Humanities West Lecture Series on the Medici in San Francisco!
Uhm Roxanne mark you calendar for April 22nd cuz we may have to go to this lecture and music of Francesca Caccini!!
25th Anniversary Season
The Florence of the Medici:
Commerce, Power, and Art in Renaissance Italy
April 30 and May 1, 2010
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Out of a small but fiercely competitive city of some 60,000 inhabitants there erupted, between the 14th and 17th centuries, a torrent of artistic and intellectual creativity that transformed western culture. The wealth of the city, and especially of its rulers, the Medici, whose patronage and influence embraced much of Italy and beyond, made possible an outburst of artistic and intellectual innovations that had consequences throughout Europe. Home to Dante, Toscanelli (the geographer who inspired Columbus), Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo, Florence in these years was at the cutting edge of changes that eventually were to shape the modern world.
Moderator: Theodore Rabb, PhD (History), Emeritus, Princeton University
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Schedule of Events
Friday, April 30, 2010
8:15 pm until 10:15 pm
"For the glory of God and the honor of the city, and the commemoration of myself:" Cosimo de' Medici's Patronage of Art
Keynote Address.
Dale Kent (History, UC Riverside).
Cosimo de’ Medici achieved power in his lifetime and fame beyond it through his outstanding skills in business and politics—civic, Italian, and international. But he captured the imagination of his contemporaries and has remained an almost legendary figure of history largely because he devoted much of his wealth to patronage of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance. This lecture will examine the image that Cosimo’s commissions expressed; his dedication to family, friends and city, his concern for salvation after death, and his pleasure in the cultivated enjoyment of this life.
Public Sculpture in the Florence of the Medici
Loren Partridge (Art History, UC Berkeley).
The extraordinary marble and bronze freestanding figures embellishing the public spaces of Florence constitute some of the greatest glories of Renaissance art. Bold and inventive, thanks to the intense pressure of public scrutiny and artistic rivalry, these monumental works represent some of the most significant aesthetic achievements within Medicean Florence. They register and construct the city’s shifting political discourse across two centuries. Works discussed include Donatello’s gilt bronze St. Louis of Toulouse (1422-25), Verrocchio’s bronze Christ and Doubting Thomas (1467-83), Michelangelo’s marble David (1501-04), Bandindelli’s marble Hercules and Cacus (1534), Cellini’s bronze Perseus Beheading Medusa (1554), Danti’s marble Cosimo I as Augustus (1572-73), and Giambologna’s Equestrian Monument to Cosimo I (1594).
Saturday, May 1, 2010
10:00 am until 12 noon & 1:30 to 4:00 pm
Creating the Uffizi: The Medici and Their Museum
Paula Findlen (History, Stanford University).
The Uffizi gallery is one of the most enduring legacies of the Medici. This lecture traces the multiple transformations of the Medici collections, from the origins under Cosimo il Vecchio to the creation of the gallery in the sixteenth century and its reinvention as a public museum in the eighteenth century. What was the meaning of this collection for the Medici? How did it become one of the most famous and visited museums in the world?
The Birth of a New Politics
Theodore Rabb (History, Princeton University).
Even as Florence alternated between the rule of the Medici and a more broadly-based republican structure, two of her citizens were rethinking the very nature of politics and political destiny. Machiavelli and Guicciardini were neighbors; both served the city's government; and both were experienced diplomats. Both, too, were students of history. But Guicciardini's conclusions were deeply pessimistic. Machiavelli, on the other hand, fashioned a way of thinking about political life that offered scope for human action, and his ideas were to influence thought and behavior for generations.
Musical Performance.
The rich and florid secular music of the courts of the Italian trecento. Susan Rode Morris (soprano), Michelle Levy and Shira Kammen (vielles and medieval harp), present a selection of compositions from this era of astonishing and gorgeous musical styles. The songs concern love and politics, and the instrumental dances represent a spicy and highly ornamented repertoire.
Michelangelo and the Medici: A Forced Relationship?
Morten Steen Hansen (Art History, Stanford University).
At the funeral of Michelangelo (1475-1564) in Florence, orchestrated by the newly founded Accademia del Disegno under the patronage of Duke Cosimo I, Michelangelo was praised as the Florentine genius who had perfected Tuscan style. Nurtured in the sculpture garden of Lorenzo de Medici, Michelangelo had made the school of Florence superior to any other artistic school, and his art was taken to prove Tuscan cultural hegemony inseparable from the Medici family. The same Michelangelo had, however, carved a Brutus in celebration of the assassination of Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence. This lecture explores the conflicted relationship between artist and the Florentine family.
Panel Discussion with all Presenters
Related Events
Humanities Book Discussion with Lynn Harris
The Montefeltro Conspiracy: A Renaissance Mystery Decoded by Marcello Simonetta
April 14, 2010
5:30 to 6:30 pm
The Board Room
Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, San Francisco
Free to the public
For more information: commonwealthclub.org
For reservations click here.
Lecture
Medicean Music and Francesca Caccini: Virtuosa to the Medici
Kip Cranna (SF Opera) and Richard Savino (CSU Sacramento)
April 22, 2010
5:00 Reception
Hosted by Humanities West sponsor Rangoni Firenze Shoes
on the street level of the Mechanics’ Institute Building
61 Post Street, San Francisco
6 pm Lecture
Mechanics’ Institute
57 Post Street, San Francisco
rsvp@milibrary.org
Kip Cranna will briefly introduce us to music in the Medicean world. Richard Savino will discuss Francesca Caccini, composer of the first published opera by a woman, including her role within the Medici court, her relationship with her father, Giulio Caccini ( author of the most important singing treatise of the early Baroque period), and her friendship with Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the most important women painters of the early seventeenth century.
Fireside Chat with George Hammond
A Medici Preview
April 27, 2010
7 pm
Orinda Library, Orinda
Free to the public
Refuge and Recognition: Artemisia Gentileschi in Florence, 1613-1620
Andrea Husby
April 28, 2010
5:30 reception, 6 pm Lecture
Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, San Francisco
$8 for Commonwealth Club members
$15 for non-members
In 1971, the art historian Linda Nochlin asked the question,”Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” In response, art historians have rediscovered the lives and work of dozens of women artists who enjoyed well deserved reputations during their own lifetimes but had been lost to Western art history. Among these women, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652/4), whose personal life was as dramatic as her paintings, enjoyed an international reputation on a par with many of her male contemporaries. One of the first women artists to live exclusively on income from her artwork, Artemisia’s recognition as a professional artist began in Florence under the patronage of Cosimo II de’ Medici. Choosing themes that resonated not only with the history of this great art center, but also with the fortunes of fate of the de’ Medici dynasty itself, the Florentine phase of Artemisia’s long career produced masterpieces for which she is now accorded a place among the illustrious artists of the Baroque Period.
For more information: commonwealthclub.org
For reservations click here.
The Rediscovery of Composer Allessandro Striggio’s Great Mass
Davitt Moroney (UC Berkeley), introduced by Roger Hahn
April 29, 2010
5:00 pm
UC Berkeley Faculty Club
Information: 510 540 5678
Free to the public
Humanities West’s 25th Anniversary Celebration Benefit
Friday, April 30, 2010
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
Cucina Toscana, in the Green Room (above the Herbst Theatre)
War Memorial Performing Arts Building in San Francisco
Immediately prior to Humanities West’s Friday evening program on The Florence of the Medici at the Herbst Theatre (ticketed separately), Humanities West will host our 25th Anniversary Celebration Benefit.
Open to the public! $75.
Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute.
Catered by C’Era Una Volta.
Wine compliments of Rubicon Estate.
Tickets for the Medici program and the 25th Anniversary Benefit are both now available at
City Box Office: 415 392 4400.
Contact City Box Office directly, or download the reservations form.
Friends Luncheon
May 1, 2010
12 noon
Indigo
687 McAllister San Francisco, CA 94102
$45 per person
All donors to Humanities West are invited.
For reservations, email us , or download the reservations form.
Space is limited. Reserve early.
Post-Program Salon
May 6, 2010
5:30 pm Reception, 6 pm Salon
Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, San Francisco
$8 for Commonwealth Club members
$15 for non-members
For more information: commonwealthclub.org
For reservations click here.
Humanities Book Discussion with Lynn Harris
An Italian Renaissance Sextet by Lauro Martines
June 15, 2010
5:30 to 6:30 pm
The Board Room
Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, San Francisco
Free to the public
For more information: commonwealthclub.org
For reservations click here.
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