Webinar 1

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Eleonora of Toledo: Florence’s First Lady”
Presented by Dr. Meghan Callahan
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Eleonora di Toledo was celebrated in Renaissance Florence for her fecundity, with Bronzino’s portrait with her son Giovanni among the most famous representations of the Grand Duchess. This talk will examine how Eleonora also contributed to the city’s future cultural heritage through commissions such as her private chapel and public reception rooms in the Palazzo Vecchio, and her purchase of the Palazzo Pitti. Eleonora employed court artists such as Giorgio Vasari, Benvenuto Cellini and Baccio Bandinelli, and served as regent in her husband Cosimo I’s absence. We’ll explore how this Spanish noblewoman affected art and culture in Renaissance Florence.

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.

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

Webinar 2

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “A Crown Without a King: A Short History of the Doges of Venice”
Presented by Ross King
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

The Venetian Republic lasted more than a thousand years—longer than any other republic in history. One of the great secrets of its success was the institution of the Doge, a figure with all the trappings of a king but few of the actual powers. This lecture looks at the special role played by “Messer lo Doge” in Venetian politics, history and culture, with emphasis on his powers and limitations, and on those moments when the safeguards on this office were tested almost to destruction by ambitious politicians.

Ross King is the award-winning author of numerous books on Italian and French art and history, including Brunelleschi’s Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling. His biography Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power has been called a “convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinkers of all time.” His most recent book, published in April 2021, is The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance.

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

Webinar 3

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Florence in the Time of Dante”
Presented by Dr. Fabrizio Ricciardelli
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

During the time of Dante (1265-1321) the townsfolk of Florence continued to multiply. The chronicler Fra Salimbene of Parma, writing in the second half of the thirteenth century, relates an anecdote from the life of Fra Giovanni of Vicenza, a famous preacher of the first half of the century, who with his miracles brought the dead to life. The latter had intimated that he wished to go to preach in Florence. But the Florentines became alarmed: ‘For heaven’s sake,’ they said, ‘don’t let him come. There are so many of us already here, that there isn’t enough room for the living; and he, with his miracles brings the dead to life.’ Chronicler Giovanni Villani records that in the year 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII celebrated the Holy Year, a great number of princes and cities sent ambassadors to Rome to pay homage to the Pope. It was found that almost all these ambassadors who had come from all over Europe were Florentines. Since the universe was composed of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water, and the Florentines were found everywhere with the other four elements which made up the universe, the Pope thereupon concluded that the Florentines were the fifth element of creation. One of these Florentines was Dante!

Fabrizio Ricciardelli earned his undergraduate degree in Medieval History at the University of Florence (Italy) and his Ph.D. at the University of Warwick (England). Since 2004 he has been professor of “Renaissance History” at Georgetown University. Between 2010-2012 he was Academic Director of the Georgetown University program in Florence. In 2010 he became Chairman of the scientific committee “Villa Le Balze Studies”. In 2012 he was appointed Director of the Kent State University program in Florence. His academic experience includes journal articles, conference presentations, and several reviews. He has authored and co-authored numerous books on institutional and political history. His main field of study is Italian city-states in the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of Medieval Europe. Ricciardelli has recently embarked upon the study of the relationship between emotions and passions as forms of political persuasion in Renaissance Italy. His latest publications are A Short History of Florence (2019) and The Medici: The Power of a Dynasty (2021).

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

Webinar 4

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “The Sistine Chapel of Venice: Tintoretto and the Scuola of San Rocco”
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero

Decorated entirely with paintings by the great Venetian Renaissance painter Tintoretto, the Scuola Grande of San Rocco is the only still-active scuola – or “confraternity” in Venice. The scuola building houses nearly 50 paintings by Tintoretto, which depict both Old and New Testament subject matter and that were executed over a 23-year period. Epic in both style and scope, the Scuola of San Rocco is a shrine to the dramatic, boldly dynamic and frenetically energetic painting style of the artist known as “Il Furioso,” much the same way that the paintings of the Sistine Chapel celebrate the artistic legacy of Michelangelo.

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