Art History 348 - SEMINAR: IN THE MUSEUM

Topics course This museum-based seminar focuses on a collection of photographs of the ancient ruins of Rome collected by Caroline Sturgis Tappan (1819-88). These photographs are paired with Piranesi prints from the Yale Art Museum for the fall 2016 Smith College Museum of Art exhibition When in Rome? Student research in this seminar contributes directly to exhibition planning. We analyze the photographs in relation to scholarly work on tourism and the grand tour, as well as on the ancient monuments themselves and also delve into 19th-century guidebooks and depictions of Rome in contemporary fiction from Henry James's Daisy Miller to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Marble Faun to see what such juxtapositions of text and image may reveal. Enrollment limited to 12.

Topic: When In Rome...Smith's Tappan Photograph Collection and 19th-Century Tourism. Instructor permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores