Antiquity in Rome from the Renaissance

Press Release

Images of Ancient Rome Explored at Hood Museum of Art

Hanover, NH—Between 1400 and 1750, the treasures of ancient Rome were excavated from beneath the city's pastures and hills, revealing the architecture, sculpture, and artifacts that have since become synonymous with the Eternal City. Before this era, many classical sites lay in ruin, while others had been incorporated into Christian churches or city walls. Over the centuries, enlightened patrons, progressive artists, and humanist scholars consciously strove to revive classical philosophy, literature, and art. The discovery of Rome's antiquities served as the perfect inspiration for their efforts. Antiquity in Rome from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment: Selections from Dartmouth's Collections, a new exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art, highlights some of the results of those efforts as they are reflected in paintings, sculptures, prints, and illustrated books from Dartmouth's collections. On view from July 7 through September 9, 2001, this exhibition records observations and reconstructions of classical antiquities that were based upon the firsthand experiences of artists who visited and worked in Rome. These images were collected, studied, and exchanged by both travelers and residents interested in promoting the greatness and glory of ancient Rome.

An opening lecture on Friday, July 20th at 4:30 pm will be delivered by Nicholas Penny, Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and Senior Curator at the National Gallery, London. Penny will present "Imitation of Antique Sculpture: Canova and His Predecessors" in the Arthur M. Loew Auditorium at the Hood Museum of Art.

During the period explored in this exhibition, the classical monuments in Rome became an essential stop on the itinerary of every promising painter, sculptor, and architect. Their impressions led to fantastic reconstructions and inspired them to recreate and even to surpass the splendors of the past. The Campo Vaccino (1745­53), an etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, romanticizes the architecture of Rome through depictions of such crumbling monuments as the Colosseum and the Temple of Vespasian set in the midst of the eighteenth-century city. Evocative sculpture such as the marble fragment of a second-century Roman sarcophagus, Eros with Nereids and Tritons (140­160 CE), inspired a renewed interest in depicting the pagan gods of antiquity, as seen in Andrea Mantegna's passionate engraving Battle of the Sea Gods (about 1470). Through their efforts to recreate the glory of the past, these artists sought to revive the legendary greatness of Rome and make their own mark on the Eternal City.

Highlight

Featured in this exhibition are two recently conserved, late-eighteenth-century prints by Giovanni Battista Piranesi from the Hood Museum of Art's collection. Each print measures more than ten feet in height, placing them among the largest etchings ever produced. These works originally appeared as part of a series of thirty-four images that Piranesi published between 1774 and 1778 that were devoted to the three second-century imperial columns erected in Rome. Reflecting Piranesi's unique combination of remarkable imagination and a thorough practical understanding of classical architecture, these prints are on display for the first time since they were acquired in 1948.

Exhibition Catalogue

Antiquity in Rome from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment: Selections from Dartmouth's Collections is accompanied by an eighty-page illustrated catalogue that explores a variety of the intellectual and artistic interpretations of Rome's classical monuments and antiquities produced from the fourteenth through the late eighteenth centuries and considers them within the context of the city's cultural, political, and social history. In addition, the catalogue illustrates significant objects in the permanent collections or on extended loan to the Hood Museum of Art and Dartmouth College. The catalogue includes essays by T. Barton Thurber, Curator of European Art, and Adrian W. B. Randolph, Associate Professor of Art History, that synthesize recent scholarship and explore the themes and issues presented in the exhibition.
(c) Hood Museum of Art All images are for personal education use only. All rights to the reproduction of these images are reserved. Images may not be reproduced in any format without prior approval of the Hood Museum of Art.