In 1558, an enormous block of marble intended for the central statue of a new public fountain arrived in Florence. Duke Cosimo de’ Medici had a sculptor in mind for the project, but other artists persuaded him that they should compete for the commission. This ‘competition’ transformed Florence in...

During the time of Dante (1265-1321) the townsfolk of Florence continued to multiply. The chronicler Fra Salimbene of Parma, writing in the second half of the thirteenth century, relates an anecdote from the life of Fra Giovanni of Vicenza, a famous preacher of the first half of the century, who ...

The Venetian Republic lasted more than a thousand years—longer than any other republic in history. One of the great secrets of its success was the institution of the Doge, a figure with all the trappings of a king but few of the actual powers. This lecture looks at the special role played by “Mes...

By the mid 1500s in Italy, although it was still unusual for a woman to become an artist, two women gained fame for their skill in portrait painting: Sofonsiba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. Anguissola’s talent led her to work at the Spanish court of King Philip II in Madrid, while Fontana’s ski...

What do we really know about the diseases that afflicted Michelangelo or Leonardo? What was the actual cause of Caravaggio’s death? Did Raphael really die from too much sex? Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects gave us the first and not...

With film, music, and humor, this webinar will examine representations of the Italian language in the American media and how they affect Americans’ perceptions of the language and culture. In contrast to these portrayals of Italian as truncated, fragmented, and unrefined, we will consider how gra...

Dr. Rocky’s hopes for in-person guided tours of the “The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, 5th Avenue in New York City are dashed since lecturing and guided tours are still not permitted at the museum. But that is not stopping him from sharing the e...

Niccolò Machiavelli has a bad reputation. “Everyone hated him because of The Prince,” a friend observed around the time of his death—and the suspicion and hatred have barely abated in the 500 years since. However, Machiavelli’s writings are far more sophisticated than selective readings of the mo...

Mafia-type organizations in Italy continue to not only survive but thrive in the present day despite the attempts by the Italian State to combat the phenomenon. One of the major obstacles to fighting the mafia is the persistence of social acceptance and support for these organizations in communit...

among the few masterpieces left to us by Leonardo da Vinci. Yet not much is known about the painting. Furthermore, for over 500 years, it was believed that the brownish monochrome look of the Adoration was the work of Leonardo. That is, until Maurizio Seracini’s in-depth scientific analysis of 20...

Renaissance women were immortalized in poetry and painting as “belle donne” or “beautiful women.” The 14th century poet Petrarch’s Laura inspired not just written poetry, but painted works by 16th century artists such as Giorgione and Titian. “Belle donne” appeared on canvases, ceramic dishes, an...

In 1598, the Medusa by Caravaggio, today in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, was donated to the Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici by Cardinal del Monte. The cultivated Cardinal, true discoverer of Caravaggio’s talent and ambassador of the Medici family in Rome, knew that the Duke would have part...

Join this video lecture to think outside the box about Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity. Open your mind to considering such unsettling questions as: What if Leonardo wasn’t as original as we usually think he was? What if he learned more from his predecessors and contemporaries than we thought? What...

Join Quentin Hardy for a spirited discussion of the great hidden force of the Renaissance: The arrival of the Merchant class after the Black Death and their battle for prestige amid the incumbent powers. With the Church condemning bankers to Hell (unless you’d like to buy this nice chapel) and th...

Join Dr. Kristin Stasiowski to discuss one of the Florentine Renaissance’s most fiery figures: Girolamo Savonarola! A charismatic, devout, and unapologetically radical Dominican monk during a time of enormous political upheaval, Savonarola celebrated the death of Medici influence in Florence and ...

Join Dr. Maze for a presentation about his groundbreaking research that reveals what has long remained a mystery: the early life and career of one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, Giovanni Bellini, an artist revered for his mastery of color, atmosphere, and light. Demonstrating that B...

Eleonora di Toledo was celebrated in Renaissance Florence for her fecundity, with Bronzino’s portrait with her son Giovanni among the most famous representations of the Grand Duchess. This talk will examine how Eleonora also contributed to the city’s future cultural heritage through commissions s...

The four voyages of Christopher Columbus introduced the European continent not only to a land mass that had been unknown to them, but to a conception of the world that required a dramatic paradigmatic shift. The reaction among Italian writers and philosophers was delayed but, in some cases, extre...

In the first decades of the twentieth century, European art underwent a period of profound structural and philosophical change. As it sought relevance in this creative landscape, Italy found itself in a complicated position. Many of the radical aesthetic ideas coming out of Paris, Germany, and th...

Dante has been honored for centuries as il Sommo Poeta (the Supreme Poet). But was he also il Sommo Dottore (the Supreme Doctor)? Although there is no firm evidence that Dante ever formally attended university, this gap in his education did not prevent him from having a deep understanding of comp...

The Duke of Urbino, whose profile was famously portrayed by Piero Della Francesca, has come down in history as a patron of the arts and a friend of the Medici. As it turns out, he had a dark side and a hidden agenda...

Marcello Simonetta earned his Ph.D. at Yale University. He has taught for se...

In early years of art appreciation, while judging Kyoto’s International Film Festival, I asked Oscar-winning cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, whom he favored as a painter. Storaro inquired if I had seen, what he deemed as the narrative genesis of film in early modern history, Giotto’s fresco cy...

Join us for a in-depth presentation by world-renowned jewelry designer Temple St. Clair! After working with the artigiani of Florence for over 30 years, Temple St. Clair created her first Haute Couture collection that took her, the jewels, and the artigiani to the permanent collection of the Louv...

Between the 6th and 19th centuries Europe suffered three major pandemics of the bubonic plague. From 1346 to 1350 alone, the Black Death claimed approximately 20 million lives and altered the political, medical and cultural nature of the affected societies. What can the history of medicine and th...