Benutzerspezifische Werkzeuge

The reading seminar discusses recently published works or manuscripts that are largely complete. The texts are sent to participants in advance and then discussed together with the authors.

The controversial passages dedicated by classical sources to caryatids do not seem to correspond to the scant archaeological evidence known in the Renaissance period. Pirro Ligorio attempts in his Antiquitates to resolve the incompatibility between Vitruvius and material finds by theorizing the existence in Antiquity of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian caryatids, which he describes with eclectic antiquarian imagination. Ligorio’s syncretic approach is evident in the Stützfiguren of his Libro dei disegni (Turin, State Archive, ms. J.a.II.17, vol. 30) and his architectural decorations (Casino of Pius IV in the Vatican, Belvedere Apartment in the Vatican, Villa d’Este at Tivoli), all inspired by a variety of ancient prototypes, such as the caryatids of the Forum of Augustus (Roman copies of the central κόραι of the Erechtheion’s porch in Athens), the Dacian Prisoners of the Trajanic period and the Provinciae of the Hadrianeum buried in the pronaos of the Pantheon, which he misidentifies as the original caryatides in columnis templi recorded by Pliny the Elder. Moreover, he draws eclectically upon the Caryatid Façade engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi which, as a work of Raphaelesque matrix, assumes for Ligorio the same auctoritas as archaeological models.

Claudio Castelletti trained as a historian of early modern art at Sapienza University of Rome under Christoph Luitpold Frommel and at the École pratique des hautes études – PSL, Sorbonne, Paris, where he earned his doctorate in Histoire de l’art de la Renaissance under Sabine Frommel. He teaches Iconology and Iconography at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and sits on the scientific board of the journal  Horti Hesperidum. Studi di storia del collezionismo e della storiografia artistica. He is co-director of the inter-university research centre 3ARC – Ancient Art Architecture Reception Center (https://www.3arc-edu.it/), affiliated with a university departments and research institutes, including the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. He is scientific co-director of EgyLab – Laboratorio di ricezione dell’Egitto dall’Antichità greco-romana all’età contemporanea, established under the agreement between the Museo Egizio in Turin and the Department of Literary, Philosophical and Art Historical Studies of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He recently co-edited, with Giuseppe Bonaccorso, Le Marche e il mare. Arte, architettura, paesaggio (Genoa: Sagep, 2025), and, with Valentina Burgassi and Alessandro Spila, Ville e giardini della Tuscia nel Cinquecento. Storia, arte, architettura (Rome: Quasar, 2026). Together with Letizia Lizza he is currently editing Ercole tra mito, arte e letteratura (Pescara: Carsa), forthcoming. His research interests focus on sacred and secular iconography in the early modern age, on the visual interpretation of philosophical and literary sources and on the Nachleben of Antiquity in the Renaissance.

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Teilnahme am Lektüreseminar nur nach Anmeldung: seminar@zikg.eu. 
Das Seminar findet in englischer Sprache statt. // Participation in the reading seminar is by registration only: seminar@zikg.eu. The seminar will be held in English.