Roma Caput Mundi
Renaissance Book Club: The Renaissance in Italy, A History. Kenneth R. Bartlett & Gillian C. Bartlett (Part Four)
The populist zeitgeist of today is in no mood to worship any form of luxurious aesthetic trickery. The seductive world of advertising, the art market, pop music, cinema, and the mass media are all regarded suspiciously. There’s a grim search for deception always lingering in the atmosphere. If the source of power and patronage is perceived as corrupt, then the art will be, too. Unsurprisingly, it’s not a great time for art and culture. But a spirit of aestheticism will return when the zeitgeist is ready (we must hope).
Perhaps out of a desire to imagine better days, I’m focused on periods of rebirth. So, let’s get back into it. Our question is this: Why did the people in this time and place, the Renaissance in Rome, create great art and culture?
Today, Rome is a magnificent monument to past periods of being the Caput Mundi, the capital or head of the world - Ancient Rome and the Roman church. This status as the capital of the world now resides temporarily in Washington amid all the Neo-classical architecture - surely a visual statement of purpose from the American Republic’s Romanophile founders.