Requiem project

The Requiem project is dedicated to the research of Roman papal and cardinal tombs of the Early Modern Age between 1417 and 1799. The joint project is prompted by art historians and historians who have come to set the major focus of their work to unravel the historical testimonies of the sepulchres, which define less the past and more the present, but above all, the future of the ambitious social elites in Rome.

This databased project is a cooperation between the historical seminar of the Université de Fribourg - Switzerland, chair of Prof. Volker Reinhardt and the art-historical seminar of the Humboldt University of Berlin - Germany, chair of Prof. Horst Bredekamp. Having been financed by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung for four years, the project now receives funding from DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

Requiem's major aims result from its twofold historical and art-historical orientation: On the one hand it provides a data base with the details of all the papal and cardinal tombs preserved in Rome and its peripheries, on the other hand the project is also working on a data base with dates and details on the cardinals of the Early Modern Age, retracing their careers as well as family and clientele structures.

Requiem is interested in further cooperation with art historians and historians who have researched single aspects, topics, or individuals featured in our data base. Please don't hesitate to use the data base for your own research and feel invited to make a textual contribution which will help to complete the data base. Of course you will be mentioned as author of the information provided.

The project is dedicated to the way, the creation of the "dignitary ruffle of what has been" has been realized in the form of tombs in the city of Rome in the early modern age. Not only will the Papal and Cardinal tombs developed in merely 400 years be recorded, described and have their style critically examined, as is common practise in art history, but they will also be placed within the context of the conditions of their cultural, social and political development. The funerary monuments are to experience an interpretation as purposefully used instruments of authentication, foundation, intensification and dynamism of the power and the status of their clients - the latter always stresses a tense relationship between the tombs reference to the historical personality of the deceased and the requirements of the client(s), which is to be carefully examined for each individual case.

"Sub specie aeternitatis" the representation of the deceased had to master very secular, future-referencing tasks, a fact that is only superficially paradox: The norm-conform presentation of death after a life governed by rules becomes the vehicle of the extension of sociopolitical chances of the living, i.e.: the family as perpetuation of the qualities of the deceased. The immortalisation of the dead individual becomes a means to maintain the rank and size of the family collective.

The research project REQUIEM is dedicated to the decoding of these complex stagings of the past in service of the present and the future.

Its interdisciplinary orientation results from the consideration that with a slight chance of success this work of deciphering can be achieved only through the teamwork of neighbouring disciplines of the humanities.

The Roman tombs of the Early Modern Age are of interest not only for historians and art historians - we strive for dialogue also with archeology and philology, anthropology and theology.

Publications

The Roman Tombs for the Popes and Cardinals of the Early Modern Age - Form and Demand.

Introductory remarks on research project.Carolin Behrmann, Arne Karsten, Philipp ZitzlspergerAnalecta Romana, Instituti Danici, XXIX, Rom 2003, p.101-117 [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/analecta/analecta.pdf Analecta - Article]

Arne Karsten, Philipp Zitzlsperger:Bilderkrieg in Neu-St. Peter.Alessandro Algardis Grabmal für Papst Leo XI. de'Medici und die "Borgia-Krise" der Jahre 1632/34in: Staedel-Jahrbuch, NF 18 (2001), S. 195-212 [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/staedel/Bilderkrieg_in_Neu_St_Peter.pdf Staedel - Article]

Carolin Behrmann, Arne Karsten, Philipp Zitzlsperger (Hrsg.)GRAB – KULT – MEMORIAStudien zur politischen Funktion von ErinnerungHorst Bredekamp zum 60. Geburtstag am 29. April 2007Tagungsakten des interdisziplinären Forschungskongressesvom 17. bis 19. Februar 2006 an der Humboldt Universität zu BerlinBöhlau Verlag, Köln/Weimar/Wien, 2007

Arne KarstenBerniniDer Schöpfer des barocken RomC. H. Beck, München 2006

Arne Karsten, Volker ReinhardKardinäle Künstler Kurtisanen - Wahre Geschichten aus dem päpstlichen RomPrimus Verlag, Darmstadt 2004

Arne Karsten, Philipp Zitzlsperger (Hg.)Tod und Verklärung.Grabmalskultur in der Frühen NeuzeitBöhlau-Verlag, Köln/Wien/Weimar 2004.

Tagungsakten des interdisziplinären Forschungskolloquiums in Schloß Blankensee bei Berlin vom 12. bis 14. September 2002.

Horst Bredekamp und Volker Reinhardt (Hg.)In Zusammenarbeit mit Arne Karsten und Philipp ZitzlspergerTotenkult und Wille zur Macht.Die unruhigen Ruhestätten der Päpste in St. PeterWissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004

Arne Karsten (Hg.)Jagd nach dem roten Hut.Kardinalskarrieren im barocken RomVandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004.

External links

* [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/web/ REQUIEM - Web]
* [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/db/ REQUIEM - Database]
* [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/faq/ REQUIEM - FAQ]
* [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/requiem/web/karten/requiem-karte.php REQUIEM - Churches-Map]