Q&A: Alexis Culotta on Renaissance Rome, digital humanities and the I Tatti Fellowship

Alexis Culotta, senior professor of practice in the Newcomb Department of Art in the School of Liberal Arts (SLA), was recently awarded a fellowship by I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Culotta will travel to Florence to expand her scholarship on the frescoed and sgraffitoed facades of homes and other buildings in Renaissance Rome. The once-vibrant features of Rome's streetscape now survive only in fragments - traces in deteriorating plaster, partial drawings, prints and texts. Through her work with I Tatti and the Saving Faces database of more than 200 sites, Culotta combines art historical research with geospatial and digital humanities tools to create a publicly accessible digital archive that reconstructs and reconnects this urban visual culture across the Italian peninsula.

What does receiving this fellowship mean to you?

I'm honored to receive this fellowship. It's highly competitive and validates the time and effort I've invested in researching a field that has received relatively little scholarly attention. I'm also excited to receive support for the digital component of this project because it will allow me to accelerate the public release of this resource and, I hope, inspire others to explore the field.

The fellowship will also help expand use of the Artistic Network Toolkit (ANT), the digital humanities platform I developed with Tulane computer science professor Aron Culotta. ANT is designed to make network visualizations more accessible to humanities scholars. In that sense, the fellowship is a win-win because it advances both my digital humanities work and my art history research.

What drew you to the study of Renaissance Rome's streetscape and visual culture?

This project traces back to my early graduate studies, when I examined the working relationships of Renaissance artist Raphael and the network of artists who contributed to his early 16th-century brand. Among them were artists who specialized in painted building facades, and I found their work fascinating because it remains so relatable today. Much like people use faux finishes to suggest status or luxury in their homes now, Renaissance artists used plaster to create elaborate scenes filled with historical, mythological, religious and political references.

As I explored these works, I realized they had received very little scholarly attention. That research became the foundation for my book, "The Frescoed Facade in Renaissance Roman Visual Culture" (Amsterdam University Press, 2025), which in turn laid the groundwork for Saving Faces.

What do you hope to uncover during this next phase of the Saving Faces project?

In addition to expanding the database, especially since much of the visual documentation of these facades has been fragmented, I want to develop new mapping features. My research has shown that many of these painted facades clustered around important civic sites, and I want to illustrate those relationships alongside Rome's other landmarks.

I also hope to broaden the project's geographic scope. So far, my work has focused on Rome's historic rioni (traditional administrative districts of central Rome), but I want to create a complete map of the city and eventually expand into Florence, where decorated facades were even more common.

How does digital technology allow you to tell these stories in new ways?

Beyond bringing this research together in one accessible place, digital technology allows me to share this understudied tradition with a global audience. People who may never visit Rome can explore these streetscapes, while researchers studying similar traditions across Europe can access the material and build on it through collaboration.

From a preservation standpoint, digital technology also allows us to document these facades over time. Each entry includes available historical records, from 16th-century chronicles to drone photography taken last year. Together, those materials tell the story of each facade while underscoring the importance of preservation. Without it, many of these works could disappear entirely.

If someone explored the archive years from now, what would you hope they discover?

I hope they find an archive that is still growing and that it sparks the same fascination these facades inspired in me.

I recently attended a conference in Italy, supported by a professor of practice development grant from SLA, that focused on digital humanities initiatives for cultural preservation. One theme that stood out was the ability of digital tools to introduce new audiences to overlooked aspects of history and culture and generate lasting interest in them.

If Saving Faces inspires even one student, scholar or enthusiast to explore the field of decorated Roman facades years from now, I would consider that a success.