Episode VI: La Primavera by Alessandro Botticelli

Teacher

La Primavera by Alessandro Botticelli

When Botticelli painted the Primavera in the 1470s, he opened up a veritable Pandora’s Box. No longer would Renaissance artists be limited to simply dressing Christian saints in togas and sandals, they could now gradually introduce the very literature, philosophy and religion of the ancient Greco-Roman world into their own art. This lecture will unpack Botticelli’s great allegorical painting by identifying its characters and their meaning; but it will also explore how the first Renaissance painting to ever depict a pagan subject was still loaded with Christianity.

Video Features

Lectures 1
Quizzes 0
Duration 12 minutes
Skill level All levels
Language English
Students 11
Assessments Yes

Rocky Ruggiero, Ph.D.

Rocky Ruggiero has been a professor of Art and Architectural History since 1999. He received his BA from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master of Arts degree from Syracuse University, where he was awarded a prestigious Florence Fellowship in 1996. He furthered his art historical studies at the University of Exeter, UK, where he received a Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Culture. In addition to lecturing for various American universities in Florence, Italy, including Syracuse, Kent State, Vanderbilt, and Boston College, Rocky has starred in various TV documentaries concerning the Italian Renaissance. He has appeared as an expert witness in the History Channel’s “Engineering an Empire: Da Vinci’s World” and “Museum Secrets: the Uffizi Gallery”, as well as the recent NatGeo/NOVA PBS program on Brunelleschi’s dome entitled “Great Cathedral Mystery.”