Fare la Bella Figura: Mapping and Documenting the Vanishing Tradition of the Roman Frescoed Façade

FAIN: FT-278452-21

Alexis Culotta
Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, The (New Orleans, LA 70118-5698)

Archival research and fieldwork to document 16th century frescoed façades in Rome leading to the creation of an online database and article.

In early sixteenth-century Rome, a trend emerged in which illustrious patrons commissioned elaborate façade decorations in fresco and sgraffito. These cycles relayed a remarkable array of motifs and were celebrated in their day and even documented (albeit very sporadically) by artists. Today, only a fraction of these façades are still detectable along Rome’s streets. Before this legacy has completely disappeared, my goal in requesting the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend is to embark on a larger initiative to map these various decorated spaces as they once existed in Rome’s center to both chronicle this often overlooked aspect of Renaissance Roman artistic production and to investigate the themes and meaning of this fascinating practice more fully. The products of this chronicle will include a publicly available comprehensive virtual database of images and materials relating to these façades as well as publication draft materials on the topic.