Podcasts-2 - Rocky Ruggiero

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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.

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

- Valoreev

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

- Treskovich

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

- Historywrocky

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Episodes

Cities Artists Theory Answers to Open Questions Interviews

Episode 25: Siena – The Day the Virgin Mary Got into Politics (Simone Martini’s Maestà)

Posted: July 10th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will examine Simone Martini's mural of the Maestà in the Hall of the Great Council in Siena's town hall, known as the Palazzo Pubblico. The painting represents a milestone moment in the history of art where a religious subject is inserted into a civic setting for the firs...

Episode 24: Siena – The Palazzo Pubblico and Piazza del Campo

Posted: July 5th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will analyze the history and architecture of the medieval town hall of Siena known as the Palazzo Pubblico, which was one of the seminal civic structures in Europe. We shall also examine what has been described as the most beautiful urban space in all of Italy - the Piazza...

Episode 23: Siena – City of the Virgin Mary (Battle of Montaperti/Duccio’s Maestà)

Posted: June 26th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode examines the very special relationship that Siena has with the Virgin Mary and how this privileged relationship came about. We shall also discuss one of the most important paintings in the history of art - Duccio's great Maestà....

Episode 22: Siena – Siena Cathedral

Posted: June 19th, 2019

Episode Info: This podcast will recount the extraordinary construction history and examine the striking architecture of one of the world's most beautiful churches - the cathedral of Siena....

Episode 21: Siena – The Foundation Myth

Posted: June 12th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode recounts the foundation myth of the great Tuscan city of Siena and how 14th-century Sienese government officials claimed to have discovered a document that traced Siena's ancestry all the way back to Ancient Rome - but not to Rome's great founder Romulus, but instead to hi...

Episode 20: Theory – Put it in a Box – Defining the Periods in Western Art History

Posted: June 5th, 2019

Episode Info: In this episode, I lay out the terms and dates of the major western historical and art historical periods, and various works of art and architecture with which they can be identified....

Episode 19: Theory – Stick it on a Wall – The Art of Fresco Painting

Posted: May 29th, 2019

Episode Info: This podcast will explain the technique of fresco painting, the various advantages and disadvantages of this millennia-old method, as well as famous examples of this medium from the Renaissance....

Episode 18: Florence – Giotto’s Frescoes in Santa Croce

Posted: May 22nd, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will analyze Giotto's frescoes of "The Life of St. Francis" in the Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce. Giotto's introduction of naturalism, psychology, movement, emotion, and drama into his paintings was a groundbreaking innovation for medieval painting....

Episode 17: Florence – Celebrity Tombs in Santa Croce

Posted: May 15th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode explores and examines what is arguably the world's most impressive collection of celebrity tombs that is housed in the great Franciscan basilica, including the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli....

Episode 16: Florence – The Basilica of Santa Croce

Posted: May 8th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode explores the history and architecture of this great church in Florence, Italy and how the social and economic forces of medieval Florence contributed to making it the largest Franciscan church in the world....

Episode 15: Assisi – The Day the Earth Shook

Posted: May 2nd, 2019

Episode Info: This very personal podcast recounts my harrowing experience inside of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi when a severe earthquake struck the town in 1997 causing several vaults to collapse inside the Upper Basilica and killing four people....

Episode 14: Assisi – The Basilica of San Francesco

Posted: April 24th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode examines the history, architecture and decoration of great shrine to St. Francis in Assisi that was decorated by a veritable all-star team of late-13th/early-14th-century artists such as Cimabue, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and perhaps even Giotto. It also discusses ...

Episode 13: Assisi – St. Francis of Assisi – How A Little Man Changed The World

Posted: April 22nd, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will examine the extraordinary life of one of the greatest revolutionaries in Western history: St. Francis of Assisi. It will also discuss how St. Francis' revolutionary natural philosophy may have sparked the historical movement known as the Renaissance....

My Kingdom for a Horse…that can win the Palio!!!!

Posted: April 18th, 2019

Twice a year, on July 2 and August 16, the city of Siena, Italy transforms its main medieval square into an arena of unbridled fury. Ten bareback horses and their respective jockeys race three laps at breakneck speed around a dirt-covered piazza that is filled with fifty-thousand people! That is the...

Episode 12: Florence – Speaking Statues in Piazza della Signoria

Posted: April 11th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will examine the extraordinary collection of sculptures in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. From Donatello's "Judith and Holofernes' to Michelangelo's "David" to Cellini's "Perseus and Medusa", each sculpture represents a chapter in the extraordinary story tha...

Episode 11: Florence – Palazzo Vecchio

Posted: April 5th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will analyze the architecture of the building that was the seat of political power in medieval Florence - the Palazzo Vecchio - and the historical circumstances that led to its construction....

Episode 10: Florence – Out of Darkness

Posted: March 22nd, 2019

Episode Info: This episode will trace the historical evolution of Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire through Charlemagne and the creation of the Holy Roman Empire and finally to the rise of medieval city-states in Italy with particular emphasis given to the role of Florence....

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 2: Rome – Julius Caesar and the Dawn of Empire

Posted: March 20th, 2019

Episode Info: This episode recounts and analyzes the rise to power of Julius Caesar and the transformation of the Roman Republic into an Empire....

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...

Sometimes Dead Men Should Just Stay Dead (and Why I am still talking about the G-man)

Posted: August 24th, 2018

In our last installment of “Why I just can’t stop talking about Giotto” we learned that “magic” rods are more effective than big ones… That said, the middle tier of frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel depicts scenes from the childhood and mission of JC (see “Son of God”). Here th...

NBC News: After 500 years, a clue to who inspired Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’

Posted: July 26th, 2018

Watch Rocky help unravel the mystery behind one of the world's most famous paintings - the Birth of Venus by Botticelli....

Why It’s not the Size of the Rod that Matters (and Why I can’t stop Talking about Giotto)

Posted: July 19th, 2018

While having dinner the other night with a friend who is also in the “business” (by which I mean art history of course), I told him that I just couldn’t stop blogging about Giotto and the Scrovegni Chapel. His sympathetic response was that mine was an obvious dilemma as “there is so much 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...

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"We recently traveled to Florence with our twin daughters and we wanted them to experience the rich art history of Florence in a more personalized basis. We were grateful that Rocky agreed to this assignment. His Knowledge, love and enthusiasm for the arts was contagious. It was the highlight of our trip!"

Alan L. Rivera

CFO and General Counsel, Millbrook Capital Management, Inc.

"Rocky is a favorite and one of the best art historians we’ve ever used. He has led our family on occasion where are high school and college kids praised how Rocky made art "interesting" and "relevant", while his interactive style held everyone’s attention"

Michael Chesser

President and Founder Chesser Group Inc., Los Angeles CA

"I can say that Rocky Ruggiero is the best among the very best. I have yet to encounter a more precise, informative and commanding teacher or conductor through the beauty and magnificence of Florence and Italy"

Peter Weller

Actor, Director, Writer, Musician, Scholar