Academy of Classical Design · News

Marking the 500th anniversary of his death, this symposium will consider the afterlife of Raphael’s achievement—in the words of the title of Robert Williams’ last book, the redefinition of art in Renaissance Italy. By bridging historical scholarship and contemporary practice, the symposium will mirror the artist’s achievement itself, which combined the study of antiquity with its revivification in modern art. The impact of Raphael’s achievement in art and architecture will be considered from his own century onward, concluding with thoughts about its relevance today and in the future. Attention will be given to the ways Raphael’s project became a pan-European phenomenon, sponsoring cross-cultural artistic development and the very idea of the academy and European academic art.

The speakers will address Raphael’s impact in his own and succeeding centuries, in Europe and America. The topic is meant to address the variety of impacts, and modes of engagement by his artistic successors, from imitation to emulation to invention. Emphasis will be placed on lesser appreciated aspects of Raphael’s achievement, and those aspects that were most adventurous.

Notre Dame’s Rome Global Gateway and the American Academy in Rome are co-sponsoring the event. The RGG and the AAR are uniquely positioned to address this theme, combining as they do the work of scholars and practicing artists and architects. The intention is to treat the theme as a conversation across the centuries, considering how the ways Raphael was perceived shaped his impact on artistic culture

Speakers:

1. Introduction, Prof. Heather Hyde Minor, Academic Director, University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway
2. Prof. Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame (live streamed from campus)
3. D. Jeffrey Mims, Academy of Classical Design (live streamed from campus)
4. Prof. Olivier Bonfait, Université de Bourgogne
5. Prof. Adriano Aymonino, University of Buckingham
6. Prof. David Mayernik, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture
7. Concluding Remarks, John Ochsendorf, Director of the American Academy in Rome, Professor MIT

The symposium will be filmed, and made available online; speakers will be interviewed as well on film.