Roman fountains are focus of UA's Campbell Art History Lecture at Akron Art Museum
From the often-filmed Trevi to Piazza Navona’s Four Rivers, fountains adorn nearly every square in Rome. There are some 2,000 of them, more than in any other city in the world.
Yet, these fountains are much more than beautiful works of art and popular tourist attractions.
Seen here is part of the Fontana del Moro in the Piazza Navona, which helped to transform Rome from a medieval backwater into the preeminent city of early modern Europe. (Photo by Katherine Rinne.)
On Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6:30 p.m., learn how technological and scientific developments in aqueduct and fountain architecture helped transform Rome from a medieval backwater into the preeminent city of early modern Europe. Dr. Katherine Rinne will present “From Renaissance to Baroque: Water and Fountains in 16th Century Rome” at the Akron Art Museum, One South High Street in downtown Akron.
The free lecture is part of The University of Akron's Catherine H. Campbell Memorial Art History Lecture Series, which brings prominent art historians to Akron each year for public lectures and to work closely with UA art students.
The late Catherine Campbell, a 1988 graduate of the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at UA, established the series that now continues in its 14th year through the generosity of her family and friends.
Rinne is a historian of Renaissance and Baroque architecture and urbanism as well as a practicing urban designer. She is adjunct professor in the department of architecture at the California College of the Arts and associate fellow at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia.
Author of the award-winning "The Waters of Rome — Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City," a pioneering study of the water infrastructure of Renaissance Rome, Rinne now directs the Aquae Urbis Romae project, an examination of the 3,000-year-old history of water infrastructure and urban development in Rome.
Her professional design work has focused on large-scale urban design and planning projects such as the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where she was a member of the design team. Her other major projects include the master plan for the secondary urban center at Kapolei, Hawaii; the Paramount Studios Master Plan; the Master Plan for the Superconducting Super Collider, and the Los Angeles Greenways proposal.
For more information on the Campbell Art History Lecture Series, contact The University of Akron’s Myers School of Art at 330-972-6030.
Media contact: Cyndee Snider 330-972-5196 or cyndee@uakron.edu.