In the framework of my research project “The Greek Travels of the Villa Medici pensionnaires in the 19th Century: Perceiving Ancient Monuments between Architecture and Archaeology”, I examined the collaborations between the residents of the Villa Medici in Rome and the members of the French School of Athens. The research project shed light on how the revelations of archaeology, actively disseminated by the members French School of Athens, had an impact on certain pensionnaires of Villa Medici who decided to devote their envoi de Rome to the antiquities of Greece. Two questions to which this project responded are the following: firstly, how did the architects-pensionnaires of the Villa Medici in Rome appropriate the archaeological discoveries of Greek antiquities, and secondly, what was the impact of their exchanges with the members of the French School of Athens on their restored views of ancient Greek monuments? The outcomes of this project will be published in the chapter “The Greek Travels of the Villa Medici pensionnaires in the 19th Century: Perceiving Ancient Monuments between Architecture and Archaeology” to be included in my forthcoming book Reinventing Modern Architecture in Greece: From Sentimental Topography to Topographical Sensitivity.

This concerted effort to analyze the influence of archaeological discoveries on architecture during the 19th century, with a focus on the architects-pensionnaires of the Villa Medici and their travels to Greece, was based on the belief that cultural and aesthetic mutations concerning the way of perceiving ancient monuments go beyond the field of the history of architecture or archaeology. For this reason, they can only be grasped by broadening the analysis of these reorientations to the realms of political and cultural history. As part of this collaborative project, I juxtaposed the points of view of different national contexts in the field of archaeology and architecture. By comparing the different approaches of French, English, Italian, and German architects and archaeologists, the research project shed light on how their ways of constructing and interpreting ancient Greek monuments are related to the political and cultural issues that correspond to the historical moments under study. I placed particular emphasis on revealing why the forms of philhellenism changed after the independence of Greece, and how the meaning of travel to Greece was transformed. The project paid special attention to the role that architects and their collaborations with archaeologists have played in these changing perceptions of philhellenism. Another aspect that I also scrutinized is the comparison in a trans-European network – especially with regard to the French, Italian, English and German contexts – of different ways of looking at ancient Greek monuments and the perception of travel to Greece in these different national and cultural contexts. During my Visiting Research Fellowship, I had the opportunity to consult archival materials and rare books in the Special Collections of Firestone Library at Princeton University and to exchange about my research project with excellent scholars.