Topics

1. “The Most Exalted and Prodigal Magnificence” - Filippo Brunelleschi and the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence: The octagonal dome that was to crown Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral begun in Florence in 1294, presented the most daunting architectural puzzle of the age: how to raise the highest and widest vault ever attempted. The cupola was to have a span greater than the Roman Pantheon - the world’s largest dome - and vaulting higher than any Gothic cathedral. The logistical problems were enormous. How could this enormous octagonal structure be made self- supporting? How could the tons of masonry be raised more than 200 feet in the air and laid into place with micrometric accuracy? This illustrated lecture examines the procedures developed by Filippo Brunelleschi as he worked on the dome between 1420 and 1436, successfully executing what is still the world’s largest masonry dome.

2. Leonardo & The Last Supper - “The Accidental Masterpiece” with Ross King: The image of The Last Supper is as readily familiar, Kenneth Clark once wrote, as the boot shape of Italy on a map. However, the history of how this famous mural came to be painted, how precisely Leonardo painted it, and who he painted it for, are much less well-known. This illustrated lecture recounts how Leonardo received the commission (for whose execution he had little experience and even less inclination) from Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and how he went about creating his masterpiece through an experimental new style. While the mural is burdened with many myths - most of which have no basis in fact - the true story of its execution is even more remarkable.

3. Michelangelo and the Vault of the Sistine Chapel: In 1508, Pope Julius II - known because of his military expeditions as the ‘Warrior Pope’ - commissioned Michelangelo to fresco the vault of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had very limited experience of the physically and technically difficult technique of fresco, much less on the underside of a 12,000-square-foot surface. His reputation had been made in sculpture, with works such as the Pietà and the David, rather than in paint. This illustrated lecture examines the circumstances surrounding Michelangelo’s commission and how, in the four years between 1508 and 1512, he worked on his immense fresco in direct competition with Raphael, his younger and prodigiously talented contemporary, who was working on his own frescoes a few steps away in the Papal Apartments.

4. Leonardo and the Sense of Wonder with Author Ross King: Author Ross King will discuss the elements of a place and time that sparked Leonardo’s creativity and some of the most remarkable aspects of his life, work, and creative thinking.

5. A Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies: Join bestselling author Ross King for a talk named after his prize-winning book: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. Monet’s iconic large-scale images of his water lily pond in Giverny convey peace and tranquility. This illustrated talk examines the personal and aesthetic motivations behind Monet’s immense canvases and their legacy in twentieth-century art.