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Distributed March 22, 2004
Contact Mary Jo Curtis

Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design will jointly present The Theater That Was Rome: 16th-18th Century Views and Maps, a simultaneous exhibition of objects from the collection of Vincent J. Buonanno, April 9 through July 11, 2004, at the RISD Museum of Art and Brown’s John Hay Library. In conjunction with the exhibit, Brown will host a symposium, titled “Rome in Print,” on Saturday, April 24, 2004, at the List Art Center.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University and The Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design are partnering to present a joint exhibition, The Theater That Was Rome: 16th-18th Century Views and Maps, April 9 through July 11, 2004, at the museum and Brown’s John Hay Library.

The dual-venue exhibition will feature a selection of views and maps of the Eternal City from the 16th to 18th centuries, all from the collection of Vincent J. Buonanno, a member of Brown’s Class of 1966. The displays will include rarely exhibited city maps, views and festival prints by such artists as Giovanni Battista Nolli and Giuseppe Vasi, as well as bound volumes of prints from Etienne Duperac to Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The RISD collection of 18th-century French drawings of Rome by Hubert Robert and his followers will be on display, along with Roman festival prints and architectural treatises from the collection of the John Hay Library.

“Together these rare and beautiful prints and drawings give us an idea of how Roman artists and publishers capitalized on the theatrical nature of Roman feats of architecture and engineering, religious processions and ceremony, and even the disposition of the city’s famous antiquities in the Early Modern period,” said Evelyn Lincoln, associate professor of the History of Art and Architecture and Italian Studies at Brown. This joint exhibition was organized by students in Lincoln’s graduate practicum, who have worked closely with Brown faculty and librarians and RISD curators and staff.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Brown’s Department of the History of Art and Architecture will present a symposium titled “Rome in Print” on Saturday, April 24, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the List Art Center, 64 College St. The panel of speakers will include Allan Ceen of Studium Urbis, Rome; Andrew Robison of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Francesca Consagra of the St. Louis Art Museum; and John Pinto of Princeton University. Following their discussion of Roman print publishing and urbanism, there will be a reception at the RISD Museum and extended viewing hours at both venues. The symposium is free and open to the public.

A world-class museum in Providence, R.I., The RISD Museum of Art, located at 224 Benefit St., was founded as part of Rhode Island School of Design in 1877. Its permanent collection includes paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, costume, furniture and other works of art from every part of the world, including objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome and art of all periods from Asia, Europe and the Americas, up to the latest in contemporary art. In addition, the Museum offers a wide array of educational and public programs. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and until 9 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, $2 for ages 5-18, and $3 for college students with valid ID. Admission is free 12 to 1:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month, and on Free-For-All Saturday (the last Saturday of the month). For more information, call 401-454-6500 or visit www.risdmuseum.org.

The John Hay Library is the repository of the special collections of the Brown University Library. It contains more than 2,500,000 items, more than half the library's total resources. Holdings range from Babylonian clay tablets and Egyptian papyri to books, manuscripts and ephemera. The Hay collections include some 300,000 monographs, 725,000 manuscripts, 500,000 pieces of sheet music, and 50,000 each of broadsides, photographs, prints and postage stamps, as well as more than 1 million archival files and records. Among the most notable holdings are the world's largest collection of American poetry and plays, one of the nation's finest history of science collections, an exceptional collection of Lincolniana, and an internationally known collection on military history. There are also important collections of incunabula, collections devoted to the writings of major individual authors – such as Poe, Thoreau, Zola and Blake – and manuscript and archival collections that offer research opportunities in a wide variety of historical and literary subjects. Located at 20 Prospect St., the library is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free, and the public is welcome. For more information, call 401-863-2146 or visit www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/libs/hay/general.htm.

For further information about the symposium, call (401) 863-3349.

Editors: Images from the exhibition are available upon request by contacting Guinevere Harrison at 401-454-6342. For other media requests, call Harrison or Mary Jo Curtis at 401-863-2476.

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