Museums, Meetings, and More to do...

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Monday, we received our new project statement for the next part of our studio project. We’re designing some temporary studio housing for visiting artists on part of our urban renewal site. We are adding the housing onto a partially demolished building, creating a new façade for the building. There are some interesting issues that we’re going to have to deal with.

Today, for Art and Culture of Italy, Emilio took us to Palazzo Massimo (the museum that we couldn’t go to last week because of the strike) and the Baths of Diocletian. The Archeological Museum at Palazzo Massimo had a variety of work: ancient Roman coins, mosaics, tons of busts, and lots of statues of emperors and from some of the villas. There is even an ancient copy of the famous Discus Thrower. Not only was the art amazing, but the palazzo itself was beautiful.

One of the more interesting exhibits that was at the museum was located at the very bottom, in the crypt. The exhibit was of all the things that were found in the crypt, including the body of a young woman. I’m not a big fan of seeing preserved bodies, but the jewels and things that were buried with her were gorgeous.

We spent almost all of the four hour class at Palazzo Massimo, so when Emilio saw that we were all exhausted and ready for lunch, he promised that the tour of the Baths would be short. The Baths of Diocletian was built around 300 AD. As with all the baths that we’ve seen so far (like in Pompeii, Ostia, and Hadrian’s Villa), there is one main structure which is divided for baths of various temperatures. (I am taking advantage of this entry and using it as a chance to study for my upcoming mid-semester texts next week). There were cold baths called “frigidarium”, usually located toward the north to avoid sunlight; the “calidarium” were the hot baths, located towards the south to take advantage of the natural sunlight to help to warm the baths; and there were baths in which the temperature was somewhere in between, called “tepidarium”.

We didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the Baths of Diocletian; Emilio just showed us a few things that he thought were necessary. At one point, the Baths had been turned into a sort of basilica, so we viewed a cloister that had been created then. The cloister is rumored to have been designed by Michelangelo. The Baths now house a museum that is part of the National Roman Museum (Palazzo Massimo another one of the four features of this, which is why we had to fit so much into one day), so we also walked through the museum.

Tonight, we had a meeting with the Italian architecture students are Roma Tre. We sort of have an exchange program with Roma Tre, where they send students to the U of A to study with us. Since we have our own center here in Rome (and it’s not a requirement for us to speak Italian when we come here), we don’t study with the Roma Tre students. Davide thought it would be a good idea if we all got together though, to meet the students and to see their school. They have a much larger architecture program than we do; I think that there are about 2,000 students in their program right now. Usually we have between two and four visiting students, so not a lot of them come to Arkansas. We did meet one girl who was thinking about coming soon though, and we were also able to meet up with some of our friends who had already come to the U.S.

The building that Roma Tre is using as their school was an abandoned slaughterhouse. It was interesting to see the changes they had made. The way that their program is set up is very different from ours. Though we both have open work environments, they are not given individual space to work. They come in, find a space for the class, and then take all their stuff with them when they leave. I guess they work at home a lot, which we are encouraged not to do. Anyway, it was a pretty nice evening.

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Photos

Roman Bust
One way to date the busts is by the hairstyle. Different hairstyles are associated with different periods which are referred to by the emperor of that time. I'm afraid I haven't quite learned all the styles/times/emperors yet.

Roman Emperor
I believe this is Harian...

Early image of Jesus
In some of the earliest images of Christ, he is shown with a wand (Moses is also shown with a wand). It signifies the working of a miracle, like here, where Jesus is raising Lazareth from the dead.

Comments

[Curious]

So, Roma Tre doesn't have the cute homemade computer armoirs spread out over their studio? Where do they play computer games?