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As every year, we hold classes in the former Roman College. This year the students spent their summer discussing texts in either a classroom decorated by Andrea Pozzo or another decorated by Guillaume and Jacques Courtois. Here are some pictures of the the Courtois brothers room, known as the Prima Primaria. I bet the pictures can be distracting during a tough Hegel reading sometimes, but just being in such places gives students a daily chance to reflect on the history of Rome and on different ways of living from the times when the room was made. It opens them up, I think, and it’s definitely easy on the eyes. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #sjc #uta

We said our goodbyes last night to the summer group.😢. Thanks to the people who sent these pictures. I threw in some other pictures from trips they did recently and a couple from earlier this summer. All these students worked really hard and learned a lot, but I think they also had a great time and made friends. I will miss them. ❤️ #romeinstituteofliberalarts #uta #sjc

Caravaggio day! In the last week of the program we do a lecture and full day excursion to see all his paintings in churches in Rome, and to the Galleria Borghese, which has the largest concentration of them anywhere(by now we have also already seen all the other Caravaggios in various other Roman museums). A great trip, but it’s starting to get sad because the students will leave me. Not only Caravaggio pictures in this post, in addition a racy picture of the Gyges story by Dosso Dossi, and a portrait by Caravaggio’s teacher, Savoldo. Plus a bunch of pictures from an unofficial trip to the Brazilian Embassy/Palazzo Pamphili, with stories from the Aeneid by Pietro Cortona. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #sjc #uta

Two Borromini staircases, plus Pietro da Cortona’s massive ceiling fresco in Piazza Barberini, plus a day in Naples. This is the second to last week and students have had to push through an historic heat wave. (They are not lying down in the picture because of heat exhaustion but because it’s the only way to see the whole fresco.) #romeinstituteofliberalarts #uta #sjc

In Siena we went to the usual places, the Palazzo Pubblico and the Duomo, but also went to the wonderful collection of mostly Northern European paintings in Santa Maria Della Scala. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #uta #sjc

Lorenzetti’s fresco of Good and Bad Government and its dancing figures is a good way to understand the origins of modern political life in communes like Siena. It’s perfect for the class we do on politics as well as the other one on aesthetics/art. The whole city works that way for us. But piazza del campo itself is also a great place to contemplate the whole thing and for other dancing. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #sjc #uta

Taddeo Zuccari’s room of the Farnese deeds at Caprarola. We breezed past a lot of the history in the villa because there’s just so much, and it’s not all of existential importance. But the painting is fantastic and the Farnese are fascinating. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #sjc #uta

Fun in Caprarola, we had a long day, first in Orvieto and then on to the out of the way gem of mannerist architecture and painting. The gardens were such a pleasure that even though everyone was completely exhausted I saw many smiles at the end of the day. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #uta #sjc

So much this week: we went to some ancient churches in Rome (Santa Costanza, Santa Maria Maggiore, and Santa Prassede), and took a trip to the countryside to Orvieto. Lunch not pictured here, but was pretty good. 😁💪 #romeinstituteofliberalarts #sjc #uta