Shaping Spaces

Organized by
NYU Center for Ancient Studies
Columbia University Department of Art History and Archaeology

Supported by
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
NYU Department of Art History

Larissa Bonfante Workshop of Etruscan and Italic Arts
Shaping Spaces
Thursday, November 14 – Friday, November 15, 2024
Click here for the full schedule and further information

In ENGLISH

The shaping of space can be conceived by way of buildings and other physical means that altered, directed and carved the environment. It also involves far more (and more complex) processes bound to social, economic, religious, natural, conceptual, political and non-human actions and actors, which have shaped spaces in fundamental and transformative ways. With this year’s theme speakers are looking beyond some of the ruts the discipline faces when talking about urbanism, urbanization, proto-urbanism, an so forth, and they think in ample and critical ways about how constituent groups shaped space, and also, how spaces shaped them. In this year, as we think about space, we are also looking beyond the central regions of the peninsula, to the seas and islands that surrounded Etruscan and neighboring spaces.

Day 2
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
(24 West 12th Street)

Schedule:
9:00-9:15 AM
Coffee and Check-in
__________

9:15-9:30 AM
Introduction
John Hopkins (NYU) & Francesco de Angelis (Columbia )
__________

9:30-10:30 AM
Elisabetta Govi, Professoressa Ordinaria in Etruscologia, Università di Bologna
“Shaping a city in Etruria: the case study of Kainua-Marzabotto”
Nicola Terrenato, Ester B. Van Deman Professor and Director of the Kelsey Museum, Michigan
“’Zoning’ decisions in early central Italian urbanism”
__________

10:30-11:00 AM
Coffee break
__________

11:00-11:30 AM
Discussion
Clemente Marconi (discussant)
James R. McCredie Professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology; University Professor;
Director, IFA and University of Milan Excavations at Selinunte
__________

11:30 AM -12:15 PM
Maurizio Forte, William and Sue Gross Professor of Classical Studies, Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Duke University
“Rethinking the urban space with spatial technologies and AI: the case of Vulci”
__________

12:15-1:45 PM
Lunch break
__________

1:45-2:45 PM
Laura Maria Michetti, Professoressa Ordinaria in Etruscologia e Antichità italiche, La Sapienza
“Shaping Spaces between the City and the Sea. Caere and Pyrgi: an Etruscan City, its Port and maritime Sanctuary”
Steven Ellis, Professor, University of Cincinnati
“Bringing Volume to the Shape of Urban Space: A case study from the Punic-Roman city of Tharros, Sardinia”
__________

2:45-3:15 PM
Coffee break
__________

3:15-3:45 PM
Discussion
Francesco Cassini (discussant)
Lecturer in Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
__________

3:45-4:00 PM
Alexandra Carpino, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters; Professor, Comparative Cultural Studies
“Report on the American Fascicule of the CSE”
__________

For more information on each talk, including abstracts and registration links, click HERE.

Named after one of the leading Etruscologists of the 20th century, the Larissa Bonfante Workshop of Etruscan and Italic Arts is an annual gathering in New York City that focuses on the arts and architecture of Italy before and across the establishment of Rome’s political hegemony within the peninsula, with the aim of bringing to full fruition their potential for scholarly study. It interrogates the aesthetic, historical, and epistemological richness of the visual culture of Etruscans and all of Italy’s peoples in order to reflect on the current state of scholarship and identify new avenues of inquiry: Where does the study of Etruscan (and cognate) arts stand within the disciplinary landscape of Etruscology? And where does the study of Italic arts stand with respect to the questions and issues pursued by the broader fields of the history of art and visual studies as they have been developing in recent decades? Where is it going — and where should it go?

The ambition of the workshop is to advance our understanding of the artistic and visual dimensions of Italy before and in the midst of Roman occupation by promoting discussion and sustained reflection on their role within the field of Etruscan and Italic studies, but it does not prescribe a specific intellectual agenda. To address the aforementioned questions, it adopts an intentionally open-ended perspective and a multiplicity of formats: presentations of novel findings that invite us to reconsider our assumptions about art historical developments; case studies suggesting new methodological and theoretical approaches; surveys of past scholarship concerning both specific and general aspects of Etruscan art and the art of Italic peoples; re-examination of understudied artifacts; discussions of ongoing research projects, collective and individual, with a prevailing art historical focus; and so on.