The Time I Joined the Department of Italian Studies in Philly
Source: https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/luna/2025/04/15/time-i-joined-department-italian-studies-philly Parent: https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/luna/2025/05/10/what-my-scholarship-gave-me-yale
by Luna in
#Academics, #Student Groups on 04.15.2025
The other Bulldog bloggers and I were recently reflecting on cool travel-specific experiences we have been fortunate to partake in through our clubs, classes, or some other connections. I have not had the chance to travel as part of a club (at least not anywhere beyond Connecticut), and my travel through classes has been limited to other Yale bulidings. Shoutout to the Peabody which hosted my HSHM seminar like four times last semester—it basically became the second defacto classroom. Oh, and I did get to go to New York City a bunch on Yale’s dime for a writing course… read about that here!
My “Yale travel experience” is unique in that I got to go because of my employment. My prior student job with the Department of Italian Studies gave me the rare opportunity to travel to Philadelphia for an art exhibit at the Barnes Foundation. We were there for the “Modigliani Up Close” exhibit, a collection of Amedeo Modigliani’s artwork alongside thorough research and analysis on his artistry. Given the people in attendance were professors and graduate students who are singularly very knowledgeable in all things Italian culture/art/history/life, this was a very apt destination. As for me, I was tagging along for the ride. I certainly knew the least about Modigliani out of our group, which meant I stood to learn the most from the journey!
\ Professor Tylus and some graduate students were unintentionally captured in my picture here
The day included a bunch of walking, although the walking route throughout the city was solely from 30th Street Station to the Barnes Foundation and back. Lots of walking occurred within the museum too; there was so much to see beyond the exhibit! The visit was paired with a complimentary (and yummy) lunch at the foundation’s restaurant. I don’t remember much about these moments outside of the art gallery besides the feeling and awarenss that it was lovely to connect with my Italian Studies peers and learn about their interests and journeys that led them to Yale.
Okay as for the exhibit, I really enjoyed every part of it. It was a rather compact collection, but the quality of the research on the artwork and their stories was what I found most fascinating. We had a guided tour, allowing us to fully take in the exhibition and all its intricate features. I did not know Modigliani was a scultpor as much as he was a painter. I also didn’t know about his particular techniques and this was the purpose of the exhibit overall. The curators had looked back into time with their analyzes of his artwork, finding evidence of numerous revisions within singular frames and complete artworks under other prominent work. The picture below shows a painting suspended in midair which revealed one painting on one side of the canvas and entirely different work on the other side. I personally had not seen this display set up before and really appreciated its ability to show audiences the whole of the art, unsurfacing hidden Modigliani art. The deep analysis of the paint used, brush techniques observed and motifs explored inspired me as an amateur painter.
<\ Suspended painting… I unfortunately did not take a picture of the other side
Like I said, this collection was not super expansive and so there was considerable time left over to explore the rest of the Barnes Foundation. I’ve visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but this was like that museum’s cool cousin. Randomly seeing Van Gogh on display next to Renoir, Matisse, and other notable artists with the tiniest name plaques I’ve ever seen for paintings was very cool.
You know what’s really funny is that at the time my boyfriend lived in Philly and I was always disappointed I didn’t get to see him during my quick stint to Philly that day. (It was a super quick turnaround as we visited and traveled back the same day via train!) However, I feel that my experience was invaluable and my pleasant memory of visiting the Modigliani exhibit is not tarnished by our nasty breakup. I enjoyed the day with coworkers who also happen to be my professors and graduate students peers. I don’t think the department realized how kind it was of them to invite me—the random bursary student—along for the journey. I now have an appreciation for Modigliani’s artwork and love being able to identify his art when visiting other museums. I took the brochure with me (which I found an electronic copy of as I was working on this blog) and added it to the collage I was creating as my own sort of artwork in my dorm room. Art mimics life mimics art or however that saying goes.
\ See if you can spot all the Modigliani brochure inclusions