Monash University - Renaissance in Florence
16 November - 16 December 2012
Summary
- Institution Monash University, Department of History
- Monash Course ATS2612/ATS3612
- Course Coordinator Dr Peter Howard
- Credit Points 12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL
- Prerequisites At discretion of the Department of History
- Enrolments Credit & Cross-Credit Students or as a study tour without assessment
About the Course
Once again, Australians Studying Abroad and the Department of History at Monash University are collaborating to offer one of the university's undergraduate courses on site overseas. The Renaissance in Florence is an exciting opportunity to be part of a group of Monash students (including students of mature-age) as a member of an intensive, accredited study of Florence in the city itself. All group members, whether or not they are enrolled as Monash students, will be full members in a program of formal lectures, tutorials and site-visits, and will gain a deep understanding of the city and the people who gave birth to the Renaissance.
The course will be based in Prato enabling group members to utilise the facilities of The Monash University Prato Centre, located on the ground and first floors of the elegant 18th century Palazzo Vaj on Via Pugliesi in the historic centre of Prato. In addition, The Monash University Prato Centre is now home to an exciting new development in Medieval and Renaissance studies. A number of leading overseas universities and scholars have joined with Monash to form a consortium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in the Monash Centre at Prato, making possible the involvement of specialists in teaching the course.
Introduction
The Renaissance in Florence places the extraordinary cultural flowering of the Florentine Renaissance in its historical context from a social, political, religious and cultural perspective. The course combines formal lectures and discussion in tutorials with lectures on site to follow the Renaissance from its earliest beginnings in the society of the Medieval Tuscan city-states to its climax in the 15th and early 16th centuries under the control of Cosimo, Piero, Lorenzo de' Medici (il Magnifico), and the later Medici Dukes. The course begins with an exploration of the city and its evolution over the centuries which is designed to penetrate our own popular vision of the Florentine Renaissance as it was shaped for us by 19th-century art critics and British travellers and writers like E.M. Forster, and in more recent popular novels like Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy. Thereafter, we plunge backwards in time to investigate the Medieval visions of landscape and city life that emerged from the instability and violence of the High Middle Ages in a town such as Prato. A very few Italian city-states, including Siena and Florence, preserved their communal liberty in this period, founding a way of life that fostered the participation of large numbers of citizens, and creating an atmosphere in which statecraft, the economy, religious devotion and the arts could flourish in unique ways.
In Siena and Florence we investigate the rebirth of Western art that accompanied these developments, following the relationship between art and society as it appeared in Dante's age in the works of such artists as Giotto, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and their followers, and the later masters of the Florentine Renaissance: Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Masolino, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and many others. At every stage, the works of these artists are interpreted as part of the Florentine social fabric.
Lectures and tutorials examine and reflect upon the civic culture of Florentine men and women of all ranks, and trace changes in ideas about city life, religious devotion, the place of women, political trends and other themes. We examine the rise of the Medici, and the physical expressions of oligarchical power in the grandiose urban dwellings of great lineages including the Medici, Strozzi and Rucellai, and in the many sumptuously decorated family chapels with which these wealthy citizens filled Florence's churches from the 14th century.
We step outside of Florence into the surrounding Tuscan countryside exploring both the imposing country villas of the patrician families, such as Caffaggiolo in the Mugello and Lorenzo the Magnificent's Poggio a Caiano. Here we learn of the relationship between the city and country, the dependence of the Florentine economy on agriculture and the subsequent need for the city to both control and expand her territories.
In a visit to Scarperia, located at the foot of the Appenines on the road between Florence and Bologna, we examine the phenomenon of 'New Towns'; the creation of urban centres in strategic military positions in the countryside. These themes are followed into the 16th century, when a more courtly milieu emerged, and the rule of a succession of hereditary Medici Dukes replaced the Renaissance Florentine republic. In examining the work of such figures as Michelangelo, we shall need first to understand how their subsequent reputations have affected ever since our own ideas of greatness and creativity.
Similarly, by placing the Renaissance in its historical context as part of an intimate study conducted in the city of its birth, we shall come to understand the significance of this major cultural movement for ordinary people of the period, and the tremendous influence that it has exerted on our own cities, and our social and cultural life.
Prato provides a unique prism for the thematic explorations of the course. A walled town, with a beautifully preserved historical centre, Prato demonstrates its own 'cultural flowering' in the art, politics and architecture of the 14th and 15th century. In this setting we draw together the themes explored throughout the course and 'read' the city of Prato – its architecture, streetscapes, neighbourhoods, families and churches – as documents of its' past and continuing evolution as a city.
In Arezzo and San Sepolcro we will follow the Piero della Francesca Trail and visit his most famous works: the cycle of frescoes The Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco and the Resurrection of Christ at San Sepolcro.
How the Course Works
The course consists of a mix of site-visits, formal lectures, seminars and tutorials (indicated in the program below). The lecture usually deals with a general theme to be investigated during the day's site visits, while tutorials and seminars seek to deepen the knowledge gained. Course participants will received readings and other resources relevant to the course.
Participants who are not enrolled as Monash students will not be required to complete any work for assessment after the course ends, but will participate to the full in all activities throughout the course. Detailed information regarding the program, teaching, resources and related details will be supplied to people who have booked to take part in the course.
Course Coordinator
Dr Peter Howard in addition to courses on Renaissance Florence and Renaissance Europe, Peter Howard teaches across a range of thematic areas related to the religious and social history of early modern Europe in the Department of History at Monash University. His current research interest is the relationship of orality to culture in Renaissance Italy. He has published widely in the area of medieval sermon studies, including Beyond the Written Word: Preaching and Theology in the Florence of Archbishop Antoninus, 1427-1459 (Florence: Olschki, 1995), and (edited with Cynthia Troup) Cultures of Devotion: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Religion(Monash Publications in History, 2000). His forthcoming book is entitled Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2011).
He has held fellowships at the European University Institute, Florence, and 'Villa I Tatti': the Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies (2000-2001), where he was also Visiting Professor in 2007. His responsibilities for The Renaissance in Florence involve the course design, staffing and liaison with ASA.
Tutors and Guest Lecturers
The course is staffed by a Course Leader & Onsite Coordinator, as well as tutors and guest lecturers.
- Emeritus Professor John Paoletti: Guest Lecturer
- Emeritus Professor John Paoletti will contribute some of the lectures and site visits to the course. He was Professor of Art History and the William R Kenan Professor of the Humanities at Wesleyan University, Connecticut. He is author and editor of nine books, including Art in Renaissance Italy, a standard text on the subject (just published in its 4th edition), and a benchmark collection of essays – Renaissance Florence: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, NY) – which appeared in hardcover in 2006, and paperback in 2008.
John Paoletti has also published more than 70 articles, and has just completed a book on Michelangelo’s David. For many years Professor Paoletti was editor of the prestigious journal, The Art Bulletin. He has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti, and a McGeorge Fellow at The University of Melbourne. He is also a much awarded teacher. In November 2010 he delivered the inaugural Bill Kent Memorial Lecture at Monash University.
- Hannah Fulton: Tutor and Administration
- Hannah Fulton is a postgraduate and tutor in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University. Her work as a postgraduate is concerned with the Ospedale degli Innocenti or the Hospital of the Innocents, as an institution for the care of abandoned children in Renaissance Florence. In particular she is interested in the provision of charity, the place of women and children in the history of the Florentine Renaissance and the transition from republic to duchy in the sixteenth century. Her past teaching experience has covered a range of areas from twentieth century international studies to the intrigues of London during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This will be the sixth time Hannah has been a member of the Renaissance in Florence team.
- Emma Nicholls: Tutor and Student Liaison
- Emma Nicholls is a postgraduate and tutor in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University. Her postgraduate research focusses on the culture of silk in fifteenth-century Florence. Her interests are varied, but centre on ideas and the material culture of the city. She has broad teaching experience, most recently coordinating, tutoring, and lecturing in the large first year course at Monash - Renaissance Europe. As an undergraduate, Emma was a student in the "Renaissance in Florence". This will be the second time that Emma has been involved as a member of the Renaissance in Florence time.
