problem in their work or an image related to this concept as a prelude to a general audience discussion moderated by Christopher Celenza.

Featured in this Conversation are: Seth Bernard, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize; Stephanie Malia Hom, Lily Auchincloss Post-Doctoral Rome Prize; Ersela Kripa, Founders Rome Prize; Stephen Mueller, Founders Rome Prize; Stéphanie Nadalo, Marian and Andrew Heiskell Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize; and Barbara Naddeo, Paul Mellon/National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Rome Prize.

Audience seats are limited, and available by preregistration only (by Wednesday 25 May) at this address.

AAR Director Christopher S. Celenza, FAAR’94