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Dr. Fabrizio Ricciardelli

Most of Europe around 1300 was governed by kings assisted by a restricted ruling class of ecclesiastics and nobles. These were the men who controlled cities and towns, rather than the traders and artisans who lived and did business in them. Italy and southern France wer...

Dr. Sally J. Cornelison

What went on in Renaissance kitchens and how did people consume their meals before forks and individual place settings became common? What meanings did the paintings that decorated the walls of ecclesiastical dining halls—of which Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is the mo...

Married, Mistress or Mortuary: Women’s Portraits in the Renaissance
Dr. Meghan Callahan

During the Renaissance, upper-class women were commemorated in art three times in their life: when they were about to be married or just after, if they were a particularly valued mistress, or after they died....

Dreams of Arcadia and Victorian Fantasies: Italy in the American Imagination

Dr. Mary Ann Calo

From the earliest days of its existence as an independent nation, Americans interested in art and culture made pilgrimages to Italy. What did they expect to find? How have these American “Italy seeker...

The Divine Michelangelo: His Life and His Works (Part I)

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Michelangelo Buonarroti’s artistic career spanned more than seven decades, during which he produced some of the most extraordinary works of art in history. Dividing his time between his native city of Florence and his a...

Dr. Peter Weller & Jordan Ledy

The Second World War leveled a fascist, then partisan Italy. Using real locations, a film movement emerged, now called Neorealism. However, we might just call the movement Realism, as Italy’s film, in the country’s confused void in post-war ethic, was the first to ...

House of Wax: The History of Anatomical Models as Works of Art and Medicine

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

For at least the last 37,000 years, humans have sculpted and drawn the human form. What compelled our prehistoric ancestors to do this is unknown and subject to debate among prehistorians, but somethin...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Florence, Italy, was the cradle of the Renaissance and the birthplace of the modern world. This 4-week course will explore the urban development of Florence from 1000-1500 CE. Through formal architectural readings of the key buildings that defined Florence’s medieval and early...

Hieronymus Bosch: Heretic, Lunatic, or Philosopher?

Dr. Laurinda Dixon

The Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516) had a bizarre and seemingly inexhaustible imagination. Known as the creator of disturbing demons and spectacular hellscapes, he also painted the Garden of Earthly Delights, ...

Dr. Eric Nicholson

“Queen of the Adriatic,” “The Most Serene Republic (la Serenissima)”, “City of Water,” “The Floating City,” “City of Bridges”: Venice goes by all these names and more, including “City of Masks,” an especially appropriate one for the focus of our course. During the late mediev...

Dr. Nick Albanese

While the concept and culture of Italians has been around for millennia, the making of the nation of Italy did not occur until just over 160 years ago, in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The Italian Risorgimento, or reawakening, was a long and difficult trajectory that was ca...

When the Saints Come Marching In: Medical Saints and the Diseases They Cure
Dr. Jeremy Wasser

It’s 1348 in Florence and the Black Death ravages the city and people are dying like flies. There
is little the plague doctors can do and the priests seem to be helpless, in the face of an
epidemic ever...

Dr. Meghan Callahan

This course explores how Italian art came to Britain, from the 15th century Tudors hiring sculptors to the 19th century magnates buying up paintings from Tuscan dealers. Eager to own the latest in Renaissance and Baroque art, English kings and queens filled their courts with ...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

The repercussions of the Florentine artistic revolution of the 14th and 15th centuries were not truly felt in Venice until the 1460s. Although the work of the Venetian painters Jacopo Bellini and Antonio Vivarini soon after 1440 signaled a nascent Venetian school, it was not u...

Masterpieces of 15th-Century Northern Renaissance Art

Dr. Laurinda Dixon

Myth and History of the Renaissance City: Florence, Rome,Venice
Dr. John Paoletti

Cities in Italy, like those of other countries, have their own specific characteristics. During the Renaissance, Italian cities quite deliberately sought distinctive artistic styles to distinguish them from their r...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Alessandro Filipepi, better known as “Botticelli,” was one of the most important painters of the Italian Renaissance. During his 40-year career, Botticelli imbued a wide variety of subjects with unparalleled grace. He also revolutionized traditional Renaissance iconography wit...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course traces the art, architecture and historical events in Italy from Roman Antiquity through the early Renaissance. Through an in-depth analysis of selected works of art and architecture from throughout Italy, along with those social, economic and political factors tha...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will explore those artistic masterpieces that serve as milestones of the Italian Renaissance and also in the development of Western art and architecture. Through an in-depth analysis of these works of art and architecture, as well as the historical context in which...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the art and architecture of Northern Italy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Although Florence and Rome are usually considered to be the centers of Renaissance art, many cities north of the Apennines were also centers of extraordinary artist...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will focus on the extraordinary artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Through an in-depth and nearly exhaustive analysis of selected works of art from throughout Leonardo’s career, students will acquire a profound understanding of the contributions, achievements, a...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 marked the official end of the Eastern Roman Empire (better known today as the Byzantine Empire) and the end of the Medieval world. Although this event was catastrophic for the eastern Christian world, it resulted in an extrao...

Discovering Donatello: His Life, Works, & Legacy - Part 2

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will focus on the extraordinary artistic genius of the 15th-century sculptor Donatello. Through an in-depth analysis of selected works of art from throughout his prolific career, students will acquire a com...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the unique artistic and historical identities of ten Italian cities that helped shape the course of Western civilization from Antiquity through the early modern period. Each of these cities enjoyed periods of political, economic, and cultural prominenc...

Dr. Eric Nicholson

Not only are almost half of Shakespeare’s plays set in Italy, but his dynamic and provocative drama makes crucial use of numerous Italian plots, tropes, character types, theatrical devices, and cultural connotations. Like many of his comedies, several of his tragedies remain ...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

In Italian Masterpieces, celebrated art historian Dr. Rocky Ruggiero explores the milestone works of sculpture, painting and architecture that defined the Italian Renaissance and revolutionized the history of art.

Details:
Each 12-minute video lecture analyzes the style, tech...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Renaissance Florence was the birthplace of the modern world and is home to many of its greatest artistic treasures. Florentine artists such as Dante, Brunelleschi, Leonardo and Michelangelo revolutionized art and architecture, and families like the Medici dominated European fi...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero examines the rise to power and legacy of the most famous family of the Renaissance. Not only were the Medici bankers to some of Europe’s most important rulers, but also great patrons of the arts. Artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michel...

Dr. Eric Nicholson

Not only are almost half of Shakespeare’s plays set in Italy, but his dynamic and provocative drama makes crucial use of numerous Italian plots, tropes, character types, theatrical devices, and cultural connotations. Like many of his comedies, several of his tragedies remain f...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the extraordinary career of one of the most important painters in history – Raphael Sanzio da Urbino - better known simply as “Raphael.” Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael heralded in the period known as the High Renaissance. Combin...

Call the Midwife: Women Healers from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

Women are conspicuous by their absence from the annals of medical history. The principal reason for this lies in the patriarchal nature of Western societies from Antiquity into the modern era. Women were, ...

Dr. Meghan Callahan

As the primary caregivers for families and communities, Renaissance women held a vast store of knowledge of medical remedies. Healing potions and oils were concocted via word of mouth or recipes, passed down from woman to woman. These earthly remedies were boosted by prayers ...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the reign and artistic patronage of four early Renaissance popes in the second half of the 15th century who played a critical role in transforming Rome into Europe’s leading cultural center. From Pope Nicholas V who established the Vatican as the seat ...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will explore the development of art and architecture in Italy from the late Middle Ages through the High Renaissance. Through an in-depth analysis of the art, architecture and history of these periods, we shall develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the overa...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the extraordinary career of the artist credited with inventing Baroque sculpture. Bernini’s superb skill at magically transforming stone into what appears to be malleable flesh is nothing less than incredible. Yet, Bernini’s vision went beyond sculptur...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the unique artistic and historical identities of ten Italian cities that helped shape the course of Western civilization from Antiquity through the early modern period. Each of these cities enjoyed periods of political, economic, and cultural prominenc...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the extraordinary career of one of the most influential painters in history – Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Known as the pittore maledetto – or the “cursed painter”, Caravaggio not only revolutionized painting at the turn of the 16th and 17th cent...

Eleonora of Toledo: Graces, Gifts, and Gardens in Medici Florence

Dr. Meghan Callahan

Eleonora di Toledo is one of the most famous women of the Medici family. Through her marriage to Grand Duke Cosimo I, she allowed the Medici line to flourish down to the 18th century. Eleonora brought new Span...

Artemisia Gentileschi: Breaking Rules In Baroque Italy

Dr. Meghan Callahan

Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most famous female painters of the early modern era. Her works now command millions at auction, but in her own time she complained of being underpaid. In this course, we’ll examine Art...

Eating Right in the Renaissance: Food and Feasting in Art

Dr. Laurinda Dixon

Delighting in a good meal is a primal pleasure, and most people construct their diets according to individual preferences. However, in the Renaissance, food carried deep meaning, and eating was more strictly controlled...

Discovering Donatello: His Life, Works, and Legacy - Part 1

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will focus on the extraordinary artistic genius of the 15th-century sculptor Donatello. Through an in-depth analysis of selected works of art from throughout his prolific career, students will acquire a c...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will explore the development of art and architecture in Italy from the late Middle Ages through the High Renaissance. Through an in-depth analysis of the art, architecture and history of these periods, we shall develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the overa...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 marked the official end of the Eastern Roman Empire (better known today as the Byzantine Empire) and the end of the Medieval world. Although this event was catastrophic for the eastern Christian world, it resulted in an extrao...

Dr. Meghan Callahan

The Medici men have been the subject of much study among art historians. But the women – those born as Medici and those who married into the family – were the reason the family line continued and flourished until the Eighteenth Century. In this course, we’ll trace the importa...

Dr. Meghan Callahan

The lives of Renaissance women were defined by certain roles: wife, mother, nun, courtesan, or servant. In this three-class course, we’ll examine how women fit into (or circumvented) societal expectations by looking at depictions of women in painting, sculpture, and archival ...

The Other Renaissance: Three Masters of 15th-century Northern European Art

Dr. Laurinda Dixon

Art History "The Other Renaissance: 3 Masters of 15th-century Northern European Art"

When we think of the "Renaissance," often what comes to mind are the optical experiments and anatomical discoveries...

Dr. Mary Ann Calo

What happened in Italy after the great ages for which artists are so well known? What were the legacies of classical antiquity, the Renaissance, and the Baroque once their historical moments had passed? These are complicated questions, especially when considered in the context ...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will focus on the extraordinary artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Through an in-depth and nearly exhaustive analysis of selected works of art from throughout Leonardo’s career, students will acquire a profound understanding of the contributions, achievements, a...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will examine the art and architecture of Northern Italy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Although Florence and Rome are usually considered to be the centers of Renaissance art, many cities north of the Apennines were also centers of extraordinary artist...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course will explore those artistic masterpieces that serve as milestones of the Italian Renaissance and also in the development of Western art and architecture. Through an in-depth analysis of these works of art and architecture, as well as the historical context in which...

Dr. Nicholas Albanese

This course explores the mafia-type organizations of Italy from the modern origins of the Sicilian Cosa nostra to the present day operations of the Neopolitan Camorra and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta. The Mafia’s relationship with politics, its internal rules and codes, its bu...

Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

This course traces the art, architecture and historical events in Italy from Roman Antiquity through the early Renaissance. Through an in-depth analysis of selected works of art and architecture from throughout Italy, along with those social, economic and political factors tha...

Dr. Kristin Stasiowski

Set in Florence, Italy during the 1348 plague known as the Black Death, Boccaccio’s one hundred novella collected in his masterwork The Decameron have received recent, widespread attention as readers the world over struggle to navigate the perils of the COVID 19 pandemic. ...

Dr. Kristin Stasiowski

Discover why Dante's Divine Comedy has inspired writers and readers for nearly 700 years in this engaging, interdisciplinary discussion of some select canti (sections of poems) from the Paradiso. Dante's poetic and moral imagination has inspired generations of writers, thi...

Dr. Kristin Stasiowski

Discover why Dante's Divine Comedy has inspired writers and readers for nearly 700 years in this engaging, interdisciplinary discussion of some select canti (sections of poems) from the Inferno. We will delve into the fantastical world of Dante's imagined afterlife and dis...

Dr. Kristin Stasiowski

Discover why Dante's Divine Comedy has inspired writers and readers for nearly 700 years in this engaging, interdisciplinary discussion of some select canti (sections of poems) from the Purgatorio (Purgatory). We will delve deep into the fantastical world of Dante's second...

The Chymical Wedding: Alchemy and Art, Medicine and Magic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

Alchemy was about much more than the search for the “Philosopher’s Stone” and the secret of transmuting base metals into gold. Alchemists were chemists before there was the modern scie...

Dr. Nicholas Albanese

The period from 1969 until the early 1980s in Italy was one of great transformation of Italian society. The social tensions that arose from the economic boom years after the end of World War Two came to a head in the late Sixties with its starting point in the youth culture...

Outbreak of a Social Virus: The Fascism of Benito Mussolini

Dr. Nicholas Albanese

Benito Mussolini’s regime in Italy in the first half of the 20th century was the first fascist government in modern history. This course investigates the contours of Mussolini’s fascism, beginning with its ideolog...

Dr. Jeremy Wasser

What was it like to be a patient during the Renaissance? Or a doctor? What did it mean to be sick at that time, medically or emotionally? How did society view and address those stricken by disease or injury? And how does the art, music, and literature of the Renaissance help us...

Dr. Kristin Stasiowski

This course will focus on the close reading and analysis of selected masterworks of the modern Italian novel tradition. The main goals will be to investigate the Italian novel’s evolution from the nineteenth-century emphasis on realism, history, and socio-familial issues, ...

Chef Matteo Boglione

Join former Le Cirque NYC Executive Chef, Matteo Boglione in this recorded, hands-on cooking course that will teach you how to prepare various milestone recipes of Italian cuisine. From his Cucina Privata in Florence, Italy, Chef Matteo adds his signature twists to tradition...

Dr. Erin McCarthy King

This is a thematic language course, focused on the vocabulary helpful for traveling in Italy. The grammar covered in this course is intended for all skill levels, starting with a review of the present and past tenses, and moving into more advanced grammar such as the condi...

Dr. Erin McCarthy King

This is a three-lesson language and culture course for students of all levels who wish to broaden their understanding of Italian. Each lesson will include a vocabulary theme, a grammar lesson, and a presentation of an Italian city. The grammar covered in this course will i...

Dr. Erin McCarthy King

This course will build on the fundamentals of sentence construction that we learned in Italian for Beginners. We will reinforce the use of the present tense sentence and question construction, in addition to learning more complex grammatical elements like possessive and de...

Dr. Erin McCarthy King

My goal is to teach the vocabulary that is most useful for Americans travelling to Italy and that by the end of the 6 lessons, people who work on the material and practice will be able to form simple sentences in the present tense that describe themselves, how they feel, w...

Dr. Peter Weller & Jordan Ledy

The Second World War leveled a first fascist-then partisan Italy. Allied bombs ruined Rome’s Cinecittà, Europe’s major studio complex, shorting all production resources. Forced to use using real locations, a film movement, now called Neorealism jumped forth as firs...

Dr. Peter Weller and Jordan Ledy

The Second World War leveled a first fascist-then partisan Italy. Allied bombs ruined Rome’s Cinecittà, Europe’s major studio complex, shorting all production resources. Forced to use using real locations, a film movement, now called Neorealism jumped forth as fi...

Artist Marco Klee Fallani

Lecture 1: Watercolor in Tuscany
Watercolor painting class with celebrated artist Marco Klee Fallani, direct from his studio in the heart of Chianti, Tuscany. Learn the art of painting in this warm, subtle medium from an acclaimed maestro in real time. Art will truly co...