Events - Event View

The artists of the Quattrocento [Early Renaissance] in Italy, benefitting from Classical Greco-Roman architecture and sculpture, the works of Giotto and Sienese painters and sculptors, Flemish art, paint supplies from the near east, and their own genius, laid the foundation for the High Renaissance. We’ll explore each artist’s work.

1. Week 1 - Sandro BOTTICELLI trained under Filippo Lippi. He adopted his style, blended it with his vision, and working for the Medici, principally, created two major works that are forever associated with his name: The Birth of Venus and Primavera. We’ll read the complex symbolism in these and other works
2. Week 2 - PIERO della Francesca decorated the Apsidal Chapel in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. The stories are taken from the medieval book The Golden Legend written by Jacopo de Voragine with later additions by others. We’ll spend the lecture presentation on this one work commonly titled The Legend of the True Cross.
3. Week 3 - Andrea MANTEGNA, like Piero della Francesca, believed that painting benefitted most from Greco-Roman sculpture. Both artists could be called ‘painting sculptors’. Mantegna worked mostly in Urbino [for the Duke] and for the Gonzaga family in Mantova. We’ll explore his easel works for the former and the affreschi for the latter.
4. Week 4 - Orvieto Cathedral, half way between Florence and Rome, affords us the opportunity to study the sculptures by the Sienese sculptor, Lorenzo MAITANI, on the façade, and the decorations in the San Brizio Chapel by Luca SIGNORELLI.
5. Week 5 - Domenico GHIRLANDAIO. Son of a Florentine goldsmith, also ran a highly successful bottega and with his brothers Davide and Benedetto,  later his son Ridolfo and his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi executed a large number of works on panel and affreschi for numerous private chapels. His many apprentices include Michelangelo.
6. Week 6 - LEONARDO da Vinci. The recently restored Adoration of the Magi, the two versions of the Madonna of the Rocks, The Madonna with the Christ Child, Saint Elizabeth and the infant John,  the Mona Lisa, and the Last Supper. We’ll examine them and other works by the master.