The Sack of Rome in 1527 was a catastrophic event that marked the culmination of a period of political instability in Italy. On 6 May 1527 troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, many of whom were unpaid and mutinous, entered Rome and unleashed a brutal assault on the city. The imperial troops breached the walls of Rome and subjected the city to a wave of looting, violence, and destruction. Churches, monasteries, and private residences were ransacked, thousands of civilians were killed, and artworks or religious relics were stolen or destroyed. Rome's population was reduced significantly.
This seminar explores the profound impact of the 1527 Sack of Rome in the history of art in Early Modern Italy. Through a close examination of artworks, primary sources, and secondary literature, the seminar will investigate how this pivotal event disrupted the cultural hegemony of Rome, sent artists away from Roman workshops to new destinations throughout Europe, reshaped artistic patronage and collecting, and effected profound changes in visual culture generally. We will analyse the experiences of artists during the crisis, consider the looting and destruction of cultural treasures, and discuss how losses were memorialised in the aftermath of the Sack. Attention will be given to the question of how the Sack of Rome reflected broader tensions of the Reformation and exposed the fragility of humanist ideals.
This seminar invites students to engage with the effects of exile and political crisis by considering a tumultuous event that wrecked havoc on a major artistic capital.
Hausarbeit
Die Veranstaltung wurde 2 mal im Vorlesungsverzeichnis SoSe 2025 gefunden:
