Università Roma Tre

History of collections and the museum in Rome from the eighteenth century to the present. Study cases

The process of transforming private collections into museum institutions from the papacy of Clement XI to the Napoleonic period will be retraced, focusing in particular on the events of key museum institutions: the Vatican Museums and the Capitoline Museums.
Through focused conferences and visits will be analyzed the conservative politics, the birth and identity of public collections such as the National Galleries Barberini and Corsini or the Galleria Spada.
the key problems will be:
a) the birth of museums between the 18th and 19th century
b) the history and main features of the major museums of old masters and contemporary art
c) the current debate on museums: forms of display, new publics, forms of narrative and dissemination of knowledge

Exam program

To pass the exam, the student must demonstrate that he has studied extensively:

1) at least one of the following texts:

M.T. Fiorio, Il museo nella storia. Dallo “studiolo” alla raccolta pubblica, Milano, Mondadori, 2011

S. Costa, D. Poulot, M. Volait ( a cura di), The period rooms : allestimenti storici tra arte, collezionismo e museologia, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2016

P. Bourdieu-A. Darbel, L’amour de l’art. Le musées d’art européens et leur public, Paris, Édition de Minuit, 1969 (trad. it. L' amore dell'arte : le leggi della diffusione culturale : i musei d'arte europei e il loro pubblico, Rimini, Guaraldi, 1972)

2) at least 2 of the following texts:

I. Sgarbozza, Le spalle al Settecento. Forma, modelli e organizzazione dei musei nella Roma napoleonica (1809-1814), Città del Vaticano, Edizioni Musei Vaticani, 2013

P. Nicita, Musei e storia dell'arte a Roma. Palazzo Corsini, Palazzo Venezia, Castel Sant'Angelo e Palazzo Barberini tra XIX e XX secolo, Roma, Campisano 2010

Ritratto di una collezione. Pannini e la galleria del cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, catalogo della mostra, Mantova, Palazzo Te, 6 marzo - 15 maggio 2005, a cura di R. Morselli, R. Vodret, Milano, Skira, 2005

In addition to what is indicated here, the non-attending student will have to choose two other texts:

M. Ferretti e A.Buzzoni, Musei, in Capire l'Italia. Il Patrimonio storico-artistico, TCI, Milano 1979, pp. 112-131

F. Haskell, The ephemeral museum. Old master painting and the rise of the art exhibition, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2000 (trad. it. La nascita delle mostre. I dipinti degli antichi maestri e l’origine delle esposizioni d’arte, Milano-Ginevra, Skira, 2008