U.Va. Art Museum to Host Saturday Tour by Michael J. Waters on Aug. 27

August 16, 2011 — Guest curator Michael J. Waters will lead a Saturday Special Tour of the University of Virginia Art Museum's new exhibition, "Variety, Archeology, and Ornament: Renaissance Architectural Prints from Column to Cornice," on Aug. 27, from 2 to 3 p.m. 

The exhibition reevaluates the role of ornament and a series of single-leaf architectural prints in the development of the concept of the five orders of architecture between ca. 1515 and ca. 1550.  It demonstrates the crucial role such prints played in the transition from manuscript to printed architectural treatises during the 16th century, thus defining Renaissance architecture and fixing the image of antiquity down to the age of the Enlightenment.

Waters, a Ph.D. candidate and Erwin Panofsky Fellow at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and Cammy Brothers, associate professor of architectural history in the U.Va. School of Architecture, co-curated the exhibition.

Waters is working on a dissertation about materials, materiality and "spolia"" – the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments – in Italian Renaissance architecture in addition to continuing his research on 16th-century drawings and engravings of architectural details. Last year, he was a pre-doctoral fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and has also received fellowships from the Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation and the Getty Research Institute.

The U.Va. Art Museum offers its Saturday Special Tours on the third or fourth Saturday of every month from 2 to 3 p.m. These tours offer the opportunity to join faculty, curators and scholars as they explore a variety of focused topics related to museum collections and exhibitions.

The tours are free and open to the public. For information, call 434-243-2050 or e-mail museumoutreach@virginia.edu. The museum is located at 155 Rugby Road, one block from the Rotunda.

— By Jane Ford

Media Contact

Jane Ford

U.Va. Media Relations