Roma Magnificenza
by Bruce M. White.
Visitors to the Michael C. Carlos Museum can be transported virtually to Rome during an exhibition that runs through mid-November. Antichità, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome is a display of the maps, views, and books of Rome from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
The exhibition’s title refers to the themes of each era: “Antichita” is the 1561 reconstruction of the ancient city and features a sixteenth-century map that is part of the Carlos’s collection as well as rare book collections from the Emory Libraries. “Teatro” highlights images from a 1667 map of Rome. And “Magnificenza” takes an archaeological view of the city and its ancient monuments. Visitors to Rome on the grand tour in the eighteenth century purchased the prints as souvenirs of their journeys.
The exhibition uses gaming technology to allow visitors to experience a seventeenth-century view of “virtual Rome,” based on the bird’s-eye view map of artist Giovanni Battista Falda, published in 1676, which includes the fine detail of more than three hundred etched views of the city by Falda.
Visit the Carlos Museum website to see the full schedule of related educational events.
