Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, ca. 1511, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican

This lecture will look at the explosively creative times of the Italian Renaissance. This period of history was marked by the invention of the printing press, and the four popes who were astonishingly perceptive patrons of the arts.   The lecture will cover the work and lives of High Renaissance artists, including  Bramante, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, and their successors, the Mannerists: Parmigianino and Pontormo. 

Thursday, October 19, 2023

5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1522-25, oil on canvas,

National Gallery, London

This lecture will begin with a quick exploration of Venice in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and of Jacopo d’Antonio Sansovino, the architect who renewed the city of Venice. 

A discussion will follow of the flourishing artists’ colony, which included artists like Antonello da Messina, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and Giorgione.  In the Venetian school, Titian stands out by himself.  But the lecture will not neglect his legacy and successors,  Tintoretto and Veronese.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

5:30 – 7:00 p.m.