Virginia & Ira Jackson Endowed Lecture | Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Trajan’s Rome
Date & Time
Location Main Campus | Kinder Building
Drop off at Kinder Building
Email Your Questions [email protected]
Virginia & Ira Jackson Endowed Lecture | Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Trajan’s Rome
Date & Time
Location Main Campus | Kinder Building
Drop off at Kinder Building
Trajan’s Rome fascinated artists long after the emperor died, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) was one of them. Lauded as one of the most prolific and noteworthy artists of 18th-century Europe, he created more than 1,000 prints, and often took Rome as his subject. In this talk, Heather Hyde Minor examines Piranesi’s careful study of Trajan’s contributions to the city, including the monumental column wrapped in sculpture to tell the story of the Dacian War.
This lecture, funded by the Virginia and Ira Jackson endowment, is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times. A selection of Piranesi’s prints is included in the exhibition and is illuminated in this lecture.
Plan Your Visit
- This program is included with Museum admission.
- This lecture takes place in Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The exhibition is located on Level 1 of the Beck Building.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
About the Speaker
Heather Hyde Minor is a professor of art history at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in early modern Italy’s artistic and intellectual culture. She has authored and edited four books—including Piranesi Unbound (2020)—and co-curated the exhibition Piranesi on the Page at Princeton. Her current projects include a biography of Piranesi and studies on Rome’s printed maps and antiquarianism.
About This Series
Virginia and Ira Jackson created an endowment in 1998 to fund an annual lecture at the Museum on the collecting and connoisseurship of prints and drawings. Free and open to the public, the Virginia and Ira Jackson Lecture is now in its 28th year, and is the only program of its type in the United States.
Email Your Questions [email protected]
“Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” is co‐organized by StArt and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Lead foundation underwriting is provided by:
Major support is provided by:
Jerold B. Katz Foundation
Generous support is provided by:
The Favrot Fund
M. D. Anderson Foundation
Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta
Consulate General of Italy in Houston and The Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles
This MFAH lecture receives generous funding from the Virginia and Ira Jackson Endowment Fund.
Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; the Claire & Theodore Morse Foundation; the Junior League of Houston, Inc.; and additional generous donors.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.