The Italian Renaissance Podcast

At the height of his career in Rome, Raphael was commissioned by the wealthy banker Agostino Chigi to join a large workforce of artists decorating his villa on the outskirts of central Rome, known today as the Villa Farnesina. The decoration is entirely secular, depicting a wide range of pagan mythologies all throughout what can be considered a pleasure palace. 
Raphael's major contributions were his Galatea and his decoration of the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche. This episode explores the history of these works, particularly how they relate to their function and to their patron, Agostino Chigi. Raphael did not paint very many mythological works, so this villa serves as a stunning example of Raphael's work beyond the typical conventions of High Renaissance Rome. 
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Works Discussed: 
Sebastiano del Piombo, Polyphemus & Raphael, Galatea, ca. 1512 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/s/sebastia/polyphe.html
Raphael and workshop, Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, 1518 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/r/raphael/5roma/4a/
The Florentine Renaissance Course

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In this episode, we explore Raphael’s extraordinary decoration of the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura, one of the defining achievements of the High Renaissance. At the center is the famous School of Athens, but the true masterpiece is the whole of the room’s larger intellectual and theological program. We examine how Raphael brings together classical philosophy, poetry, law, and Christian theology into a unified vision of knowledge itself. Along the way, we consider the remarkable portraits, ancient influences, and artistic personalities embedded within these frescoes. The episode ultimately reveals how the School of Athens leads toward the theological vision, unifying the glorified pagan past with his Christian present. 
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Works Discussed: 
Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, 1508-1511 https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/stanze-di-raffaello/stanza-della-segnatura/stanza-della-segnatura.html
The Florentine Renaissance Course

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In 1534, Michelangelo was called back to Rome to complete his final work inside the Sistine Chapel for the altar wall, his Last Judgement. In the decades between his painting of the ceiling and his return, Rome was subject to two major historical events: the start of the Protestant Reformation and the 1527 Sack of Rome. 
This episode looks at the Last Judgement as a product of this new historical shift in Renaissance Rome. We also look at the critics of the work, both locally from Biagio da Cesena, and from far off Venice from the infamous Scourge of Princes, Pietro Aretino, in order to understand how society responded to Michelangelo's work in the most holy chapel in all of Catholicism. 
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Works Discussed: 
Michelangelo, Last Judgement, 1535-41 https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/giudizio-universale.html
The Florentine Renaissance Course

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Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling is one of the defining masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, but its creation was equally defined by friction as much as genius. This episode follows Michelangelo's turbulent relationship with Pope Julius II, from the abrupt cancellation of the pope's monumental tomb commission to the unlikely assignment of painting the chapel's vast ceiling. We explore how Michelangelo transformed the project into an ambitious visual narrative and testament of divinely inspired artistic genius.
We examine how his revolutionary approach to anatomy, composition, and artistic invention, exemplified in The Creation of Adam, forever changed the course of Renaissance painting. 
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Works Discussed: 
Michelangelo, Pietà, 1499 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)
Michelangelo, Tomb of Pope Julius II (unfinished), 1505-1545 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/michelan/1sculptu/giulio_2/giulio2.html
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508-1512 https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/volta.html
The Florentine Renaissance Course

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Before the era of the High Renaissance, Pope Sixtus IV commissioned one of the most ambitious artistic projects of the Roman Quattrocento, the Sistine Chapel. In this episode, we explore the chapel's original decoration and the remarkable group of artists, including Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Signorelli, and Roselli, who transformed its walls into a monumental visual narrative in line with the symbolic force of the papacy. 
We begin by examining Pope Sixtus IV, his political ambitions, and his vision of the Sistine Chapel as a new Temple of Solomon and a powerful symbol of papal authority. From there, we analyze some of the cycle's greatest surviving frescoes, including Botticelli's Punishment of Korah, Perugino's Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, Signorelli's Death and Testament of Moses, and Cosimo Roselli's underrated Last Supper. Together, these masterpieces reveal how art, theology, and politics combined to create one of the defining monuments of the Renaissance and laid the foundation for Michelangelo's later masterpiece upon the chapel ceiling. 
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Works Discussed: 
Sandro Botticelli, The Punishment of Korah, 1481-82 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/botticel/4sistina/punishme/korah.html
Luca Signorelli and Biagio d'Antonio, Testament and Death of Moses, 1481-82 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/s/signorel/sistina/moses.html
Pietro Perugino, Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, 1481-82 https://www.wga.hu/html_m/p/perugino/sistina/keys.html
Cosimo Rosselli, Last Supper, 1481-82 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Supper_(Rosselli)
The Florentine Renaissance Course

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