Men and Women of the Italian Renaissance
Lecturers: Dr Kathleen Olive, Freya Middleton, Dr Nick Gordon
Limited places available
Course Description
When we travel to Italy, it’s the material reminders of the past that seduce us: the extraordinary patrimony of paintings, sculptures and buildings that the country preserves. But these objects are the tangible result of something that is often much harder to visualise: the life, times and even personalities of the patrons who commissioned them. Can we know much about these people? What kind of records have they left, and to what extent can we recreate their lives?
As fascinating as the great men and women of the Italian Renaissance are, they are particularly thrown into relief when set aside their contemporaries, from family and peers, to rivals and even sworn enemies. In this course, we investigate a pair of Renaissance Italian characters every week, putting the flesh back on their bones and allowing them to speak to you directly through their biographies, writings and great works they commissioned.
Your lecturers have worked together for almost a decade and look forward to sharing with you their passion for and deep interest in all things Italian, and their different insights into this fascinating period.
Course Content
Session 1: Cosimo de’ Medici and his goldsmith neighbour, Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici (Dr Kathleen Olive)
Session 2: Domenico Ghirlandaio and the Tornabuoni Family (Freya Middleton)
Session 3: Caterina Sforza and Caterina Cornaro (Dr Nick Gordon)
Session 4: Pope Leo X and Raphael (Freya Middleton)
Session 5: The barber poets of San Martino al Vescovo and Giorgio Vasari (Dr Kathleen Olive)
Session 6: Machiavelli, Pietro Aretino and Menocchio the Miller (Dr Nick Gordon)
Lecturers
Dr Kathleen Olive is well known to Italian enthusiasts for her lectures and seminars, including popular short courses at the WEA, Sydney, and national lectures for the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Association (ADFAS). She has worked as a cultural tour leader for over 15 years, with deep expertise in Italy, and in France, Spain and Japan. Her published research on a Renaissance Italian manuscript, the so-called Codex Rustici, was presented to Pope Francis I in 2015 as the official gift of the Florentine Curia.
Freya Middleton has an M.A. from Warwick University and over 15 years’ experience as a specialist tour guide in Florence. Resident in her beloved city for the entirety of her adulthood, Freya is deeply enmeshed in Florentine life and has for many years been ranked the top guide in the city. A regular presenter at the British Institute of Florence, she is also the preferred lecturer and guide of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation (Florence) and for the Australia Council’s Venice Biennale delegates. Venice is yet another of Freya’s areas of expertise, and she has been awarded a prestigious internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Her enthusiasm for all things Italian is infectious, and her gift of the gab legendary.
Dr Nick Gordon has extensive experience as a cultural tour leader, having taken small group tours from Australia to Italy, the Low Countries, Germany and Scandinavia for more than ten years. He is a practising and exhibiting artist with an encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary art, and his research on the Italian Middle Ages has won numerous academic scholarships and prizes (including a University of Sydney medal in History).
Course Structure
6 x 1.5 hour sessions
Each session includes an interactive lecture and time for group discussion and analysis. There is time for a quick break to make tea or coffee between the interactive lecture and group discussion.
Course Dates
Session 1: Tuesday 28 April, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 2: Saturday 2 May, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 3: Tuesday 5 May, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 4: Saturday 9 May, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 5: Tuesday 12 May, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 6: Saturday 16 May, 10:00-11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Price
A$140
REquirements
This course does not require any assumed knowledge, only a willingness to learn and an interest in art.
Sessions require access to ZOOM (which is free), a device with a camera (such as a tablet or computer with a webcam), and an internet connection.