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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.
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Episodes
Cities Artists Theory Answers to Open Questions Interviews
Episode 9: Florence – Historical Origins
  • Posted: March 22nd, 2019
Episode Info: This podcast will examine the ancient Roman origins of the city of Florence and trace its urban development from its foundation in 59 B.C. to the modern city that we see today....
With Tyranny and Injustice for All
  • Posted: March 22nd, 2019
I know that most of you are waiting for me to sneak in a haymaker of a reproach about the present political reality in the United States. But as I wrote in the opening line of this blog series, the beauty of this particular fresco cycle is that I do not have to get reproachful – the paintings do i...
Episode 8: Ravenna – The Byzantine Empire Strikes Back
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: This podcast will examine the transformation of a provincial Italian town named Ravenna into an Imperial capital and how the Byzantine Emperor Justinian sought to recapture the western half of his empire....
Episode 7: Rome – Constantine and Christianity
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: This episode will address the rise of Christianity in the Roman world and the critical role that Emperor Constantine played in its success and changing the world forever....
Episode 6: Rome – The Pantheon
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: In this episode, we examine and analyze the ancient Roman temple that has been described as the most perfectly designed architectural monument in history....
Episode 5: Rome – Bread and Circus
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: This episode examines that most decadent period in ancient Roman history when emperors provided both lavish foods and spectacular entertainment to the citizens of Rome....
Episode 4: Rome – Blood Sport
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: In this episode we examine the jaw-dropping spectacles and bloody contests that took place inside of the Colosseum....
Episode 3: Rome – The Colosseum
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: This episode analyzes the architecture and reconstructs the engineering marvels of the mother of all amphitheaters....
Episode 1: Rome – The Foundation Myth
  • Posted: March 20th, 2019
Episode Info: This episode examines the foundation myth of Ancient Rome and how it reflects those critical historical and social factors that contributed to making Rome the most absolute empire in history....
Judge Diligently (or At Least Not Idiotically) Ye Who Rule the Earth!!!
  • Posted: February 1st, 2019
Allegory of Good Government, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1337, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena In my last blog Find Myself a City (or at this point a country) to Live In, we examined the effects of good government as represented in the homonymous mural by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the medieval oval office of ...
Find Myself a City (or at this point a Country) to Live In
  • Posted: January 11th, 2019
These days it is way too easy for just about any discussion to degenerate into a polarized and uncompromising political debate.But the great thing about this next series of blogs is that I don’t have to get political. The art does it for me!!!! In 1337, Ambrogio Lorenzetti set about frescoing ...
The Day the Virgin Mary Got into Politics
  • Posted: November 14th, 2018
On June 9, 1311, while all government offices and stores were closed for the occasion, an altarpiece known as the Maestàwas carried in solemn procession from the workshop of its artist, Duccio di Buoninsegna, to the high altar of the recently completed cathedral of Siena (for the construction of S...
Mine is bigger than yours! An acute case of cathedral envy in medieval Siena
  • Posted: October 24th, 2018
In 1226, the great medieval city-state of Siena commissioned the construction of a new cathedral atop the highest of the city’s 3 hills. (see below) Following a longstanding Tuscan tradition (see Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, etc.), the new church was dedicated to Santa Maria dell’Assunta (...
Better a death in the family than a Pisan (Architect) on your doorstep!
  • Posted: September 21st, 2018
The Lucchesi (see people from the Tuscan town of Lucca) claim authorship of the above proverb, except for the architect part, as they were constantly at war with the Pisans. The Livornesi (see people from the Tuscan coastal city of Livorno) also claim authorship as their Pisan lords would go door to...
Dante and Giotto’s Ugly Children
  • Posted: July 5th, 2018
After Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302, one of the cities that he visited was Padua. His good friend Giotto was busy painting the walls of my favorite decorative space in the world – the Scrovegni Chapel. In addition to being the first painter to successfully reintroduce naturalism in...
Giotto and the Return to Naturalism
  • Posted: June 8th, 2018
In my last blog (HOW A LITTLE MAN CHANGED THE WORLD: ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI), I discussed how St. Francis of Assisi was responsible for changing world perception in medieval Europe and paving the way for an eventual revolution in the arts. Therefore, if it was not social or religious tradition that w...
How a Little Man Changed the World: St. Francis of Assisi
  • Posted: May 17th, 2018
Whenever I am standing in front of Giotto’s Madonna and Child (1310 CE) in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy and discussing the naturalistic innovations introduced by the artist, I ask my students why it took so long for Medieval painters to reacquire the ability to depict subject matter in a ...
Loving Michelangelo to Death
  • Posted: April 27th, 2018
I think few people today remember how radically different the Sistine Chapel ceiling looked before its restoration in the 1980s. I do. I remember seeing the dark, grimy pre-restoration ceiling when I was about 8 years old, and then the chromatically-miraculous cleaned ceiling in 1993. In fact, I try...
Florence Cathedral and the Beauty of Boredom
  • Posted: April 3rd, 2018
The cathedral of Florence (1296-1468CE) is not only the defining architectural monument of the city, it is also one of the few that has free admission. Combined with the breathtaking quantity of white, green and pink marble decorations on the exterior of the church, it is not surprising that each da...
Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer at the Met
  • Posted: January 18th, 2018
If you have not had a chance to visit the exhibit on Michelangelo’s drawings at the Metropolitan Museum Fifth Avenue, New York, I would highly recommend doing so before the show’s closing on February 12, 2018. Over eight years, the curator of the exhibit, Carmen Bambach, has achieved the impossi...
When the Light of the World Went Out
  • Posted: December 20th, 2017
Most of modern Western culture derives from ancient Greco-Roman civilization. From our political structure, judicial system, language, philosophy, art, architecture and even sports, Western society is very much a product of the ancient Greek and - because the Romans imported most of their culture fr...
What does Michelangelo have to do with me?
  • Posted: November 29th, 2017
Let’s be honest, in the eyes of most people, art history is a rather trivial subject. There is little need for it in our everyday lives and modern culture. The traditional method of teaching art history (dark room with an asthmatic slide projector, never-quite-clear-enough slides, and a monotone m...
Venice, la Serenissima
  • Posted: November 8th, 2017
The traditional foundation date of Venice is March 25, 421CE, 11 years after the sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth, and 55 years before the last western Roman emperor, ironically named Romulus Augustus, was deposed. In 452CE, a second barbarian invasion led by Attila the Hun caused a mass migratio...
Florence, Italy In A Nutshell
  • Posted: October 16th, 2017
From a historical perspective, Florence is a city that is relatively easy to digest. As opposed to a city like Rome whose history spans more than two millennia, Florence’s critical history can be approximated to the two centuries that fall between the years 1300 and 1500CE. Nearly all of the city...
Milan, Italy?
  • Posted: October 10th, 2017
When you get off the train in Milano Centrale train station and find yourself covered by the massive cast iron and glass canopy, you wonder if you are still in Italy. Your doubts are further inflated by the hectic pace of the people around. Unlike the languid strollers in most other Italian cities, ...
Mantua, Italy – Rigoletto, Romeo and Romano
  • Posted: September 28th, 2017
In Canto I of the Inferno, Virgil, the ancient Roman author of the epic poem the Aeneid presents himself to Dante with the following words, “Mantua me genuit” - “Mantua made me”. Well, not only did Mantua, or “Mantova” as the city is called in Italian, produce the great classical poet, b...
Parma, Italy – Beyond Prosciutto, Parmigiano and Politics
  • Posted: September 24th, 2017
When most people think of Parma, they think of prosciutto and Parmigiano cheese. But there is much, much more to this city. Parma is located in the north-central region of Emilia-Romagna, which is best known for its culinary traditions. Bologna is the capital of the region and is known as La Grassa ...
Padua, Italy – City of Saints, Sinners and Spritz
  • Posted: September 13th, 2017
Nearly all trains heading to Venice pass through the city of Padua. Yet, in comparison to the throngs of tourists who invade Venice each year, relatively few explore the historic and artistic treasures that lie in the Veneto region’s second most important city. Located about 25 miles west of Venic...
Bella Roma
  • Posted: August 23rd, 2017
Years ago, just weeks before I met my wife Emilie, and after 10 years of living in Florence, Italy, I came very close to moving to my favorite city in the world - Rome. Rome is the starting point of southern Italy, and as a terrone, as rural “earthy” southern Italians are derogatorily called, I ...
The Age of Genius
  • Posted: July 17th, 2017
Our upcoming fall program “The Age of Genius” will take place in Florence from October 2-6, 2017, and will explore those extraordinary artists and patrons who virtually invented the Renaissance. Beginning with Masaccio, who was the first painter to apply linear perspective to painting in his fre...
Why Italy?
  • Posted: June 7th, 2017
In 2016, more than fifty million people visited Italy. Why? Maybe because if you love art, architecture and history, there is no other place in the world with as much as Italy. According to an UNESCO report, more than half of the world’s artistic patrimony is located in Italy, which is home to 51 ...
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