Italy — Art of the Italian Renaissance

Civilized by the Greeks and Etruscans, united by the Romans, and influenced by the Goths, Franks, and Moors, Italy is at once a single nation and a collection of fiercely independent states, cities and people. Slightly larger than Arizona, it is a peninsula surrounded on the West by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Adriatic to the East and is bordered on the north by the Alps.

Italy has a vast history dating back thousands of years. It is renowned for its stunning architecture, paintings and sculptures by such masters as Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, and the architect Filippo Bruneschelli whose technical innovations influenced and inspired Italian architecture for centuries.

During this intensive study abroad program students will have the opportunity to visit, explore, and experience firsthand some of the most famous masterpieces in Italian Renaissance art with a visit to Florence, Venice, Siena and Padova. Your classroom each day will be the Uffizi, the Academy Galleries, St. Mark's Basilica and the Florence Cathedral, to name just a few sites where you will study art history during this wonderful learning experience. There will be plenty of free time to explore the medieval walled towns in Tuscany, to be immersed in the warmth of Italian culture and to enjoy one of Italy's greatest contribution to the world, - its food!

We invite you to join us on this exciting, culturally rich learning opportunity in one of Europe's most remarkable countries — Italy.

Course Description

This travel/study course offers a 10-day intensive program in Italy. Students will observe and study the art of Renaissance Italy starting in Florence, the birth-place of the Renaissance, at the cathedral nick-named the Duomo because of its famous dome designed by Brunelleschi, and at churches, palaces and museums. In the Academia and the Uffizi galleries we will see works by the most famous artists of the period, including Michelangelo's David and Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and masterpieces by geniuses such as Donatello, Fra Angelico, Giotto, Leonardo and Raphael. In Siena and San Gemignano students will experience the history and beauty of the medieval walled towns of Tuscany. En route to Venice we will visit Padua to see the remarkable frescoes by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel. We will make our way through Venice either by foot on the streets and bridges or by boat on the canals, as we visit St. Mark's Basilica, the Academy Gallery, churches and palaces decorated by the great Venetian artists such as Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

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Course Objectives

• To study the historical development of the architecture, sculpture and painting of the Italian Renaissance.
• To study the artifacts of the Italian Renaissance as they relate to the context of the history, religion and culture of the period.
• To learn to distinguish between the various periods and of Italian Renaissance art from Giotto and the Late Gothic/proto-Renaissance to the Early and High Renaissance.
• To develop the tools necessary to recognize and discriminate between artistic styles and to analyze and intelligently discuss works of art and architecture.
• To observe the most famous examples in situ at sites we visit and learn to write an art-history paper on an aspect of this fieldwork.