Structure and Beauty: The Triumph of Italian Art

30 December 2012 - 13 January 2013

Tour Highlights

• • Gain a thorough understanding of the development of Italian art from a learned and highly experienced tour lecturer, Professor Bernard Hoffert, Associate Dean in Monash University's Faculty of Art and Design
• • Based in Rome, Prato and Venice we visit some of the greatest museums in Italy (Villa Borghese, Vatican, Uffizi, Accademia, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection) and explore different artistic periods and historical eras
• • Immerse yourself in the marvels of a myriad buildings, sculptures and paintings by Italy's masters, just like a traveller of the Grand Tour
• • Study the work of the Italian masters: Giotto, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Caravaggio, Bernini, Giorgione, Tintoretto and Titian
• • Learn about continuity and change in the art and architecture of Italy from classical antiquity to the 18th century, while building your visual vocabulary and honing your analytical skills
• • Consider the contribution of religion and new political forms like the City State, the development and rise of the Comune and the influence of different environments upon regional innovations
• • Enjoy Italian food and wine in local restaurants and discover flavours and dishes from times gone by. Take the opportunity to try the coda alla vaccinara in Rome, the famous ribollita soup in Florence or have an aperitivo in a typical osteria along Venice canals with a glass of excellent Italian wine.
• • Visit Italy in winter, a time when fewer crowds allow you to immerse yourself in the Italian way of life, particularly during the Christmas period lasting until the Epiphany (6th January)
• • Enjoy the most exciting night of the year in Rome – New Year's Eve – when the city puts on a feast of performances in places like the Forum and Quirinale
• • Discover the Roman civilization visiting the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and Pompeii­ – the wonderful site that preserves in a time capsule not only the life-style of the wealthy, but also that of everyday citizens
• • Discover Arezzo and the Church of San Francesco with the incredible Early Renaissance fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca depicting the Legend of the True Cross
• • Explore the World Heritage town of Ravenna with its early Christian buildings and the supreme artistry of the mosaic art
• • Visit Assisi, the mystic town of Saint Francis still surrounded by ancient walls, and the Basilica of Saint Francis with its early Renaissance masterpieces by Giotto and Cimabue. See the main piazza of Assisi graced by its medieval bell tower... so amazing that Goethe detoured just to gaze on it!
• • Group members will be provided with a whisperer (wireless headset) for the duration of the tour.

About the Tour

Led by Professor Bernard Hoffert, Associate Dean in Monash's Faculty of Art and Design this tour explores the dynamic interaction between continuity and change in the art and architecture of Italy from classical antiquity to the 18th century. In Rome, Pompeii, Assisi, Florence, Siena, Monterchi, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Ravenna and Venice, we ask how the giants of Italian visual culture, such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Bramante, Bernini, Titian and Caravaggio shaped the Western tradition. In monuments and museums everywhere we see how they perpetuated the heritage of the Romans, integrated the Byzantine style into their art and modified both by developing new ideas and forms. We gauge the contribution of religion and new political forms like the City State, and the influence of different environments upon regional innovations. We begin with the great monuments of ancient Rome and Pompeii's fascinating ruins and then consider Rome's Early Christian churches and High Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces of painting, sculpture and architecture. We see how Michelangelo brought a new monumentality to art and architecture, and how architect Borromini, painter Caravaggio, and polymath Bernini all innovated upon antiquity's heritage. We next explore the genesis of Renaissance clarity and proportion in Giotto's Assisi cycles, paintings by Masaccio, Uccello, Botticelli, Fra Filippo Lippi and Leonardo, sculpture of Donatello and Michelangelo, and architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi. In Siena we contrast Florentine gravitas to Sienese grace and pay homage to Piero della Francesca through his fresco cycle of the Story of the True Cross in Arezzo and his masterful the Resurrection and Madonna of Mercy in Sansepolcro. We explore the contribution of Eastern mysticism through the scintillating, brilliantly coloured Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, and then consider how the rich impasto of Venetian masters like Giorgione, Titian and Tintoretto posed an alternative to Florentine linear clarity by reconciling classical form to the Byzantine colouristic tradition. Their paintings captured the refractive light of the Lagoon, which was also exploited by the colourism of Venetian architects. An affordable option, this tour uses 2 and 3-star accommodation including the historic convent of San Trovaso in Venice.