November 28th - December 2nd
This five day course explores Christmas themes in Florentine art from the medieval period to the baroque.
Conducted mainly through guided visits to churches, chapels, palaces and museums, together with lectures on the iconography of the Nativity, the history of the Italian Christmas Crib, and on two of Botticelli’s exquisite and highly personal Nativity and Epiphany paintings.
We will explore why the subject of the Magi becomes a dominant theme in Florentine art from the mid-fifteenth century onwards and how the Epiphany is linked to the most important family in Florence – the Medici. The course includes a special hands-on session in a Florentine bottega to learn and experiment the renaissance technique of egg-tempera painting and of gilding.
No art experience is needed for this, and you get to take home your ‘Renaissance’ nativity painting.
Late November and early December is a perfect time to experience a Florence free from crowded streets and busy museums. It is also a time when the Christmas markets begin, like the traditional Mercato di Natale di Heidelberg which brings a flavour of the european north to the Piazza Santa Croce.
