About this Travel Course
Course Description
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the engraver, was also a skilled architect, surveyor, curator, antiquarian and archaeologist, creating one of the first comprehensible visualized catalogs of roman antiquities. His apprenticeships to engineers, theatrical scenographers and muralists in his native Venice, unquestionably guided his imagination and acumen for the delineation and understanding of urbanism, architecture, landscapes, and the interpretation of artifacts of roman antiquity. The “art and mind” of Piranesi continues to capture the imagination of even the most accomplished artists who study in Rome and remains a pivotal luminary used to orient studious visitors to the Eternal City and its vast visual metaphors and allusions.
The course will cover Piranesi’s essential contribution to our contemporary understanding of antiquity while presenting a practicum in the very image-making techniques used by Piranesi in the field. Workshops, tours and lectures take place on the very sites of the artist’s own discoveries, many which are emblematic of the scholarly and artistic pursuits of the Grand Tour at the forefront in Europe during Piranesi’s life.
Course Objectives
- Understand the complexities of the Eternal City through the history of an equally complex figure whose name is synonymous with Rome of the 18th century - Piranesi’s continued relevance, scholarship, and legacy as an ambassador to art and design students in Rome within the numerous artistic practices he engaged
- Model and produce original work from Piranesi’s techniques of field drawing and building survey, vanishing point perspective, and other approaches of archaeological illustration and the drawing of cities and landscapes
- Visit and draw from the various streetscapes, landscapes and sites of antiquity through the eyes of Piranesi –visit and study from the archives, museums and archeological sites that are intrinsically linked to the life and work of Piranesi
- Participate in workshops and interpret assigned readings with experts on the work of Piranesi, the history of 18th c. image-making, urbanism, architecture, archaeology, cartography and the cultural geographies of the cities we will visit
- Comprehend Piranesi’s legacy on the role of “tourism” and dismantle the most superficial perceptions of Piranesi’s body of work and the places he depicted
- Provide a cultural and historical understanding of the locations where we live, present the traditions and trials of the people our students will encounter: Rome’s Jewish Ghetto; the occupants of Rome’s former “favelas” (Borgate) of the Roman Campagna, the “bassi” or low-dwellers of the Spaccanapoli and Sanita’ neighborhoods in Naples; and the inheritors of the peasant-agronomist traditions of the Cilento.
Housing
To participate in RISD Global Summer Studios, all students are required to stay in RISD- provided housing for the duration of the course. Students live and work at the RISD site in Rome, Palazzetto Cenci, a 16th-century building in the historic center, where RISD has housed its European Honors Program (EHP) since 1960. Dorms are double occupancy with shared bathrooms, kitchens and laundry. The Cenci also includes several spacious studios, computer facilities, a library and a lecture hall/exhibition gallery. During field trips, students will also be provided with shared accommodation.