History of Art Courses - 10 hours

History of art courses are of 10 hours and are done over a period of either 2 or 4 weeks. They include one-to-one classroom lessons with slides, books and/or other printed material, as well as guided visits to specific places of interest in the city and to its works of art. For students with no previous experience there will be a two hour introductory lesson.

  • Language: Italian
  • Teacher: degree in art history with teaching experience, official tour guide authorized by the town of Florence

Introductory lesson

  • Introduction to history of art: obligatory for those with no previous experience.
  • From the ancient world to contemporary times, analysis of the works of art which reflect the time in which they were made: a study of how every work reflects the needs of the moment in which it was produced as well as the elite for whom it was made.
  • Introduction to the figure of the artist and how their social position changed from simple artisan to intellect.
  • How to read a work of art: iconographical and iconological interpretation.
  • Duration: 2 hours.
  • Entrance fees to museums are not included in the price.

SA 1 - From the Middle Ages to the Early Renaissance

  • Historical introduction to the middle ages
  • Medieval man
  • Great changes which occur in society: the passage from rural life to urbanization. The great need for spirituality, the conception of the world and the hereafter during this time.
  • The construction of the cathedrals
  • The mendicant orders
  • Public buildings
  • Mercantile relations with the Arab world
  • Historic, social, economical, and philosophical changes that lead to the birth of new man.
  • Giotto, Cosimo il Vecchio, Brunellesci, Donatello, Masaccioe and the workshop of Ghiberti.
  • 8 hours of one to one classroom lessons and 2 guided visits.
  • Cost of total museum entrance approximately 4 Euro.

SA 2 - From Early Renaissance to Late Renaissance

  • The different artistic languages that characterize the Florentine scene
  • The artists who follow the most radical and innovative movement... that of Masaccio, Brunelleschi and Donatello.
  • The members of a traditional movement of the late 1400’s and the movement of the moderate artists, or those who approached innovation cautiously
  • The other pole of the artistic renewal.... The Flemmish and their renaissance
  • The other centers of the Italian Renaissance amongst which Urbino and Piero della Francesca
  • The artistic scene in Florence at the end of the 1500’s
  • The great workshops: those of Verrocchio, of the Pollaiolos and of the della Roggias
  • The art of Botticelli, an interpreter of the culture and refined renaissance and an expression of a society that was by then in decline --- and that saw in Lorenzo il Magnifico its political and intellectual representative.
  • 6 hours of one to one classroom lessons and 4 guided visits.
  • Cost of total museum entrance approximately 20 Euro.

SA 3 - The Cinquecento

  • Painting in Venice: the affirmation of ‘tonal’ painting
  • Giorgione and Titian and the alternative choices of Sebastiano del Piombo, the artist who united the innovations of of Giorgione and Titian’s painting with the the reflection on ancient art.
  • Painting in Venice during the second half of the Cinquecento: Bassano, Tintoretto, Veronese.
  • Leonardo da Vinci: from Florentine beginnings to the Milan season
  • Leonardo, man of science who expresses the most ancient values of humanism
  • Michelangelo, from Florentine beginnings to the great season in Rome
  • Michelangelo: painter, sculptor, architect and poet
  • The great works of Michelangelo for the Medici.
  • Raffaello, from the beginnings in the workshop of Perugino to the stay in Florence and to the great season in Rome
  • 6 hours of one to one classroom lessons and 4 guided visits.
  • Cost of total museum entrance approximately 23 Euro.

SA 4 - Mannerist Art

  • The great inheritance of Raffaello, Michelangelo and Leonardo
  • The diffusion of a classical movement and of a mannerist one
  • The great characters ... of Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Daniele da Volerra, Andrea del Sarto.
  • Refined and cultured art at the court of Cosimo de Medici and in the other European courts
  • Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza Signoria: Gianbologna, Cellini and Ammanati
  • Boboli Gardens: extraordinary example of the Italian garden, result of a refined and intellectual society as was that of the second half of the Cinquecento.
  • 4 hours of one to one classroom lessons and 6 guided visits.
  • Cost of total museum entrance approximately 18 Euro.

SA 5 - The Seicento

  • Rome at the beginning of the Seicento: capital of the catholic restoration ...
  • The protagonists ... of the renovation of painting in Rome: Caravaggio, from the Lombard beginnings to the season in Rome, Caracci, from the Academy in Bologna to Rome
  • Genre Painting. the naturalist movement and the classical movement
  • Caravaggio and his influence
  • The great Baroque art of Rome and the painting of the 17th century in the rest of Europe: Bernini, Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, Rubens...
  • Florentine painting of the 17th century
  • 6 hours of one to one classroom lessons and 4 guided visits.
  • Cost of total museum entrance approximately 16 Euro.

PRICES:

Introductory lesson:  40 Euro 

Every 10 hours   400 Euro

Every additional 10 hours  350 Euro

History of Art - 5 hour thematic courses

Group and individual courses

TSA 1 - The Medici

  • The story of a dynasty that made art into an instrument of power and prestige.
  • Visit to Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Medici Riccardi

TSA 2 - Potions and Poisons: alchemy and art in Florence of the past

  • Visit to the Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella
  • Visit to the study of Francesco I in Palazzo Vecchio

TSA 3 - Gold background painting

  • Visit to an artisan workshop which uses gold leaf
  • Visit to the Horne Museum

TSA 4 - The history of the great cycles of frescoes present in Florence during the Renaissance

  • Visit to the church of Santa Maria Novella
  • Visit to the church of San Marco

TSA 5 - History of costumes and shoes

  • Visit to the Costume Gallery of Palazzo Pitti
  • Visit tot he Ferragamo shoe museum

TSA 6 - History of cuisine seen through painting

  • Preparation of a typical Florentine dish
  • Visit to the market of San Lorenzo

TSA 7 - History of Sculpture

  • Visit to the Bargello Museum
  • Visit to the Marino Marini museum