Antiquity in Rome: From the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment

Inspired by the discovery and excavation of ancient Roman treasures, patrons, artists, and scholars from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries strove to recreate the legendary greatness of classical Rome in paintings, sculptures, and on paper. The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College's collections are rich in such representations imparting the spirit of the architecture, mythology, and antiquities of the Eternal City. This illustrated catalogue considers a selection of vivid and imaginative Renaissance and Enlightenment artistic and intellectual interpretations of Rome's classical monuments and antiquities in the context of the city's cultural, political, and social history. In the tradition of sophisticated curatorial thinking at the Hood, the thematic grouping of the pieces suggests a highly nuanced approach to issues of place, memory, status, iconography, aesthetics, and historical imagination. Essays by T. Barton Thurber, "Survival and Revival of the Classical Tradition: Antiquity in Rome from the Baroque Era to the Age of Enlightenment", and Adrian W. B. Randolph, "How Great Rome Was the Ruins Teach': Antiquity in Renaissance Rome", provide general overviews of the circumstances inspiring the featured representations of Rome. Introduction by Derrick R. Cartwright; bibliography.