Podcast - Answers to Open Questions

REBUILDING THE RENAISSANCE PODCAST

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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"

- Historywrocky

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

- Treskovich

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

- Valoreev

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All Episodes

Episode 366 – Vatican Museums – The Sistine Chapel

Posted: January 21st, 2026

The most famous work of art in the Vatican Museums is Michelangelo’s "Sistine Chapel Ceiling." This episode explains how best to experience this stunning work of art, as well as the other masterpieces that are in the Sistine Chapel. ...

Episode 365 – Vatican Museums – The Raphael Rooms

Posted: January 15th, 2026

The next major stop in your visit to the Vatican Museums after the Gallery of the Maps is the former apartments of Pope Julius II. They are known as the “Rooms of Raphael” because they were decorated with beautiful frescoes by Raphael between 1507 and 1513, including his famous “School of Athe...

Episode 364 – Vatican Museums – Galleries of the Tapestries and Geographical Maps

Posted: January 8th, 2026

This podcast examines the extraordinary collection of 16th and 17th century tapestries in the Vatican collection, many of which were designed by Raphael and his workshop. It also looks at the amazing array of geographical maps of Italian territories and Papal dominions in Renaissance Italy that cove...

Episode 363 – Vatican Museums – The Belvedere Courtyard and Pio Clementino Museum

Posted: January 1st, 2026

This episode explores the majestic Belvedere Courtyard, which was designed by Donato Bramante at the beginning of the 16th century. It also examines the 18th-century Pio Clementino Museum which houses ancient Greek and Roman sculptural masterpieces such as the Laocoön, Apollo Belvedere, and the B...

Episode 362 – Vatican Museums – The Pinacoteca

Posted: December 26th, 2025

While more than 7 million people visit the Vatican Museums each year, few of them realize there is much more to this extraordinary collection than just the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The Pinacoteca, or “painting gallery,” of the Vatican Museums opened in 1932 and includes masterpiece...

Episode 361 – Rome – The National Gallery of Ancient Art in the Barberini Palace

Posted: December 18th, 2025

Located in the beautiful Baroque Barberini Palace, the National Gallery of Ancient Art contains works of art produced before the year 1800. It includes masterpieces by Andrea del Sarto, Bronzino, Canaletto, Titian, and Tintoretto. But the collection's most important works are Caravaggio’s “Judit...

Episode 360 – Rome – The Borghese Gallery (Part IV)

Posted: December 11th, 2025

This 4th and final episode dedicated to extraordinary art collection in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy, focuses on the painting collection on the second floor of the museum, which includes masterpieces by Raphael, Correggio, and Titian. ...

Episode 359 – Rome: The Borghese Gallery (Part III)

Posted: December 4th, 2025

This episode takes you through the 1st-floor rooms of the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy. It discusses the breathtaking early statues by Gian Lorenzo Bernini - “Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius,” “Pluto and Persephone,” “Apollo and Daphne,” and “David,” as well as Antonio Canova’s s...

Episode 358 – Rome: The Borghese Gallery (Part II)

Posted: November 26th, 2025

This podcast takes you into the extraordinary building and collection of the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy. From the great hall with its beautiful ceiling fresco, ancient Roman floor mosaics depicting gladiators and beast hunters, and ancient/Baroque statue of “Marcus Curtius,” to the adjoinin...

Episode 357 – Rome: The Borghese Gallery I

Posted: November 19th, 2025

Shortly after his election, Pope Paul V Borghese decided to transform his land outside the Porta Pinciana in Rome, Italy, into the city’s greatest villa complex. The result was one of the most beautiful and majestic examples of traditional and landscape architecture. The building, today known as t...

Episode 356 – Answers to Open Questions XXVI

Posted: November 12th, 2025

From my opinion on the recently discovered paintings attributed to Caravaggio, to the influence of Hadrian’s Villa on Borromini’s architecture, to a possible connection between Caravaggio’s “Burial of St. Lucy” and the movie "Schindler’s List,” to why Michelangelo’s “David�...

Episode 355 – Rome – The Doria Pamphilj Gallery

Posted: November 6th, 2025

Located in the Doria Pamphilj Palace (where the Doria Pamphilj family still resides) on the Via del Corso in the heart of Rome, Italy, the gallery houses one of Italy’s most important art collections. It includes portraits of Pope Innocent X by Velasquez and Bernini, as well as two of Caravaggio�...

Episode 354 – Rome – The Capitoline Museums

Posted: October 30th, 2025

The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archaeological museums located on top of the Capitoline Hill, which was the political and religious center of ancient Rome. Their collections focus on the history of Rome and include masterpieces such as the “Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius...

Episode 353 – Milan: The Ambrosian Art Gallery

Posted: October 22nd, 2025

Part of the Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy, the Ambrosian Art Gallery was founded along with the library by the celebrated Cardinal Federico Borromini in 1609 to house his extensive collection of manuscripts, books, and paintings. The collection today includes “The Portrait of a Musician” att...

Episode 352 – Milan – The Brera Gallery (Part II)

Posted: October 15th, 2025

Located in Milan, Italy, and inaugurated on Napoleon’s birthday on August 15, 1812, the Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Art Gallery) contains one of the world’s most important collections of Italian Renaissance painting. This second episode explores masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, Raphael, and...

Episode 351 – Milan – The Brera Art Gallery (Part I)

Posted: October 8th, 2025

Located in Milan, Italy, and inaugurated on Napoleon’s birthday on August 15, 1812, the Pinacoteca di Brera (Brera Art Gallery) contains one of the world’s most important collections of Italian Renaissance painting. This first episode explores masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna, T...

Episode 350 – Siena: The National Painting Gallery

Posted: October 1st, 2025

The National Painting Gallery in Siena, Italy, known locally as the “Pinacoteca Nazionale,” houses one of the world’s most important collections of medieval and Renaissance Sienese paintings. It includes two rare paintings by Duccio di Buoninsegna, as well as masterpieces by Simone Martini, Am...

Episode 349 – Siena – The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum)

Posted: September 25th, 2025

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo houses some of medieval Siena’s most important masterpieces. Works such as Duccio’s “Maestà” and stained-glass window, Giovanni Pisano's 13th-century facade sculptures, and Donatello’s “Madonna del Perdono” are but a few of those masterpieces....

Episode 348 – Florence – The Accademia Gallery

Posted: September 18th, 2025

While most people visit the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy, to see Michelangelo’s great statue of “David,” there is much more to this museum. The Accademia is also home to masterpieces by Botticelli, Lippi, Giambologna, Perugino, Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo, as well as Michelangelo’s...

Episode 347 – Florence – Museum of Orsanmichele

Posted: September 10th, 2025

Built in the 14th century, the Museum of Orsanmichele was originally a grain market, but later turned into a church. The museum is housed inside of this church and includes a beautiful “Madonna and Child by Bernardo Daddi and a magnificent Gothic “Tabernacle” by Orcagna on the ground floor, ...

Episode 346 – Florence – The Casa Buonarroti Museum

Posted: September 3rd, 2025

Once a property owned and lived in by Michelangelo, the Casa Buonarroti Museum was created by the famous artist’s nephew to celebrate the legacy of his famous uncle. The museum contains Michelangelo’s two earliest known sculptures - “The Madonna of the Stairs” and “The Battle of the Centau...

Episode 345 – Florence – The Bargello Museum Part III

Posted: August 27th, 2025

The collection of sculptures on the ground floor of the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy, contains one of the world’s most important collections of 16th-century sculptures, including Michelangelo’s “Bacchus” and “Pitti Tondo,” Giambologna’s “Mercury” and “Florence Triumph...

Episode 344 – Florence – The Bargello Museum Part II

Posted: August 20th, 2025

The collection of sculptures in the great hall of the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy, located on the second floor, contains one of the world’s most important collections of sculptures, including Ghiberti’s and Brunelleschi’s “Competition Panels,” Donatello’s marble and bronze “Davi...

Episode 343 – Florence: The Bargello Museum – Part I

Posted: August 14th, 2025

The building that houses the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy, is the earliest example of civic architecture in Florence, built in 1255. Today it houses one of the world’s greatest collections of Renaissance sculpture, including works by Donatello, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Verrocchio, Michelang...

Episode 342 – Florence: Museo dell”Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 4

Posted: August 6th, 2025

This podcast explores the extraordinary artwork found on the second floor (Primo Piano) of the Cathedral Museum of Florence, including the beautiful belltower sculptures by Donatello, the “Cantorie” by Donatello and Luca della Robbia, and the Neo-Gothic façade proposals. ...

Episode 341 – Florence – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part III

Posted: July 31st, 2025

This podcast examines two of the greatest sculptures of all time – Donatello’s “Penitent Magdalene” and Michelangelo’s “Florence Pietà” – which are part of amazing collection of the Museo dell”Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy. ...

Episode 340 – Florence: Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 2

Posted: July 23rd, 2025

The Cathedral Museum of Florence, Italy, contains the three original bronze doors from Florence Baptistry by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti. This podcast analyzes history, style, and influence of all three masterpieces. ...

Episode 339 – Florence – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral Museum) Part 1

Posted: July 16th, 2025

The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence is one of the world’s premier sculpture museums with works by Donatello, Ghiberti, and Michelangelo. This podcast examines the history of the museum and its spectacular reconstruction of the original early 14th-century façade of Florence Cathedral....

Episode 338 – Answers to Open Questions XXV

Posted: July 9th, 2025

From Leonardo making marzipan sculptures and his “Madonna of the Yarnwinder,” to whether Jesus died of cardiogenic shock or asphyxiation, to the recently discovered “Judith and Holofernes” and “Ecce Homo” attributed to Caravaggio, to how to transfer panel paintings to canvas, to how to r...

Episode 337 – Canova’s “Three Graces”

Posted: July 2nd, 2025

Antonio’s Canova’s statue of the “Three Graces” is considered a benchmark of beauty. It’s elegantly erotic representation of the Three Graces huddled in an intimate composition is a fitting final representation of the subject born in the ancient Greco-Roman world and later revived in the R...

Episode 336 – Canova’s “Paolina Bonaparte as Venus Victrix”

Posted: June 25th, 2025

Napoleon’s younger sister, Paolina Bonaparte, married Prince Camillo Borghese in 1803. One year later the prince commissioned Antonio Canova to carve his new wife as the mythological goddess of chastity, Diana. The licentious Paolina laughed off the suggestion claiming that no one would be believe...

Episode 335 – Canova’s “Perseus Triumphant”

Posted: June 18th, 2025

Carved in only a few months between 1800-1801, Canova’s “Perseus Triumphant” is one of history’s great sculptures. It exists in several versions, the most important of which are in the Vatican and Metropolitan Museums. Clearly inspired by Cellini’s earlier version, Canova also depicts the ...

Episode 334 – Canova’s “Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker”

Posted: June 11th, 2025

In 1802, Napoleon courted Antonio Canova to go to Paris to make a bust of him. Four years later, Canova instead completed an 11ft. (3.5m) free-standing idealized nude statue depicting Napoleon as the Roman god of war, Mars. Surprisingly, Napoleon was not pleased with the sculpture, describing it as ...

Episode 333 – Canova’s “Cupid and Psyche”

Posted: June 4th, 2025

Carved by Antonio Canova in 1787 and today located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Neoclassical sculpture of “Cupid and Psyche” is one of history’s most beautiful and popular sculptures. The romantic sculpture depicts Cupid cradling the head of his lover after reviving her from a supernatur...

Episode 332 – The Life of Antonio Canova

Posted: May 28th, 2025

Antonio Canova was Europe’s most famous artist round the year 1800. His sublime Neoclassical style sculptures – such as “Cupid and Psyche,” ”Perseus with the Head of Medusa,” and the “The Venus Victrix (Paolina Bonaparte)” - are some of the most beautiful in the history of art. This ...

Episode 331 – The Ceiling Fresco of Sant’Ignazio in Rome

Posted: May 21st, 2025

One of Rome’s most spectacular works of art is the illusionistic fresco that covers the ceiling of the church Sant’Ignazio. It was painted in 1685, covers nearly 40m of ceiling surface and depicts the “Glorification of St. Ignatius of Loyola” in an extraordinary example of trompe-l’oeil pe...