Scholars discuss Italian Renaissance

They saw Florence. They saw Rome. They saw Renaissance underpants.

On Friday, 230 scholars from across the globe — and a handful of students — gathered at the Department of Art and Archaeology's Italian Renaissance City Symposium in McCosh 50 to discuss how art, architecture, sewers and breechesmake up cultural notions of civic identity.

"Those were some of the best images I've ever seen projected on a slide," history professor Anthony Grafton joked, "sewers really matter — so do underpants."

Grafton was speaking at one of the first lectures of the symposium, "Home from Home: Microcosms of Italian Cities in the Oltremare" delivered by Deborah Howard, chair of the art history department at Cambridge University.

Howard's lecture focused on the Italian presence outside of Italy, specifically in the Mediterranean, a presence facilitated through trade during the Renaissance period.

"Arab words infiltrated the everyday language," Howard said in her sprightly British pitch. "Merchants converted to Islam and sent for their wives. There was lots of intermarriage and blurring of cultural identity."

Nicholas Adams, a historian from Vassar College, spoke on how the theme of utopia was realized in architecture — above and below ground.

Architecture allowed Italians to strive toward civic perfection — not through the perfection of the structures themselves, he said, but in the constant improvements and innovative ideas they conceived.

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Adams used Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts as evidence. "Leonardo's notes include a social vision and a critique . . . combining artistic unity as well as urban need," he explained.

Renaissance architects treated water as an architectural and artistic challenge to play with. In his notes, da Vinci sketched a plan for a unified sanitation system in Milan — a necessity for the plague-ravaged city in the late 1400s.

'Enduring and timely interest'

Art and archeology department chair Patricia Brown, co-organizer of the event along with archaeology professor John Pinto, said the theme was chosen because it would bring together scholars from different disciplines.

"We hope to further the contribution to the dialogue during this conference," Brown said.

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She called the Italian Renaissance city a subject of "enduring and timely interest."

The topic drew only five undergraduates. But Grafton said that student apathy might not be the problem.

Princeton holds conferences "all the time," Grafton said. Yet, they are almost always geared toward "faculty, graduate students and faculty of other schools."

The conference, Grafton pointed out, was advertised widely at many universities around the world.

"But it wasn't on the University website," he said.

"We never assume that an undergraduate would materialize at one of these things," Grafton said. "We just don't think about it hard. They're taking a load of classes, doing something political and something artistic. It's not out of ill will and not out of lack of respect."

Grafton said the faculty's assumption is a "weird Princeton thing," though he said he'd be pleased if more undergraduates were to attend.

"We need to be reminded," he said of the interest of undergraduates.

Juan Lessing '05 found out about the conference through Pinto's class, ART 320: Rome, the Eternal City. Lessing, an Islamic art enthusiast, wanted to gain insight into the Renaissance, "to get some ideas," he said.

"This is a great resource," Lessing said. "I'm going to take advantage of it. Everybody from the University should do so as well. There are few students here. Maybe they'll come for specific topics, but if you're not interested you shouldn't come."

Only a few signs were posted around campus and pamphlets were sent through campus mail to Art majors.

Devon Wessman-Smerdon '05 said she likes the conference atmosphere, but understands how an undergraduate would feel like an uninvited guest.

"Students don't really think it's an option," she said, looking around to see colleagues shaking hands, giving hugs and chatting in German. "For them to go and mingle with these scholars, it's intimidating to be the only one."