Wanted to share some pictures of extra curricular activities: on their free weekend students went to Barcelona, Paris, central Italy and Rome. They organized a pasta bar night, a gondola ride, visited the grave of Joseph Brodsky, went to soccer games in Venice and Milan, a basketball game in Mestre (where they met an American player), battled to the death in the colosseum, and got a great shot of Venice from the air on the trip home. #romeonstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025

Sad to say goodbye to the Janterm students, they were an amazing group and I will really miss them, just put them on the watertaxis to the airport early this morning. Tears at departures are signs that you were in the presence of beauty. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025

At the Ca’ Rezzonico with the beautiful decline of Venice in our course on decadence. The rococo pomposity (at times witty and charming) glides gradually into satire of Venice and its failing aristocracy, above all in the painting of Gian Domenico Tiepolo and his world of satyrs and Pulcinelli. 18th century painting on the upper floor of the museum seems mainly to be a matter of luxurious nude women with titles that are hard to take seriously, like “pure love” or “vanity”, or with the names of famous historical or biblical heroines, surrounded by cupids taking awkward falls. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025

More from Scuola San Rocco. The Tintoretto paintings connect Old and New Testament scenes (e.g., the vision of Ezechiel and dream of Jacob paired with the resurrection and ascension) but at the same time suggest the plague with images of dead bodies and miraculous cures. The remarkable allegorical wood sculptures by Francesco Pianta run below them. His Mercury points at a scroll with explanations of the moral meaning of each of the figures in the room, from melancholy and curiosity, to honest pleasure and courage. But good luck reading the tiny letters he carved in the wood, my old eyes had to look it up online. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025

After a lecture on plague in the art of Venice we went to Scuola San Rocco, where Tintoretto did a cycle of paintings with biblical stories but with clear reference to the plague that had just occurred. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025

Explored the art and architecture in a few different spots and popped into the scuola San Marco, the medical museum, where I took a picture of the best Renaissance frontispiece for a guide to cranial fractures. #romeinstituteofliberalarts #smcjanterm2025