Courses
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Singing and dancing to an Italian song during Italian language class
Video courtesy of Clarissa Thiessen
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Italian language
Instructors: Linguaviva staff
Required course, 4 semester credits
Classes are taught in Italian at Linguaviva, an Italian language institute in Florence. Instruction emphasizes spoken colloquial Italian and is most intensive during the first four weeks so that students may quickly acquire conversational ability. Classes are taught completely in Italian. Students who have previosuly studied Italian will be placed in language classes appropriate to their levels of proficiency. The Linguaviva instructors are not just language teachers but also rich sources of information about Italian culture, and they help students solve the daily problems which Italians and foreigners share.
Florentine Renaissance Art: From the age of Lorenzo il Magnifico to Cosimo I
Instructor: Josephine Rogers Mariotti, Program Director
Elective course, 4 semester credits
The course proposes to survey the development of the arts in Florence from the time of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici (the Magnificent) to the early reign of Cosimo I de’ Medici, the second Duke of Tuscany. Using the figure of Leon Battista Alberti and his treatise on painting as a bridge between the early and later renaissance, the course will begin with a brief survey of the artistic culture and major workshops of late 15th century Florence (Pollaiuolo, Verrocchio, Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio), the training ground of the masters of the High Renaissance whose lives and works will be our next focus. These include, among others, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, Filippino Lippi, Fra Bartolomeo and Andrea del Sarto. More than a monographic study of each, we will attempt to reconstruct their stylistic and cultural interactions and environment. Our trip to Rome will allow us to witness the decorative cycles of Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican - paragons of a "golden age" dramatically interrupted by the "Sack of Rome" of 1527. With the spread of influence of their “grand manners”, our focus will shift to the next phase of development termed as ‘Mannerism’ or "Maniera", a phase of Renaissance art that we will endeavor to define and explore. Our investigation of this “post-classical” or “post-peak” era begins with the early experimental and expressively charged art of Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino and other Tuscan masters who coincide chronologically and for only certain stylistic tendencies with the followers of Raphael and Michelangelo in Rome and beyond. The challenge here is to detect and analyze the transformations in style and content that lead to the early stages of the artistic activity in Florence at the time of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The courtly production of one of the epoch’s greatest protagonists, Agnolo Bronzino and that of other personalities will conclude our studies. In-class sessions will alternate with visits to monuments and museums in and around Florence allowing students to integrate their academic studies with direct experience of the works and artists under study.
The Politics of Art in Early Renaissance Florence
Instructor: Gail Solberg
Elective course, 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
Major monuments of the Florentine Renaissance, notably those of a religious nature, were sponsored by groups or individuals whose aims were to a large degree political. This course looks at a variety of material asking where political motivation lies. We start with the layout of the city and then focus on conspicuous buildings, including the cathedral, major churches, and civic structures, particularly the town hall. Next we move inside to look at the subdivision of large spaces, such as the various areas of a grand religious edifice, and their still smaller units which are family chapels. Finally we scrutinize single objects or decor such as fresco cycles, altarpieces and tombs to discover the implicit (political) messages embedded in the visible forms. The course presents architecture, painting and sculpture with a heavy emphasis on the latter two media. It privileges the 14th century background to great developments in the 15th century, arguing that the much-noted political brokering of the famous Medici family was based on patterns of behavior and art sponsorship established earlier.
Studio Art: Drawing the Human Figure
Instructor: Staff of the Charles H. Cecil Studios
Elective course, 4 semester credits
This course will teach a historic technique for drawing from a live model, from casts of famous statues and from the city itself. Live models will be used for full figure drawing and casts for portraiture. Classroom instruction will take place in the Charles H. Cecil Studios, the most historic Florentine atelier still in active use. Students will also work with sketchbooks around Florence.
Celebrating the City: The Image of Florence as Shaped Through the Arts
Elective course (Fall 2010), 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
The citizens of renaissance Florence proclaimed the power, wealth and piety of their city through the arts, and left a rich cultural heritage that still surrounds Florence with a unique and compelling mystique. This course will examine the circumstances that fostered such a flowering of the arts, the works that were particularly created to promote the status and beauty of the city, and the reaction of past and present Florentines to their extraordinary home. In keeping with the ACM Florence program's goal of helping students to "read a city", we will frequently use site visits as our classroom. These will be combined with lectures, discussion, readings, videos, and interviews to shape a picture of the role of the arts in Florentine civic pride. During the semester students will: gain an understanding of the social and political context of Florence's artistic growth; become familiar with some of the architectural and artistic treasures of Florence and their historical background; become observant of the ways in which the arts can promote political or other agendas; view a one-act opera that portrays Florentine family and civic pride and numerous other characteristics of early renaissance Florence; investigate the effect of Florence's historical and cultural heritage upon its current citizens; and write about and discuss their own reactions to the art and history of the city.
The Professional Artist in Renaissance Florence
Elective course (Fall 2010), 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
This course will examine the professional life of the renaissance Florentine artist, from his apprenticeship in a workshop to the production of works for important patrons. Among the topics to be considered are the relationship between masters, assistants and apprentices, the guild system that fostered and controlled artistic output, agreements and balance of power between patrons and artists, and the socio-economic conditions that contributed to the growing demand for art and the elevation of the artist's status from craftsman to independent creator. These and other matters related to the practical life of the artist will be addressed through a combination of lecture, discussion, site visits, and readings from primary and secondary sources.
During the semester students will: gain an understanding of the role of the artist and his work in the society of renaissance Florence; consider the purposes served by art and the reasons patrons paid for it; gain an understanding of some of the techniques and materials of the renaissance artist and the training regimen of the artist; become observant of the ways in which materials and techniques are used in works by great artists; consider the role of the artist as craftsman and individual creator; and observe artists and artisans who are maintaining some of the same techniques used in the renaissance.