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EXCLUSIVE WEBINARS | “Exclusive Webinars in January”

1. Thursday, January 4, 2024 | “Napoleon and Italy” with Susan Jaques | 2:00 – 3:00pm ET | 11:00am – 12:00pm PT | 7:00 – 8:00pm London
2. Thursday, January 11, 2024 | “Reading Dante: Exploring Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love” with Dr. Joe Luzzi | 2:00 – 3:00pm ET | 11:00am – 12:00pm PT | 7:00 – 8:00pm London
3. Thursday, January 18, 2024 | “Renaissance Venetian Women” with Dr. Paolo Alei | 2:00 – 3:00pm ET | 11:00am – 12:00pm PT | 7:00 – 8:00pm London
4. Thursday, January 25, 2024 | “A Martini on the Rocks: Guidoriccio and the Debunking of a Medieval Masterpiece” with Dr. Rocky Ruggiero | 2:00 – 3:00pm ET | 11:00am – 12:00pm PT | 7:00 – 8:00pm London

Each webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.

Please note:

• Your participation for all four exclusive webinars is confirmed once you have purchased your bundle. You will receive a reminder 24 hours before each event and the Zoom link to join each presentation circa 30 minutes before the start time.
• VIDEO RECORDINGS of all of the exclusive webinars will be available for unlimited streaming at your convenience for 7 days after the event.

Webinar 1

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Napoleon and Italy” 
Presented by Susan Jaques

Though Napoleon declared France to be his only mistress, he was also enamored with Italy which he would make part of his empire. Early in his career, stunning military victories across Northern Italy turned the young general into a national hero, propelling him to power. Shortly after his coronation as emperor of France, he staged a second coronation at Milan’s Cathedral where he was crowned King of Italy. Family members were installed in Tuscany, Naples, Turin and Milan as puppet rulers. Napoleon looted his way across Europe, but his favorite artworks were Italian — including some of the greatest treasures of Rome, Venice and Florence. Artists portrayed Napoleon as a modern Caesar while his architects modeled a series of iconic Paris monuments after famous Roman prototypes. With the Pope under house arrest at Fontainebleau, Napoleon ordered the papal summer palace redecorated for his triumphal entry into Rome and a spectacular third coronation at St. Peter’s Basilica. But he never got there. Join Susan Jaques, author of The Caesar of Paris, for a talk about Napoleon and Italy.

Webinar 2

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Reading Dante: Exploring Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love”  
Presented by Dr. Joe Luzzi

What makes Dante such a fascinating and essential author – and why is his classic from 700 years ago, The Divine Comedy, more relevant to our everyday lives than ever before? Join us for a truly unique celebration of Dante and his work, as Joseph Luzzi, award-winning Dante scholar and Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard College, shares his lifetime of study with you about the writer Italians still call “Sommo Poeta”, Supreme Poet. Luzzi will offer a candid look on Dante while drawing on his Vanity Fair “Must Read” memoir, In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love, the story of how Dante’s wisdom and vision helped him overcome a great personal tragedy. In Dr. Luzzi’s Reading Dante presentation, lovers of literature and the human experience will take a deep dive into Dante’s works, his imagery, and his timeless themes that continue to ring true for readers and scholars today.

Webinar 3

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Renaissance Venetian Women” 
Presented by Dr. Paolo Alei

Portraits of Women in Renaissance Venice are evasive to interpretation.  Most of them are women with no specific identities.  This hermeneutic indeterminacy has led art historians to speculate whether they are courtesans, brides, or demonstration pieces of “la bella pittura” (beautiful painting).  This lecture will take in consideration a series of representations of women and try to analyze iconographic details (from the way they have arranged their hair to a jewel they might wear), corporeal movement (from a specific gesture of the hand to that pivotal torsion of the body called contrapposto) and finally the interaction between painted subject and the beholder (an exchange of gaze which is much imbued with the poetic trends of the time involving the legendary poetic relationship between Petrarch and Laura).  In some cases, recent scholarship, based on the discovery of new treatises and dialogues of the early modern period, has broken the veil of mystery and this lecture will try to dig a bit further in the discussion of women identities in the Renaissance.

Webinar 4

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “A Martini on the Rocks: Guidoriccio and the Debunking of a Medieval Masterpiece” 
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

“Guido Riccio” was once the most recognized painting in Siena, Italy, appearing on the cover of Sienese guidebooks, posters, prestigious wine labels, lampshades, and postcards. In many ways, “Guido Riccio” was the symbol of the great medieval city, with schools, tennis clubs, and restaurants named after it.  But, in 1989, American art historians Gordan Moran and Michael Mallory contested the attribution of the fresco to Simone Martini, one of the most important painters of the Middle Ages, and triggered one of the fiercest decades-long controversies in the history of art. While most of the international scholarly community accepted the contestation, local Sienese and Italian authorities instead attempted to silence Moran and Mallory and suppress their scholarship. Join Dr. Rocky for this exclusive webinar where he will examine the heated controversy surrounding the painting once known as “Guido Riccio,” and showcase the determination of two men to reveal the truth notwithstanding the institutionalized attempt to stop them.