Art and Architecture of Early Modern Venice: Research and Reconstruction

Professor Kristin Lanzoni taught "The Art and Architecture of Early Modern Venice" course to Macalester College art history students in the Spring of 2010. Using plans, elevations, paintings, and prints of now lost sixteenth-century Venetian monuments, groups of students recreated the exterior and interior appearance of three different ecclesiastical spaces with the architectural program, Google Sketch Up. Perusing seventeenth-century guidebooks and descriptions of the artwork contained in the interior spaces, students tracked down those paintings and sculptures now scattered in various museums, churches, and collections and placed them into this recreated setting. The result is the ability for “visitors” to visualize and experience historically important early modern architectural monuments that would otherwise be inaccessible to viewers.