The Gaze of Time. The Roman Forum in the modern age

The Temple of Romulus at the Roman Forum opens again to the public with a new temporary installation designed as a historical introduction to the actual archaeological visit to the Forum.

The exhibition The Gaze of Time. The Roman Forum in the modern age infact, curated by Alfonsina Russo, Roberta Alteri, Alessio De Cristofaro, offers, on the one hand, a wide series of iconographic testimonies in copy or digital - drawings, prints, paintings, photographs, films - on the other, a small collection of objects linked to the culture of the Grand Tour and the daily life of those who lived and worked in the Roman Forum - prints, paintings, models, books, micro-mosaics, fans, scientific instruments - which take us back to bygone eras. At the centre of the exhibition is therefore the narration of the history of the Roman Forum understood as a landscape between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, with some fundamental themes such as the rediscovery of the Ancient during the Renaissance, but at the same time also the use made of it in that period, that is, as a quarry of materials for modern Rome; or as an idealized classical landscape and as a rural space (e.g. Campo Vaccino); or even the Grand Tour and the interest of antiquity scholars; the first scientific studies and landscaping projects for the area; finally the political use of space during the era of nationalism and in the mass civilization of the contemporary world.

The exhibition thus reminds us that the Roman Forum as it presents itself to visitors and tourists today is the result of the appearance it took on starting from the years of the Unification of Italy, after a long series of excavations, while this area before the more recent excavations and settlements, it was on the edge of the city and resembled a semi-rural landscape with convents, vineyards, stables and activities, first of all that of the marble workers, loved and celebrated for this very reason by travelers and scholars from all over Europe.

The installation is accompanied by a program of guided tours and conferences on some of the themes represented, starting in January.