Rome and the Arts of Power

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The course traces the interlocking histories of the city of Rome, its rulers, its buildings, and the wider world from Antiquity to the birth of the modern Italian state. The organizing question is that of power: how do individuals and states gain it, and how do they express it in concrete terms—in this case, in the fabric of a city, in its buildings and artistic spaces? Rome has provided a model for the articulation of political power (whether republican or imperial) from pagan times to the rise of the Catholic Church, from the age of absolutism to the age of revolutions—an age in which, it could be argued, we continue to live. Topics will include the ideologies and architecture of the ancient Republic and Empire; the transformations of Christian Rome; the urban fabric of Rome from the Renaissance to the Baroque; and the reactions to and reappropriations of Roman ideals by revolutionaries, Fascists, and modern urban reformers from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The course includes a trip to Rome over spring break with class visits and presentations. Students will write a short paper on an ancient or early Christian monument and then undertake a longer research project on a post-medieval Roman building, topographical site, or interior space in its historical and political contexts, on which they will present their findings both in Rome and in a final research paper.