The Power of Place: a Festschrift for Janet Goodhue Smith, Edited By
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The Power of Place < < A Festschrift for Janet Goodhue Smith Edited by Robert Timothy Chasson and Thomas J. Sienkewicz Copyright © MMXII Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chicago i THE POWER OF PLACE Acknowledgements The printing of this volume was funded by a grant from the ACM Faculty Career Enhancement (FaCE) Project through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As editors of this volume we would like to thank, first and foremost, all the friends, colleagues, and former students of Janet Goodhue Smith who made this Festschrift possible. Their eagerness to contribute and their prompt attention to the many demands we placed on them are greatly appreciated. The staff of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest must be thanked for their advice and counsel in assisting us in writing a successful funding grant, and for their patience in answering our many and frequent questions. For such help we would like to express our gratitude to Chris Welna, John Ottenhoff, and Betsy Hutula. Heather Herriges of the ACM was of invaluable help to us in obtaining historical information about the ACM Florence programs and in many other ways. We would also like to thank the members of the FaCE Steering Committee who had the vision and the trust to fund this project. Andrea Crum, administrative assistant at Monmouth College, generously typed historical information and, especially, course descriptions for us, often under the pressure of time. For this we are very grateful. Stephanie Micetich and Pamela Poynter, of the Grinnell College support staff, provided essential technical assistance with digital images and electronic text files. This volume would not have seen the light of day without the constant help and advice of Diane Mockridge of Ripon College, who aided us not only in the grant-writing process, but also in the actual creation of the Festschrift. Our understanding wives, Anne Burkus-Chasson and Anne W. Sienkewicz, also merit mention for allowing us to devote hours of our time to this project. Anne Sienkewicz also did a yeoman’s job as proofreader. The editors, however, are responsible for any errors that remain. Robert Timothy Chasson Thomas J. Sienkewicz Picture Credits Sources for illustrations not given in their accompanying captions, or supplied by libraries, museums, or collections, are listed below for the contributors to this volume. Smith Abbott: Figs. 1-12. Art Resource, Inc., New York. Solberg: Figs. 1-18. For all works not in the public domain, permission has been requested from rights holders by the author. Printed by Woolverton, Des Moines, Iowa Graphic Design and project coordination by Art A La Carte, LTD, Newton, Iowa ii THE POWER OF PLACE TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword – Christopher Welna vi Preface Botticelli, Bureaucrats and Bankers: A View of Florence from Chicago – Elizabeth Hayford viii Biography of Janet Goodhue Smith xii Courses Taught by Janet Goodhue Smith xiii Teaching in Florence for Thirty-Six Years – Janet Goodhue Smith xv About the Contributors xvii Part I – Art History Lorenzo de’Medici and Poggio a Caiano: an Augustan Amgibuity of Purpose in Building – Edmund Burke 2 Theseus’ Lyre – Stephen Fineberg 15 A Revealing Omission in Alberti’s De re aedificatoria – Jeffrey Hoover 34 Alexandre Lenoir’s Tomb for Blanche of Castille – Mary B. Shepard 41 “Yankee Stonecutter” / Florentine Sculptor Thoughts on Revising our Model for Studying Expatriot Artists – Julia Sienkewicz 51 Teaching Hercules in Florence – Thomas J. Sienkewicz 65 “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”: Fashioning the Virgin in Renaissance Venice – Katherine R. Smith Abbott 77 Teaching Heaven, Hell, and Taddeo di Bartolo at San Gimignano – Gail E. Solberg 95 In the Margin: Meditations on Bernardino Poccetti – Robert Warde 117 iii THE POWER OF PLACE Part II – The City Janet Smith’s and Machiavelli’s Florence Then Back to the Future. –Salvatore Bizzarro 126 When “The Wild West” Went to Florence – William L. Urban 131 When Florence Was a Flood Plain – Robert Hellenga 139 Tuscany – Robert Hellenga 143 Part III – Italian Politics Enforcing Justice: The Controversial Case of Giuseppe Musolino – Susan Ashley 148 Italy’s Mediterranean Vocation – Robert Lee 157 The Contentious Path of the Italian Left, 1920-2010 – W. Rand Smith 174 Part IV – Literature and Literary Criticism Images from Italy – Robert Grafsgaard 186 “Worn Out Shoes,” a translation from Natalia Ginzburg’s Le Piccole Virtú – Virginia Hellenga 188 “My Poetry Won’t Change the World,” selected poems translated from Patrizia Cavalli’s Le Mie Poesie Non Cambieranno Il Mondo – Virginia Hellenga 190 A Holy Career in Early Modern Florence: TheVita of Maria Minima Strozzi di San Filippo Neri – Anne Jacobson Schutte 191 Four Poems – Nicholas Regiacorte 199 “Mixed Field Greens” and “At Madonna dell’Incoronata,” both translated from Fujj’ ammëšche, poems in Vastese – Nicholas Regiacorte 201 iv THE POWER OF PLACE Il Cuore Perduto – Sylvia Zethmayr Shults 202 Ut pictura, poesis: A Note on the Word Order in De Rerum Natura I. 99 – Daniel J. Taylor 208 Prudenza as Spectacle: Machiavelli, Cervantes, and Their Leading Ladies – Patricia Vilches 210 Inferno...and Beyond – Susan Warde 220 Afterword Janet Goodhue Smith’s Humanism – Diane Mockridge 222 Appendix Visiting Faculty for ACM Florence Programs 225 Visiting Faculty Courses for ACM Florence Programs 226 v THE POWER OF PLACE Foreword < < “The world is a book that demands to be read like a book.” intensely caring and boundless interest was not only – Umberto Eco intellectual. During the course of a semester, students typically experience misfortunes, both great and This book grew from a wellspring of admiration, small - from family tragedies back home to changes appreciation, and affection among faculty of the in personal relationships – and they always received Associated Colleges of the Midwest for Janet solace and comfort, as well as sensible guidance and Smith, who taught students to read the world in the encouragement, from Janet. Janet and her Florentine stunningly rich artistic and historic setting of Florence husband Giovanni – a fabulous cook, former and its Tuscan neighbors. The contributors to this restaurateur and dedicated supporter of his wife’s volume participate on behalf of their many colleagues passionate care for students and scholarship – have who have collaborated with Janet Smith over the past been generous hosts to generations of students and three decades, and in recognition of her distinctive the Florentine families with whom they lived. contribution to a pedagogy of place. The ACM faculty members who went to Florence Faculty from the ACM colleges – primarily in each year to teach as visiting professors in their fields the humanities and social sciences – sent their found in Janet an astute guide to the rich resources for undergraduate students to the off-campus programs teaching and research in Florence, as well as extensive in Florence, owned and operated jointly by the ACM wisdom on how to adapt their pedagogies from a colleges, to study with Janet Smith. She taught in campus classroom setting to teaching on site. They also or led the program for 35 years, from 1974 to 2010. found a savvy advisor on how to settle their families Charged with the onsite education of these students, into the routines and details of an Italian apartment Janet introduced some 2,500 students to the Palazzo and daily life, a helpful source of information about Vecchio, the Duomo, the Renaissance streets of schools for their children and, without doubt, a reliable Florence and neighboring Tuscan towns during her guide to Tuscan culinary pleasures. years with the program. ACM faculty themselves came For nearly all of these years, beginning in 1985, as well, spending a year or a semester as visiting faculty Janet collaborated closely in these efforts with her with the ACM’s Florence programs. colleague and fellow art historian, Gail Solberg. With As anyone who has spent any time on site with complementary teaching and scholarly approaches, Janet knows, she lives and breathes the art and history they shared passions for their subjects and their of this magnificent city and its environs, and this is students. the subtext to all her conversations. Walking through In an era when education is turning increasingly to Florence with Janet Smith is an illuminating experience: online instruction available to students who are located a walk on the street from the ACM program office anywhere, it is particularly interesting to consider the to a nearby trattoria always includes having one’s pedagogy of place that emerged in the career of Janet attention drawn to fifteenth-century legacies and Smith. Janet’s teaching showed that while one can hearing of their subsequent histories. Janet creates now bring in knowledge from anywhere - and she was for her companions, whether students or colleagues, delighted, for example, to gain access to JSTOR for a narrative envelope that is both intellectual and her students and faculty through the generosity of her affective, rich with the stories of the city’s treasures colleagues at Monmouth College – discovery is most and with her reflections on their meanings and origins. likely to occur in situ. To talk with Janet is to join the ongoing intellectual You might say that intellectual discovery “takes conversation she has carried forward in discussions place” at a site. Places provide “teaching moments” with generations of students and faculty from the or (teaching “sites”) where observation, information, ACM colleges. It is a marvel and a joy to experience. and reflection are married with direct experience, As any of Janet’s former students can tell you, her producing the opportunity to understand things that vi THE POWER OF PLACE would otherwise not be evident. Janet took ample the best liberal arts colleges, on their campuses and advantage of this to help students understand the their off-campus study programs, among many virtual revolutionary aesthetic developments of Renaissance opportunities for learning.