All Podcasts - Rocky Ruggiero

REBUILDING THE RENAISSANCE PODCAST

Available on your favorite platform

Rebuilding The Renaissance podcast will explore the development of the art, architecture, culture and history in Italy, from ancient Roman times through the Renaissance. Listeners will develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the development of Western civilization and an ability to appreciate and understand works of art in their historical context.

"No one brings the Renaissance to life better than Rocky"

- Treskovich

"No one brings the Renaissance to life better than Rocky"

- Valoreev

"No one brings the Renaissance to life better than Rocky"

- Historywrocky

iTunes

Android

Google

Stitcher

Spotify

RSS

iHeart Radio

All Episodes

Episode 342 – Florence: Museo dell”Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 4

Posted: August 6th, 2025

This podcast explores the extraordinary artwork found on the second floor (Primo Piano) of the Cathedral Museum of Florence, including the beautiful belltower sculptures by Donatello, the “Cantorie” by Donatello and Luca della Robbia, and the Neo-Gothic façade proposals. ...

Episode 341 – Florence – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part III

Posted: July 31st, 2025

This podcast examines two of the greatest sculptures of all time – Donatello’s “Penitent Magdalene” and Michelangelo’s “Florence Pietà” – which are part of amazing collection of the Museo dell”Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy. ...

Episode 340 – Florence: Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 2

Posted: July 23rd, 2025

The Cathedral Museum of Florence, Italy, contains the three original bronze doors from Florence Baptistry by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti. This podcast analyzes history, style, and influence of all three masterpieces. ...

Episode 339 – Florence – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 1

Posted: July 16th, 2025

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence is one of the world’s premier sculpture museums with works by Donatello, Ghiberti, and Michelangelo. This podcast examines the history of the museum and its spectacular reconstruction of the original early 14th-century façade of Florence Cathedral....

Episode 338 – Answers to Open Questions XXV

Posted: July 9th, 2025

From Leonardo making marzipan sculptures and his “Madonna of the Yarnwinder,” to whether Jesus died of cardiogenic shock or asphyxiation, to the recently discovered “Judith and Holofernes” and “Ecce Homo” attributed to Caravaggio, to how to transfer panel paintings to canvas, to how to r...

Episode 337 – Canova’s “Three Graces”

Posted: July 2nd, 2025

Antonio’s Canova’s statue of the “Three Graces” is considered a benchmark of beauty. It’s elegantly erotic representation of the Three Graces huddled in an intimate composition is a fitting final representation of the subject born in the ancient Greco-Roman world and later revived in the R...

Episode 336 – Canova’s “Paolina Bonaparte as Venus Victrix”

Posted: June 25th, 2025

Napoleon’s younger sister, Paolina Bonaparte, married Prince Camillo Borghese in 1803. One year later the prince commissioned Antonio Canova to carve his new wife as the mythological goddess of chastity, Diana. The licentious Paolina laughed off the suggestion claiming that no one would be believe...

Episode 335 – Canova’s “Perseus Triumphant”

Posted: June 18th, 2025

Carved in only a few months between 1800-1801, Canova’s “Perseus Triumphant” is one of history’s great sculptures. It exists in several versions, the most important of which are in the Vatican and Metropolitan Museums. Clearly inspired by Cellini’s earlier version, Canova also depicts the ...

Episode 334 – Canova’s “Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker”

Posted: June 11th, 2025

In 1802, Napoleon courted Antonio Canova to go to Paris to make a bust of him. Four years later, Canova instead completed an 11ft. (3.5m) free-standing idealized nude statue depicting Napoleon as the Roman god of war, Mars. Surprisingly, Napoleon was not pleased with the sculpture, describing it as ...