Microcosm Hadrian's Villa. An Artistic Interaction Space in 18th and 19th Century Europe

• Applicant: Dr. Cristina Ruggero
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 336598616

My research plan investigates some perspectives about the various, primarily artistic, receptions of Hadrian s Villa in Tivoli in the Early Modern Age in Europe and thusly differs from more traditional archeological approaches.The project deals with two fundamental aspects:1. It shall emphasize the importance of the Villa as an ancient microcosm and globalized territory, as a dynamic contact zone and artistic interaction space, all aspects that have largely been neglected in recent times. The exceptional experience made particularly by foreign visitors of the site through the interaction with an ancient, cultural context elicited (first of all from artists) various kinds of suggestions. These were elaborated and conceptualized in different ways during the period of the formation of a national consciousness in 18th and 19th century Europe.2. The reception and the change of meaning of mobile decorative elements, due to their recontextualisation from the villa onto private collections and museums, in Italy as well as abroad, will be analyzed.My project aims to provide a new reading of the cultural transfer and interaction set in place by the reception of Hadrian s villa, a process so far confined to one-sided reductionist approaches, whose focus has been the simple takeover of works of art and architectural ideas. I would like to argue that Hadrian s villa served as a cradle where cultural experiences and interaction constituted a common, European-wide base for a shared discourse about national cultural identities, and ultimately broadened the intellectual horizons of those individuals involved in the study, fruition, and appreciation of the villa. This reality contributed to the formation of specific, national ideas. The ruins of the villa should have functioned as a dynamic contact zone, where a cultural and transnational transfer of concepts and forms took place, which were eventually translated into nationally forged ideas of identity. The 18th and 19th centuries are therefore the timespan here taken into account.The research will be mainly focused on artists, architects and draftsmen. In recording, measuring, sketching the villa representations and notions results and impressions, aspects and opinions about the roman villa were transferred to their peers and beyond them. All that brings up following questions: What suggestions, associations and effects derived from such experience and how were they translated into practice once home? What messages have been handed down and elaborated through the adoption of the decorative elements removed from the roman site in new contexts. And how did it affect the concept of cultural nation and national identity in the 18th through the 19th century?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants