in Renaissance Art - British Institute of Florence

Women
in Renaissance Art
3 - 7 March 2014
As Italy prepares its International Women’s Day celebrations (8 March), the
British Institute of Florence offers a unique opportunity to study the extraordinary
women of the Renaissance. Through lectures, site visits throughout Florence, and
informal discussions, this thematic course focuses on the “Renaissance Woman”
and her many contributions to artistic, domestic and courtly life during the 15th
and 16th centuries.
Women as artists, patrons of art, writers and musicians in their own right,
particularly among the ruling families of Florence and the Northern Italian city
states, will be examined through the examples of Suor Plautilla Nelli, Lavinia
Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica
Franco, Isabella d’Este, Eleonora of Toledo and others.
Special attention will be given to renaissance domestic interiors through the study
of marriage paintings, wedding chests (cassoni) and birth salvers (deschi da parto)
which sometimes reveal unexpected aspects of the sexual mores of the period
within marriage and outside it. Visits to galleries, house museums and historic
gardens will introduce participants to spaces and artworks that communicate the
status, power, intellect and legacy of these remarkable women of the age.
Monday
3
10:00 - 11:30 am
Lecture
The “Renaissance Woman”
Lisa Kaborycha
3:00 - 4:30 pm
Lecture
Women artists of the Italian Renaissance
Alexandra Lawrence
Tuesday
4
10:00 - 11:30 am
Visit
Museo Horne
Alexandra Lawrence
3:00 - 4:30 pm
Visit
Galleria degli Uffizi:
an overview of women in Renaissance art,
from the sacred to the profane
Caterina Romei
Wednesday
5
10:00 - 11:30 am
Visit
From ‘Orto de’Pitti’ to Granduchal gardens:
Eleonora of Toledo’s pivotal role
in the making of the Boboli gardens
Anna Piussi
2:00 - 3:30 pm
Lecture
Rime diverse d’alcune donne:
women poets of the Italian Renaissance
Alexandra Lawrence
Thursday
6
10:00 - 11:30 am
Lecture
Le donne della musica:
Isabella d’Este and other women musicians
at the Mantuan Court
Kate Bolton
3:00 - 4:30 pm
Visit
Galleria Palatina and the Museo degli Argenti:
brides, saints and sinners in High Renaissance
painting
Caterina Romei
10:00 - 11:30 am
Lecture
Plants and gardens in the Renaissance;
a woman’s role
Anna Piussi
3:00 - 4:30 pm
Lecture
Medici “matronage” from Lucrezia Tornabuoni
to Anna Maria Luisa de’Medici
Lisa Kaborycha
Friday
7
Lisa Kaborycha PhD
received a BA in Comparative Literature, an MA in Italian Studies, and a PhD in Medieval and
Early Modern European History from the University of California, Berkeley. Her area of specialty
is the cultural and social history of renaissance Florence; she has extensively researched 15th
century Florentine manuscripts known as zibaldoni. The author of A Short History of Renaissance
Italy (Prentice Hall, 2010), Dr. Kaborycha has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, a National
Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and a fellowship with Villa I Tatti, the Harvard
University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. She has taught for the University of California
and the University of Minnesota in Florence, where she has lived for the past seven years.
Caterina Romei MA
graduated in History of Art from the University of Florence with a thesis on the ‘CounterReformation in the church of SS. Annunziata’ and received her laurea specialistica in Museology
with a thesis on ‘Copyists and painters: visitors to the Uffizi Gallery at the end of the 18th century’.
Caterina has taught for many years on study abroad programmes for American universities.
Alexandra Lawrence MA
wrote on Dante’s use of ekphrasis in Purgatory X while a Master’s student of Italian Language
and Literature at San Francisco State University. She has lived in Florence since 1999 and teaches
literature, contemporary Italian culture, and travel writing courses at several local universities. She
is a professional guide, an editor at The Florentine newspaper and on the council of advisors for
the Advancing Women Artists Foundation.
Kate Bolton MPhil
has over 25 years’ professional experience in the early and Classical music world. She teaches
Baroque and Classical music and cultural history at the Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici. Her postgraduate thesis focused on music and dance in 14th century Italy, since which she has published
extensively as an academic, journalist and critic. Prior to moving to Italy in 2007, she was Senior
Producer with BBC Arts & Classical Music, and Artistic Director of the prestigious Lufthansa
Festival of Baroque Music, in London.
Anna Piussi PhD
was born in Florence. She received her BA in Humanities from New York University and her
D.Phil. (PhD) in History of Art from Oxford University, with a thesis on 18th century French
Orientalist art. While in Oxford she acquired an RHS Certificate in Horticulture, and a Diploma
in Garden Design. Anna has over 15 years of experience in teaching history of art and garden
history, including for Florence University of the Arts and New in Florence at Villa La Pietra.
She is a professional garden designer and has participated in several international garden shows.
Her Medieval-themed garden won First Prize at Orticolario 2012. With her colleague Stefano
Passerotti, she took part in the 2013 RHS Chelsea Flower Show with “The Sonic Pangea Garden”
which was awarded a Bronze Medal in the Fresh Gardens category. She has several publications
on gardens and other topics, and is currently assisting in research for a BBC series on historical
vegetables in Italy.
For more information: Rebecca De Masi, History of Art Administrator - 05526778268 - [email protected] - Lungarno Guicciardini 9, Firenze 50125: Mon - Fri, 9:00 am - 5:30 pm