Art and Identity - Monochrome faux antique façade painting from a cross-European perspective (1530-1630)

This project investigates how early modern people reshaped their urban environments through painted architecture, an underexplored aspect of the social and cultural history of this period. It asks why artists and patrons in three regions outside central Italy chose a style of painted façade associated with the legacy of ancient Rome between 1530-1630. Adopting a comparative cross-cultural approach, it proposes that the link between façade painting and political context has been exaggerated. It argues instead that this development was motivated by a shared interest in the classical past across northern Italy, Switzerland and southern Germany.