I was lucky enough to spend my summer in Rome where I completed twelve credits over eight weeks. There, along side a group of 19 other Architecture and Interior architecture students, I was immersed in Italian life. We saw every ruin imaginable and learned to water color in the pantheon. Our studio focused on designing a center for immigrants coming into the country. My partner Honour and I chose to complete this studio using only hand media to practice our skills while being surrounded by inspiration.
Scavenger Hunt around Rome
For this assignment, we were given prompts hinting at important places around Rome.
The Fontana Della Tartarughe was the drawing I decided to present on. It was one of the 18 16th century fountains commissed under Pope Gregory XIII. This fountain specifically was different in that it was made for a private patron, Muzio Mattei, part of a family of bankers and politicians. It was originally going to be made of marble but was made out of the more expensive material of that time, bronze. It was originally to have dolphins, but the water needed to be pumped by gravity, so the dolphins were not added. Because there were no dolphins, the upraised hands had no purpose. The turtles were added in a 1658 restoration.
19. Prompt: True or False Perspective? This arcaded arch shows a forced perspective, optical illusion making the hallway look much longer than it is. It was made by Borromini. This site was interesting because it was one of the first optical illusions, I had really paid attention to. After drawing the Galleria Spada, it was easy to spot illusions all over Rome.
20. Prompt: Truth or Dare: put your hands in The Boca de Veritas is a sculpture that holds a myth of being able to tell if someone is lying or telling the truth. People are meant to put their hand in the mouth and if the sculpture bites you: you are lying. The sculpture was moved from its original location of Piazza Della Bocca Veritá to near the church of Santa Maria. I thought this statue was funny and silly to draw.
22. Prompt: Keyhole view of St. Peter’s Dome No one knows if the keyhole that perfectly frames the dome of St. Peter’s was intentional or a beautiful accident. It is located at Santa Maria del Priorato, built in the 18th century by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. In a city full of intentional construction and deep history, I like the idea of this view being a beautiful accident.
14. Prompt: Let there be light and Rain. The Pantheon opening was the first thing I saw in Rome that truly took my breath away. I could not believe how close it is to the studio we are working in and how it is one of the oldest buildings surrounded by modernity. I wish more buildings had beautiful openings like the pantheon.
7. Prompt: Russell Crowe was here! The Colosseum is the largest Amphitheatre ever built and continues to be the largest standing in the world. Russell Crowe was in the movie, the gladiator and has a silly selfie taken in the Colosseum. I cannot really comprehend that the Colosseum is about 2,000 years old. It is astounding to me. Seeing it for the first time gave me full-body chills.
10. Prompt: An elephant with a heavy load The Piazza Della Minerva is located right next to the Patheon. It is a Bernini sculpture made in the 1600s. This is definitely the site that has become the most familiar to me in Rome because of our media exercises and because it is close to common shopping and dining. This heavy elephant has become an important landmark for me.
2. Prompt: Bees Drinking! This Bernini fountain commissed in the 1600s was different from other Bernini public fountains in that it is much smaller and was meant to work as a trough for horses to drink from. The fountain has been moved, restored and uses bees as religious symbols.
3. Prompt: The first rounded temple in Rome since antiquity. The Temple of Hercules Victor was the very first site we visited as a group on our first walking tour. Although I deeply want to go inside of it, the fact that it is from the 2nd century BC is mind-blowing. On our walking tour, we learned that by analyzing its location in relation to the modern-day streets and river, we could see the change in elevation and how we have adapted over time.
1. Prompt: This boat sunk in middle of a piazza. La Barcaccia Fountain is located at the Spanish steps and is another Bernini fountain that was commissed in the 1600s. The reason the boat is “sunken” is because of the water pressure of the aqueduct. It had to be below ground level in order for it to flow properly.
My time in Rome told through sketches
This first sketch was done after visiting the Mausoleum of Augustus. I loved how the museum was organized and was really inspired by how they integrated a ramp as almost a sculptural piece of the museum.
I took pictures of this car on our first visit to our site. I liked the bright red and found that while simple, it was hard to get the proportions just right.
One of the very first weekends, a few of us decided to check out the closest beach to Rome, Lido di Castel Fusano. While on the 45-minute train there, I doodled, which then turned into a watch party for the people around me. I always find it so nice that something like a simple doodle can bring people together.
This sketch above was my test sheet when we first were taught to use a bamboo pen.
This sketch is of Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore. I tried to just draw the shadows to show the façade.
During our bamboo sketching day, we visited the Piazza Della Minerva which is right next to the Pantheon. This Piazza is a place we frequented, and I think it is interesting to see from right to left, how I gained control with the bamboo pen. The first sketch is detailed, containing much of the surroundings. The middle focuses more on the shadow and light of the piazza. The last on the far right shows the obelisk’s light and shadow without being too detailed.
On our field trip to Caparola, we visited Villa Farnese, Bagnaia – Villa Lante, and Civita di Bagnoreggio. Villa Lante was probably my favorite place of that trip. The gardens and organization were so serene. We were given time to sketch, and I painted the main fountain with watercolors. I then sketched my classmates around me and some abstract inspiration for my studio project.
This was a drawing I did on the way to a lake, during a free weekend. We decided that the lake was much more serene than the beach. A few of us began rating the different buses and trains we took. I was captured by how the transportation was designed. The intentional flow and capacity integrated into how the seats looked and felt, was something I was focusing on.
This is a sketch I did of my classmates and professors during our midterm review on the terrace.
I think this sketch of my professor captured his essence well.
This sketch was done after visiting the Borghese Gallery I did not end up water coloring the sketch because I liked the pen and pencil together better.
A quick sketch of a ruin at Pompei
I did this sketch while laying at the beach located at the hotel our group was staying at in Sorrento. This beach had me speechless at its beauty. I was here for most of our free day.
This first drawing I did after visiting the island of Capri. I loved the beaches and beautiful buildings on Capri.
On the boat ride to Capri, I did this sketch of a building built on a cliff, right in front of where the ferries left.
This is a sketch of the breakfast room at the hotel we stayed at in Sorrento. I had no idea continental breakfast could be so tasty!
Here is a sketch I did after renting a vespa in Sorrento and driving up and down the city, exploring. This was one of my favorite things I did this entire summer.
Piazza del Plebiscito is a central square in the center of Naples. We drew this building on our trip back to Rome. We recognized that it looked very similar to the Vatican.
After the Piazza del Plebiscito, we visited the Naples National Archeological Museum. I sketched these two heads and explored the museum. I loved the ancient Egypt collection most.
We took a trip and visited Ostia Antica which was a beautiful city of ruins and demonstrated well how every street leads back to Rome. Ostia Antica had well preserved housing units that showed what Pompei would have looked like and how close people lived together.
Basilica Sant'Andrea al Quirinale is an important example of Baroque Architecture, built by Bernini. The ceiling of this church was stunning. It was so fascinating to me how such masterpieces were everywhere I looked in Rome.
The up-close drawing of the exterior is one of my favorite sketches because of the detail and depth.
After visiting the Palazzo Barberini. We sketched the Spanish Steps. This was a hard drawing to complete because of how crowded the steps were with people.
Above is a sketch of an apartment in San Saba. We learned how these low-income housing units were designed with a small outside barrier between the street and entrance, providing privacy and making the units look nice.
This sketch was done while we were visiting surrounding buildings in Della Garbatella. I was so inspired by how the apartments we looked at were built on a hill and used a stair-like organization to give everyone their own entrance. I will use this method in my own projects and am shocked that it is not utilized everywhere. This was a great use of space to divide up housing and give people a yard.
We did a bamboo sketch of the Temple of Handrian in the Piazza di Pietra. This temple was dedicated to the emperor Hadrian. It had a small path that bridged over a gap, reveling the entire building below. This was a hard building to bamboo sketch because of how detailed it was. If I was to do it again, I would focus only on the shadows.
I wrote notes and sketches during our guest lecture by David Sabatello, about Zaha Hadid and the Maxxi. This was one of the best lectures I have had, and we are lucky to have had David with us before he passed away. He worked closely with Zaha and explained the way she designed and thought.
This sketch was done during our walking piazza tour. This one specifically was Villa Farnesina. I loved the way this villa created a serene spot within the city.
This is Basilica di Santa Maria located in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. This was the piazza that I presented on. This medieval Catholic church is appropriately located next to the oldest fountain in Rome.
The Piazza Spada contains the forced perspective by Borromini. This optical illusion is not as it seems. The statue at the end is only about 3 feet tall. Borromini used a tilted ceiling and floor to give the illusion that the hall is longer and further away than it truly is.
These sketches were done during our final presentation. I love to sketch my classmates and my professors. I think these capture the energy that was in the room that day.
While visiting Vincenza, we stopped to visit Pallado’s Basilica and sketch. The interior of this basilica was massive and looked like the inside of a wooden ship.
This statue sketch was done while we were visiting the Villa Almerico Capra Della la Rotunda. I wanted to draw something other than the façade, so I chose this statue that spoke to me.
These final sketches were done and the Tomba Brion, on our way to Venice. Done by the Architect Carlo Scarpa, this was probably my favorite building that we visited. The way Scarpa used light and shadow, with water, nature and hard stone, was unlike anything I have seen before. I enjoyed how he used windows to reflect the water onto the ceiling of the church. The places for meditation were a great way to bring new life into a place to celebrate old life.
The very first media exercise we did was going to the Pantheon and drawing a section and plan of the building. While we couldn’t stay inside for long, I was inspired by the golden light within. I used different shades of yellow to convey the depth of the building.
My summer studio project, which I completed with my project partner, Honour Colby
