Adoration of the Magi : Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi
http://www.nga.gov/collection/adoration.shtm
The National Gallery of Art (U.S.) has provided this audio segment from a recording by Earl A. Power III, director of the gallery, made in 2001, on 'The Adoration of the Magi' by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi. A transcript of the recording is also provided together with links to information on, and other paintings by, the two artists.
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American Academy in Rome
http://www.aarome.org/
This pleasingly presented site provides comprehensive information about the American Academy in Rome, including full details of its residency opportunities, summer programmes, its Rome Prize, and fellowships. There are also details of current and forthcoming exhibitions, conferences, concerts, and other events. The site includes the online catalogue of the American Academy's library (via the URBS network of research libraries in Rome, which pools the catalogues for several scholarly institutions) and a complete list of the Academy publications (together with ordering information). A style sheet for the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome is available online. A page with helpful maps and synopses of the Academy's current and recent archaeological projects (excavations at Rome, Ostia, Jerba, Stabiae, Bomarzo, Cosa and Licenza) provides links to the relevant excavation journals and home pages. Details of its photographic archive are also present. The archive comprises specialized collections of photographs on archaeology, architecture, art and gardens. A few selected images are available online.
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Amici Prize : University of Pennsylvania
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/italians/resources/amici.html
This website makes available three projects undertaken as part of the undergraduate Amici Prize run by the Centre for Italian Studies at the University of Penn. These are entitled: "From Plato to Neoplatonism: Love, Beauty and Women in the Symposium and three Neoplatonic texts" by Stefania Patinella; "Roberto Rossellini and his Italian Cinema: The Search for Realism" by Karen Arnone; and "Italy's Conflicted Responses to Albanian Immigration and Lamerica's Transitive Historical Consciousness" by Rebecca Kalkoff. Each section includes a main essay and a couple of the projects link to further subsites which provide, for example, timelines and a bibliography. The Rossellini project provides an interesting look at the Italian director, which would prove useful for undergraduates in particular. Patinella considers the impact of Plato on the Renaissance in her essay, whilst Kalkoff delves deeper into Albanian immigration to Italy, which would be of value to undergraduates working on Gianni Amelio's Lamerica. The main website for the Amici Prize provides details on how to be considered for future prizes.
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Antonello da Messina : Sicily's renaissance master
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={22AD4095-7F72-4
This overview of an exhibition held between 13 December 2005 and 5 March 2006 on 'Antonello da Messina: Sicily's Renaissance Master' has been provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA). Messina was a major influence on Bellini and other Venetian artists, and this website provide images of four of his major paintings, including 'Ecce Homo'.
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ARchivio online
http://www.rupestre.net/archiv/
This website is a portal to several articles on the culture and environment of the mountain valleys in Piedmont, Italy. The website is organised as a newsletter, with a few issues available and various articles within each one. Popular traditions, cultural facts and rock art are the main sections. The first two sections can be useful in Italian studies and there are also articles on toponymy and traditional arts and crafts in the region. Italian and English texts appear side by side, an important feature for those wishing to learn the Italian language. The largest part of the website concentrates on the many sites of rock art in the region. In each issue, a drop-down menu facilitates navigation. The articles are generally very short, but also focus on very small sites and include pictures that can be enlarged as well as some drawings. Many archaeological sites in the region have been preserved because they are located in remote parts of alpine valleys, are difficult to spot and previously were not adequately represented in archaeological literature. The possibility to review most of them with simplicity is the greatest achievement of this website. The English index is available by clicking on the logo.
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Archivio storico dell'Università di Bologna
http://www.archiviostorico.unibo.it/
This is the website of the Archivio Storico dell'Università di Bologna (Historical archive of the University of Bologna). It makes available information in PDF on the University's holdings dating from 1860. Material relates specifically to Bologna and its University. Additionally available is a selection of photographic material held at the Archivio Storico relating to the University's buildings and academic life dating from 1860 too. Present are photographs of former members, plans and images of the University. A virtual tour of the University's Palazzo Poggi allows users to view paintings on display in the palace's individual rooms along with information on each painting's dimensions, dates, restoration history, and value. The "Quadreria" art gallery comprises over 700 works. Information on the archive's library is also provided. This resource is of particular interest to those researching the history of Bologna and its University and the "Quadreria" art gallery section would also appeal to art historians.
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Art and literature in Siena, 1250-1600 : online lectures
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/research/sienalecturesvideo.htm
The University of Leeds' Italian department makes available on its website four lectures from the lecture series "Art and literature in Siena, 1250-1600". Viewable via Windows Media Player, the lectures are: Stephen Milner, The City as a Work of Art : Making and Meaning in the Italian Renaissance; Matthew Treherne, Duccio and the Flowering of Sienese Art; Richard Andrews, Theatre in Renaissance Siena; and Philippa Jackson, Art, Power and Patronage in Renaissance Siena. Videos of the lectures are presented in High and Low resolution. Individuals covered in the lectures include: Duccio di Buoninsegna; Foucault; and Pandolfo Petrucci. This resource would be of value to art historians and those interested in Siena in particular, as a source of secondary material.
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Bibliotheca Hertziana - istituto Max Planck per la storia dell'arte
http://www.biblhertz.it/italiano/home/
This is the website of the Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Planck Institute, which was founded in Rome in 1913. The Institute is devoted to the study of Renaissance, Baroque and Medieval art in Rome, Central and Southern Italy. One of most important projects of the Institute focuses on the reception and assimilation of the classical world from the Middle Age to the Baroque period. Evolving from this project is the "Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture known to the Renaissance", a database of documents about Renaissance studies on antique painting, sculpture and architecture. Other projects include studies on: the written sources about Raphael's work; architectural drawings by Antonio da Sangallo the Young; the excavations of the early Christian Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso; and drawings by Borromini.
The bibliographic materials of the Institute focus on Italian art from the Middle Ages until the 20th century, and consist of thousands of volumes, periodicals and current publications. All the publications acquired by the library can be searched via the electronic catalogue available on the site. It is also possible to search the digital catalogue of the Photographic Collection. The site provides information on all the Institute's projects, publications, conferences and various activities. The site is in Italian although some of the content is available in English and German. Students and scholars of Italian history of art should find this site to be of great value.
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Bivio : biblioteca virtuale on-line
http://bivio.signum.sns.it/
Bivio: Biblioteca Virtuale On-Line [Bivio: Virtual Library Online] is a project which aims to offer an online library containing editions of rare historical, philosophical, artistic and philological texts, and their most favoured translations. Texts may be searched by keyword, or browsed by author or by theme. The thematic "suggested readings" section groups together similar texts of significance to Renaissance culture, such as works on rhetoric or the occult sciences. The system allows users to consult XML documents at textual and structural levels, as well as combining the two levels. The project is managed by the Centro di ricerche informatiche per le discipline umanistiche of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and the Italian Institute of Renaissance Studies (INSR), in collaboration with Harvard University's Department of History, the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, and the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This resource would be of value to scholars of Italian history as a source of primary materials.
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British School at Rome
http://www.bsr.ac.uk/
The British School at Rome (BSR) is a centre for research on the archaeology, history and culture of Italy, and for contemporary art and architecture. It is one of a large group of national academies in Rome. This website includes information about: residential awards for researchers and artists; a programme of exhibitions in contemporary art; a programme of lectures and conferences on the humanities; a specialist research library; a publications programme; and a virtual tour of the School. Also included are pages relating to archaeology fieldwork projects, including excavations at Forum Novum (villa, church and amphitheatre) since 1997 directed by the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, the British Museum and the British School at Rome, and carried out in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologica del Lazio. This project aims to complement other urban studies being carried out as part of the Tiber Valley project, in particular to the study of the larger scales of urban form currently being carried out by the University of Southampton. Interdisciplinary research projects also detailed here include: the Pompeii Project (an archaeological and multimedia investigation of a small section of the extinct city, known as Insula 9, which includes a virtual tour of Insula I.9 on this website); the Tiber Valley Project (an integrated project examining the hinterland-city relationship in central Italy); and the Roman Ports Project, which traces at the development of Portus, the port of imperial Rome.
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Canaletto in Venice
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/exhibition.asp?exhibition=ACANAL
This collection of 85 paintings and drawings of Venice produced by Canaletto, were acquired by King George III from Joseph Smith and have been organised into this online exhibition by Royal Collection Enterprises. Clicking on each image provides access to a magnifying facility to enable viewing of the pictures in close detail.
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Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)
http://www.ocaiw.com/catalog/index.php?lang=en&catalog=pitt&author=861
Available in English, Portuguese and Italian, this Web page about the Italian painter, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is part of OCAIW (Orazio Centaro's Art Images on the Web), a site attempting to build extensive links to networked image resources in the fields of painting, photography, sculpture and architecture. This page provides links to Web images of selected works by Caravaggio, an artist biography and a list of books that links to an online bookshop.
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Castello di Rivoli
http://www.castellodirivoli.org/#
The Castelli di Rivoli, near Turin, was originally built as a residence for the House of Savoy in the early 17th century, and was restored and opened as a Museum of Contemporary Art in 1984. The museum collection "documents crucial moments in the development of contemporary art in Italy and abroad from the 1950s to the present day." The website includes: information about the artists and works in the collection; details of current and previous exhibitions dating from 1998; a virtual tour of the museum which requires Macromedia Flash Player; a history of the castle and information about its restoration. The website is available in English and Italian.
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Christ Church picture gallery
http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=301&Item
This is the website for the University of Oxford's Christ Church College's art collection, which consists of some 300 paintings and almost 2,000 drawings, together with a collection of 18th and 19th century English glass, and a number of 17th and 18th century Russian icons. Regarded as the strongest collection of Italian art from the 14th to 18th centuries, artists featured in the collection include Leonardo; Michelangelo; Raphael; Rubens; and Tintoretto. Dürer is also represented. The website provides visitor information, and an overview of the collection.
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Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
http://www.idbsu.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html
The website "Civilization of the Renaissance" in Italy is an online version of Jacob Burckhardt's seminal reinterpretation of the Italian Renaissance and its influence on the development of the state, the individual and religion. The subject of a long historiographical debate, Burckhardt's text remains an interesting work for historians of both the early modern and modern periods - hailing as it does the Renaissance as the start of modernity. The book comprises the following parts: The State as a Work of Art; The Development of the Individual; The Revival of Antiquity; The Discovery of the World and of Man; Society and Festivals; and Morality and Religion. This site is part of a course on the Renaissance run by Professor Skip Knox at Boise State University.
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Compagnia di San Paolo
http://www.compagnia.torino.it/eng/
The Compagnia di San Paolo (Company of Saint Paul) was established in 1563 in Turin originally as a charitable brotherhood. It promotes cultural and economic development of the local community. This website provides an overview of the Company's history and activities. Details are given of the Company's archive, which contains documents relating to the history of Italy and the Piedmont region in particular. The archive in Turin is open for consultation by appointment. There is a secondary bibliography of works published on the subject of the Company, with some reviews. Its annual reports since 1997 are available to view in PDF, as is its newsletter, which covers recent developments and social issues. Information about the Company's projects in the fields of art, culture and education is provided. Press releases and speeches by key members of the non-profit organisation are also included. Guidelines are published regarding grant applications. This resource would be of use to those interested in Italian history, culture, and the history of art. It has special relevance to the region of Piedmont. The site is available both in Italian and English.
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Debbie Rusch
http://www2.bc.edu/~rusch/
Debbie Rusch, a tutor at Boston College, USA, has developed a series of Web-based activities for students of French, Spanish and Italian, which are accessible in full from her home page. These activities are culturally oriented and develop students' grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and listening skills. Aimed at intermediate language students, the site comprises art and film-based activities, a section entitled 'visual grammar', and comprehension questions to supplement the reading of French texts. The art-based activities direct students to websites related to, for example: Diego Rivera; Caravaggio; Roberto Matta; and surrealism; and ask questions that test students' understanding of the site's contents. The film-based activities require the students to watch, for example; Carlos Saura's 'Bodas de sangre'; Pedro Almodóvar's 'Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios'; and 'Les misérables'. Rusch's activities aim to enrich students' experience of the film by means of comprehension questions and direction to a number of related websites. 'Visual grammar' features short video clips about which the students are required to answer questions and write descriptive passages using target grammar points. It should be noted that these clips are made by the site's authors and may seem rather amateurish. This site will be of interest to teachers seeking new material for language classes, offering ideas for exploitation of multimedia and incorporation of cultural contexts within language tuition.
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Diary of Jacopo Pontormo
http://www.mega.it/pontormo/epontoho.htm
Published to accompany an exhibition, organised by the City of Empoli in Italy and held from December 22, 1996 to February 23, 1997, this website celebrates the work of the Italian painter, portraitist and leader of the Mannerist movement, Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1557). It provides background biographical details, information on the diary he kept towards the end of his life and details about the drawings that he produced for the frescoes in San Lorenzo. A few of those drawings are available on the website.
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DolceVita : design
http://www.dolcevita.com/design/
This guide to the latest trends in Italian design, forms part of DolceVita, an Italian website produced by the Alchera Group, which also covers travel, fashion and cuisines of Italy. 'Design' has a number of main sections: Trends in Italian design, looking at the style of the moment; Objects (exciting designs for everyday objects e.g. the Vespa motor scooter); Living (interior design); and Portraits (profiles of Italian designers and architects). There is also a Design Finder, with addresses and contact information including websites, as well as a section on retail outlets, and a page of links to other Web resources on Italian design. The Design Museum features winners of the Golden Compass award (Il Compasso d'Oro), first awarded by the Associazone Design Industriale (ADI) in 1954 to promote Italian industrial design. A series of feature articles cover a range of design topics such as furniture for the office; prototypes by young Italian designers; kitchen utensils; and design trends. There are profiles of the following Italian designers, accompanied by illustrations of their work: Gae Aulenti; Gaetano Pesce; Vico Magistretti; Bruno Munari; Gio Ponti; Aldo Rossi; Enzo Mari; Alessandro Mendini; Carlo Scarpa; Giorgietto Giugiaro; Roberto Sambonet; and Carlo Mollino.
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Earth & fire
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/terracottas/
The 'Earth and Fire' exhibition was held at the V&A in 2002. It examined "the full range of Italian terracotta sculpture between 1400 and 1800, including works by Ghiberti, Donatello, Bernini and Canova". This website provides a brief introduction to the exhibition, plus an illustrated description of its 12 sections, covering: the history of terracotta sculpture; the Ghiberti-Donatello style; the Renaissance portrait bust; Verrocchio and the terracotta model; statuary in clay; Benedetto da Maiano's pulpit reliefs; the cult of the model; relief sculpture; models of the Baroque; the Baroque portrait bust; 18th century works; and Canova. Brief information about conservation and the V&A sculpture collections is available.
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Etruscan collection
http://www.comune.bologna.it/museoarcheologico/collezio/menuc.htm
This is the part of the Archaeological Museum of Bologna's website. This section is dedicated to Etruscan art. The museum's most important and significant collection of Etruscan ceramics and metalwork deals with the history of Etruscan Bologna: from the 9th century to the middle of the 4th century BC. The online exhibition is divided into three themes: Villanoviana phase (900-680 BC); Orientalizzante phase (680-575 BC); and Felsinea phase (575-400 BC). The website is in Italian only.
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Exoticizing Vesuvius? formations of Naples c.1500-present
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/histart/naples/exoticizing_vesuvius.html
This is the website for a series of three AHRC-funded workshops in 2009, bringing together Neapolitanists and critically examine and rethink scholarship about the city of Naples, challenging dominant historical paradigms - the Grand Tour, the failure of the south – and promoting scholarship “across chronological and disciplinary divides”. The website includes details of each workshop, including abstracts of papers, and submission guidelines (at the time of writing the final two workshops were still accepting papers). Workshops are entitled: Exoticizing Vesuvius? The historical and intellectual formation of Neapolitan historiography; Topography and Piety - Naples Afflicted; Objects of Collecting in Naples and Naples as Object of Collecting. The project envisages outcomes published as a special issue of an academic journal.
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Exploring Leonardo
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/
This website is devoted to the scientist, inventor, and artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Developed by the Museum of Science in Boston, the site provides a resource for teachers and students which is attractively presented and easy to navigate. Although it is designed for US schoolchildren in grades four to eight, much of its content is suitable for older students. The sister site, offered by the Science Museum in London, for teachers and students has been designed to support Key Stage 3 pupils. The website is divided into four main content sections. "Inventor's Workshop", which highlights some of Leonardo's futuristic inventions, introduces the elements of machines, lets students explore how these elements can work together to perform new functions, and gives them a chance to try analysing Leonardo's inventions and designing their own. "Leonardo's Perspective" introduces Leonardo's way of looking at the world and explores Renaissance techniques for representing the 3D world on 2D surfaces. "What, Where, When?" is a brief biography of Leonardo da Vinci with images, and "Leonardo: Right to Left" explores Leonardo's curious habit of writing in reverse. Another section of Additional Resources provides a useful glossary, elucidating terms such as Archimedes Screw. There is also a Hot List of links to other resources dealing with Leonardo da Vinci, and a Bibliography. This Web resource would be useful as a starting point for students looking at Da Vinci.
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Fondazione Federico Zeri
http://www.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/
This is the website of the Fondazione Federico Zeri [Federico Zeri Foundation] dedicated to the art historian, Federico Zeri (1921-1998), and his work. The site provides a biography and a comprehensive bibliography of the scholar. A photographic gallery is accessible from the homepage. Zeri's remarkable art photographic collection - amounting to around 290,000 photographs of art work - has been partially digitized. Images are searchable and accessible through an online catalogue. The process is ongoing and new material is regularly added, adhering to the original classification criteria. Where originally present, annotations by Zeri have also been reproduced. Images are accompanied by an in-depth description and classification details. A content inventory provides an index of artists whose works have been digitally reproduced. The inventory is organised chronologically and subdivided by geographical areas. At the time of this review, over 39,000 images are accessible online. Additionally, the site provides a description of Zeri's art library and an overview of his epigraphical collection.
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Fondazione Giorgio Cini
http://www.cini.it/
This is the website of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a non-profit cultural institution based in Venice. The site enables users to find information on the Foundation's activities and projects, as well as on its collections, archives, libraries and photo library. The Foundation was created by Count Vittorio Cini in 1951. Its aim was to restore the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, following almost 150 years of military occupation, and to create an international cultural centre. The Foundation holds a wide collection of materials including: documents; autograph manuscripts; correspondence; bibliographic materials; drawings; photographs; and more. The collections cover the fields of: history of art; history of Venice; literature and theatre; music; Venice and the Orient; Vivaldi; comparative music; Venice and Europe. Users can access articles on the activities and history of the Foundation, as well as on the history of Venice. The website is available in both Italian and English.
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