Webinar 1

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Brides, Grooms, and the Visual Culture of Betrothal and Marriage in Renaissance Italy”
Presented by Dr. Sally J. Cornelison

Webinar 2

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Urbino: The Ideal Renaissance Court”
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Duke Federico da Montefeltro transformed the town of Urbino in the Marches into an ideal Renaissance court. Not only did he commission works by artists of the caliber of Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Francesco di Giorgio and Leon Battista Alberti, the duke also assembled one of Europe’s top classical libraries. No wonder that Baldassare Castiglione would later choose Urbino as the setting of his book on the ideal courtier. This exclusive webinar will explore the extraordinary art and architecture of this idyllic ducal town.

Webinar 3

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance”
Presented by Dr. Joe Luzzi

In this talk, we will explore a true Renaissance “Whoddunit.” Some 500 years ago, Sandro Botticelli, an Italian painter of humble origin, created work of unearthly beauty. An intimate associate of Florence’s unofficial rulers, the Medici, he was commissioned by a member of their family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy by the city’s greatest poet, Dante Alighieri. A powerful encounter between poet and artist, sacred and secular, earthly and evanescent, these drawings produced a wealth of stunning images but were never finished. Botticelli declined into poverty and obscurity, and his illustrations went missing for 400 years. This presentation will show how the nineteenth-century rediscovery of Botticelli’s Dante drawings brought scholars to their knees: this work embodied everything the Renaissance had come to mean. Today, Botticelli’s Primavera adorns household objects of every kind. This talk will show how and why Botticelli became iconic, and why we need still need his work―and the spirit of the Renaissance―today.

Webinar 4

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees: Leonardo da Vinci and the Natural World”
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser

Let me tell ya ’bout the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
And the moon up above
And a thing called love

Jewel Akens, 1964

In The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Giorgio Vasari says this about Leonardo da Vinci:

…he took special pleasure in horses as he did in all other animals, which he treated with the greatest love and patience. For example, when passing by places where birds were being sold, he would often take them out of their cages with his own hands, and after paying the seller the price that was asked of him, he would set them free in the air, restoring to them the liberty they had lost.

Leonardo’s drawings of birds and his exploration into the mystery of bird flight are well documented in what is now known as the Codex on the Flight of Birds. In it, da Vinci speculates on the nature of bird flight and suggests devices and methods to test his concepts on how birds achieve their mastery of the air. He also writes of birds and bird flight in the Codex Atlanticus.

Leonardo da Vinci illustrated many other domestic and wild animals: horses—as noted by Vasari—but also dogs, cats, bears and a multitude of insects. His simple sketch of a dragonfly in flight accurately depicted the alternation of the flapping of the fore and hind wings. Thanks to the use of high-speed cameras, we now know that this wing beat pattern is accurate. However, it is not visible to the ordinary human eye.

Come along on a nature walk, with Leonardo da Vinci and physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser. We will explore da Vinci’s relationship and understanding of the natural world and how it influenced his representations of mammals, birds, insects, and other creatures. See what Leonardo saw when he observed animals as only he could. Share in the magic and the mystery of da Vinci’s natural world.