The Column of Trajan is a monument included in all major art history survey textbooks. The typical images provided in the slides and photographs connected to these texts have often proved quite insufficient in allowing for students to view the forms and details on the Column with much clarity. Ultimately, viewing this monument and teaching about it in a typical survey classroom can prove to be a frustrating and dizzying experience.
As a participant in an NEH Seminar on The Column of Trajan at the American Academy in Rome during the summer of 2006, I sought to excavate some of the very rich visual motifs from the tightly packed spaces and stacked compositional networks present in the column’s intrinsic design. By producing a series of watercolor sketches executed from very detailed photographs and from the plaster casts of the Column made by the French in the 19th century and installed in The Museum of Roman Civilization by Mussolini I aimed to reconnect with the original sculptors of the Column who reveled in the magical act of bringing their perceptual awareness of the most intricate details of the physical world into the creative realm.
Upon returning from Rome last year I used my 40 watercolor sketches to create a website on the Column that can be used as an educational tool in teaching students about issues of Roman history and art. I was quite amazed to see my own community college students during Spring semester 2007 discuss with informed intelligence and sincere enthusiasm Roman society and their art after they viewed the website. Video clips of an actual classroom discussion and interaction with the website will be viewed here as well attesting to the fact that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
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