Week 1: 12-16 July 2010
NEW COURSE

Course 3: Dr Janet Robson

The Art of the Friars in Early Renaissance Italy c. 1250–1470

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

The new mendicant orders of Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinian Hermits and Carmelites (otherwise known as the Friars) were the leading patrons for religious art in early Renaissance Italy, where their monumental churches dominated the city skylines. With their new saints and their engagement with the wealthy urban elite of bankers and merchants, the Friars brought major changes in religious devotion and spirituality. This, combined with the spirit of competition between the different orders, generated new forms of artworks and a rapid development in the iconography and style of altarpieces, fresco cycles and tombs. The Friars commissioned all the leading artists of the day: we will study frescoes and panel paintings in Assisi, Florence and Siena, including works by Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti; Fra Angelico’s frescoes in San Marco, Florence; Piero della Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle in Arezzo; and the Brancacci Chapel in the Carmine. The course will include visits to the National Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery and the V&A.




Week 2: 19-23 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 11: Caroline Brooke

Art, Money and Power: Medici Patronage in Florence c. 1420–1570

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

The name ‘Medici’ is synonymous with artistic innovation and achievement during the Renaissance in Florence. This course examines the art patronage of more than five generations of the dynasty, from the emergence of the family as a political force early in the Renaissance, to the establishment of the grand duke dynasty that reigned for almost two centuries. It focuses on the commissions of Cosimo the Elder, Piero the Gouty, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Cosimo I Grand Duke of Tuscany, in order to consider how the political, religious and social aspirations of individual members of the Medici family shaped the cultural and artistic life of the city. The works of major Florentine artists such as Donatello, Fra Filippo Lippi, Michelangelo and Bronzino are examined in relation to the tastes and aspirations of their patrons, as manifestations of civic pride, devotion, and personal ambition. Issues such as familial pietas, the varying fortunes of the Medici bank and the political climate of the period are also considered in relation to the development of Medicean patterns of patronage. Visits to the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum are an integral part of the course.




Week 3: 26-30 July 2010

NEW COURSE
Course 20: Dr Peter Dent

Splendid Things in Stone, Wood and Gold: Italian Sculpture 1250–1400

£420

‘If I were to choose ten great artists, the greatest in European art, I would put Giovanni Pisano among them.’  Henry Moore’s admiration for one of the most brilliant and charismatic Italian Gothic sculptors was matched only by Giovanni’s own confidence in his talent.  He is described on one work as ‘endowed above all others with command of the pure art of sculpture.’  These judgements reflect the fascination of one of the most dynamic, yet less familiar, periods in Italian art.  This new course has been created to coincide with the opening of the new medieval and renaissance galleries at the V&A, which contain the greatest collection of Italian Gothic sculpture outside Italy.  We will explore the work of the major artists, Nicola Pisano, Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Tino di Camaino and Andrea Pisano.   But we will also follow some of the less well travelled paths that lead to such delights as the idiosyncratic sculptures of late medieval Verona and the horrific painted wooden images of Christ on the cross known as crocifissi dolorosi. 


 


Week 4: 2-6 August 2010

Course 29: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

The ‘High Renaissance’: Art and Architecture in Rome 1500–1527

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

Rome in the first decades of the sixteenth century became a powerhouse of artistic production which set standards of excellence for centuries. Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael worked for the energetic Pope Julius II and his successor Leo X on projects of unparalleled grandeur and ambition, such as rebuilding St Peter’s and the painting of the Sistine chapel ceiling. These achievements are set within the framework of the urban renewal of the city inherited from the fifteenth-century papacy, the spread of the cult of the antique beyond the intellectual circles of the papal bureaucracy, the institution of permanent collections of antiquities and the patronal activities of the cardinals and bankers in Rome. The devastating Sack of Rome in 1527 and the origins of ‘Mannerism’ are also examined. Visits include the National Gallery, the Prints & Drawings Collections at the British Museum and the V&A.

You may also be interested in Dr Douglas-Scott’s study tour to Rome from 23–26 September 2010.