Dr Meghan Callahan

In the 18th and 19th centuries, British artists and architects travelled to Europe on The Grand Tour, considered a vital part of their education. Their ultimate destination was Italy, where they explored the ruins of Rome, encountered the Florentine Renaissance, and wandered a...

Dr. Nicholas Albanese

Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro de Silva – better known as Anita Garibaldi – has been commemorated as one of the most well-known heroines of the Italian Risorgimento. Her story is indelibly tied to that of her husband, the Italian patriot, Giuseppe Garibaldi, who she met and fou...

Dr. Fabrizio Ricciardelli

The Medici dynasty is one of the most famous in history. The story of the family was inextricably bound up with Florence, the city of the Renaissance, and influenced its destiny from the time of Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464) up to the reign of Gian Gastone (1671-1737). I...

The Beautiful and the Damned: Portraits of the First Dukes and Duchesses of Florence
Dr. Marcello Simonetta

This lecture will focus on the portraits of the first dukes and duchesses of Florence, namely Alessandro and Cosimo I de' Medici, and their wives Marguerite of Austria and Eleonora de Tole...

Dr. Peter Weller and Jordan Ledy

In the wake of the Second World War, a film movement emerged from the wreckage of fascist-partisan Italy that we now call Neorealism, although _**Realism **_might better encapsulate the films that were produced from 1943-1952. Utilizing real locations over studio...

Ross King

Why did Julius Caesar speak his last words in Greek? Why are the world’s best-preserved Greek temples in Sicily and the South of Italy? Why did Plato visit Italy? This lecture will look at how in Plato’s time the South of Italy was known as “Greater Greece”—the beautiful land settled i...

Dr. Eric Nicholson

What gave the unique city of Venice an almost irresistible allure for early modern English people, and made it a dynamic setting for outstanding plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries? This is a key question of this special webinar, also a preview of my three-part seminar...

Dr. Sally J. Cornelison

Considered the father of art history and one of the most important personalities of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) is best known as the author of the “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,” a collection of artist biographies t...

Dr. Matteo Duni

For about three centuries (1400-1700), Europeans believed that some persons would make a pact with the Devil and renounce Christianity, fly over broomsticks to huge gatherings where they would kill and eat babies, urinate on the cross, and worship Satan as their god. Church and s...

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

Medieval and Renaissance altarpieces found in churches throughout Europe and in museum collections worldwide, represent some of the most beautiful and profound examples of religious art. What may not be obvious, is that along with a great deal of religious symbology many altarp...

Dr. Gary Radke

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) revolutionized European painting with his dramatically lit compositions. Never before had an artist made darkness such an equal partner with light, inspiring an international vogue for scenes taking place at night and in minimally lit ...

Dr. Marcello Simonetta

How did politics influence Michelangelo's career? Was he supported by the Medici or is this a myth built after his death? How fictional is the image we have of him as an artist without political inclinations? In this webinar we will try to address and answer all these ques...

Dr. Meghan Callahan

In the 1850s, a group of artists including William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais declared themselves the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood. The art critic John Ruskin promoted their desire to return English painting to the pure Italian style prior to de...

Dr. Mary Ann Calo

Images of women were everywhere in the Gilded Age, so much so that historians talk about the era in terms of the “feminization” of American culture. This refers not only to women being involved in culture, as patrons, artists, and viewers, but also to the ubiquity of women as s...

Susan Jaques

Though Napoleon declared France to be his only mistress, he was also enamored with Italy which he would make part of his empire. Early in his career, stunning military victories across Northern Italy turned the young general into a national hero, propelling him to power. Shortly aft...

Dr. Joe Luzzi

What makes Dante such a fascinating and essential author – and why is his classic from 700 years ago, The Divine Comedy, more relevant to our everyday lives than ever before? Join us for a truly unique celebration of Dante and his work, as Joseph Luzzi, award-winning Dante scholar ...

Dr. Paolo Alei

Portraits of Women in Renaissance Venice are evasive to interpretation. Most of them are women with no specific identities. This hermeneutic indeterminacy has led art historians to speculate whether they are courtesans, brides, or demonstration pieces of “la bella pittura” (beauti...

Dr. Dennis Romano

Dr. John Paoletti

Renaissance art is made to communicate ideas – social, political, religious, historical – to the viewer.  Of course, that raises issues of who is talking to whom and how should that address be structured.  That means that the intended viewer played (and still plays) a critical ...

Dr. Sally Cornelison

Today, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, food processors, and other appliances simplify the ever-present need to clean house and put food on the table, among other chores. This lecture explores moralizing and instructional treatises, paintings, prints, and the study of urban con...

with Quentin Hardy

Artificial Intelligence is powerful, futuristic, and a little scary. But away from the hype, it’s quite familiar, and closely tied to some of the most powerful themes and aspirations of the Renaissance: Imitation, perfection, classical learning and a new exploration of the wor...

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

A central tenet of the Christian faith is that Jesus was crucified by the Romans and died on the cross at Golgotha. The art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is replete with representations of Christ’s Passion prior to the crucifixion and of Christ crucified including works by...

Dr. Fabrizio Ricciardelli

In Europe city-states developed following diverse origins. There were: 1) ancient roman cities; 2) new cities founded near castles; 3) new cities founded near monasteries; 4) cities built in hostile but naturally protected environment (like Venice); 5) settlements estab...

Prints for the People: How the Printing Press Revolutionized Renaissance Art and Thought

Dr. Laurinda Dixon

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-fifteenth century began an unprecedented technological revolution in the Western world. For the first time, books and ...