Details

ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE
Medici Women: Portraits of Power

Course Description:

The Medici men have been the subject of much study among art historians. But the women – those born as Medici and those who married into the family – were the reason the family line continued and flourished until the Eighteenth Century. In this course, we’ll trace the important influence of the Medici women on the family and city in Renaissance and Baroque Florence through study of letters, portraits, and architectural commissions. Strategic marriage alliances that matched Medici money with a wealth of connections from old Florentine families enabled the family to prosper. Public religious devotion through support of convents and churches by the Medici women warded off some jealous competition, but when the men were exiled, the women stayed behind to manage funds and the family. 

In the Sixteenth Century, the role of the Medici women became even more important as the men negotiated marriages into the royal houses of Europe. Portraits were sent abroad, and new brides welcomed into Florence. By the Seventeenth Century the family’s transformation from bankers to princes was complete, and their artistic legacy would be preserved by Ana Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last of the line, who donated the family’s entire art collection to the Tuscan state.

Instructor:

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 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.

Course Objectives:

• To understand the role of women in establishing and developing the Medici family
• To investigate the role of female portraiture in network building 
• To consider Medici women’s patronage of architecture
• To reflect on the importance of letters as primary sources for study of women’s lives in the Renaissance and Baroque eras

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with syllabus, videos of recordings, reading list, podcasts, discussion forum, and more.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Readings to be provided to students in PDF format prior to the beginning of course.

Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR THE DURATION OF THE COURSE

Schedule

LECTURE 1 – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 | THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: ESTABLISHING THE LINE 

We’ll begin in the Fifteenth Century with portraits of Medici women, looking first at Contessina de’ Bardi, who brought an old Florentine name and military support to the upstart banker Cosimo the Elder when she married him in 1415. Similarly, the cultured and educated Lucrezia from the established Tornabunoni family, painted more than once by Domenico Ghirlandaio, married Cosimo’s son Piero the Gouty and raised Lorenzo the Magnificent with poetry and art.

LECTURE 2 – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 | THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: EXPANDING ROYAL TIES 

We’ll then follow the sixteenth-century adventures of the young orphan Caterina de’ Medici, who became the Queen of France in a strategic power play negotiated by her uncle Pope Clement VII. Meanwhile in Florence, Eleonora di Toledo brought Spanish sophistication to the emerging court of her husband Duke Cosimo I and expanded the family real estate holdings by buying the Palazzo Pitti.

LECTURE 3 – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28 | THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

By the Seventeenth Century the transformation of the Medici from bankers to princes was complete. Florence was ruled by the regents Dowager Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine and her daughter-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena d’Austria, as the young Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici was only ten years old when his father died. The two women continued artistic and architectural commissions for convents and supported women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi.

Instructor

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 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.