Rebuilding The Renaissance artwork

Rebuilding The Renaissance

275 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago - ★★★★★ - 202 ratings

This podcast will explore the development of the art, architecture, culture and history in Italy, from ancient Roman times through the Renaissance. Listeners will develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the development of Western civilization and an ability to appreciate and understand works of art in their historical context.

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Episodes

Episode 271 - Caravaggio’s “Supper at Emmaus” (2nd Version)

March 27, 2024 10:30 - 20 minutes - 19.2 MB

Located in the Brera Gallery in Milan, Italy, Caravaggio’s 2nd “Supper at Emmaus” was painted in the immediate aftermath of Caravaggio’s murder of Ranuccio Tommasoni on the streets of Rome. A wounded Caravaggio was a fugitive from justice and hiding out from the authorities in the hills surrounding Rome when he painted his 2nd “Supper”.  The painting clearly reflects the dramatically changed circumstances of Caravaggio’s life and mark a turning point in his career.

Episode 270 - Caravaggio: Wanted Dead or Alive

March 20, 2024 10:30 - 17 minutes - 16.5 MB

O May 28, 1606, Caravaggio stabbed and killed a man named Ranuccio Tommasoni in Rome, allegedly over an unpaid wager. Discover the details of the homicide that changed Caravaggio’s life forever and turned him into a fugitive from justice.

Episode 269 - Caravaggio’s St. Jerome (Borghese Gallery)

March 13, 2024 10:30 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MB

In 1605, Caravaggio painted an image of St. Jerome for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and the painting is still located in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy. Caravaggio’s depiction of the Father of the Church is a very quiet and intimate one, where we see a scholar in a sparsely furnished room consumed with the enormous task of translating the Hebrew Bible into Latin.

Episode 268 - Caravaggio’s “Madonna of the Palafrenieri”

March 06, 2024 11:30 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MB

Painted in 1605 for the chapel of the Papal grooms, known as “Palafrenieri,” in the new Basilica of St. Peter, Caravaggio’s painting was removed after only a few days because it was considered indecorous. The stark nudity of the Christ Child, the bulging breasts of the Virgin Mary (who was modeled from a well-known prostitute!) and the unflattering representation of St. Anne (patron saint of the grooms) were most likely the reasons the painting was thought to be inappropriate for the most im...

Episode 267 - Caravaggio’s “Deposition”

February 28, 2024 11:30 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MB

Located in the Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums, Caravaggio’s “Deposition” was thought by many of his contemporaries to be the painter’s greatest work.  The dramatic representation of very real-looking biblical characters handling the dead body of Christ in a shallow, tenebrously-lit foreground space makes for a very moving visual narrative.

Episode 266 - Caravaggio’s “Death of the Virgin”

February 21, 2024 11:30 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MB

Commissioned in 1601 for a chapel in the Roman church of Santa Maria della Scala, Caravaggio’s “Death of the Virgin” was rejected by the Carmelite friars of the church. While some believe it was because of the stark and indecorous representation of the dead Virgin Mary, one of Caravaggio’s biographers suggests instead it was because Caravaggio used a well-known courtesan as his model for Mary.

Episode 265 - Caravaggio’s “Madonna of Loreto”

February 14, 2024 11:30 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MB

Located in the Augustinian church of Sant ’Agostino in Rome, Italy, the “Madonna of Loreto” is one of Caravaggio’s most beautiful paintings. It was painted for the Cavalletti family in 1604 and depicts a barefoot Virgin Mary (who was modeled from a well-known prostitute) standing in a rundown contemporary Roman doorway carrying the Christ child who blesses two peasant pilgrims. The stark realism and lack of pretense made it very popular amongst the masses, who, according to one of Caravaggio...

Episode 264 - Caravaggio’s “Amor VIncit Omnia” (“Love Conquers All”)

February 07, 2024 11:30 - 21 minutes - 19.3 MB

In the summer of 1602, Caravaggio painted what one art historian described as “the most nakedly libidinous of the painter’s secular mythological works.” Employing the same model that he previously used for his “St. John the Baptist,” Caravaggio creates a disturbingly realistic sexual metaphor of the power of love. 

Podcast 263 - Caravaggio’s “Incredulity of St. Thomas”

January 31, 2024 11:30 - 19 minutes - 18 MB

It was for one of his most important patrons, the fabulously wealthy banker, Vincenzo Giustiniani, that Caravaggio painted one of his most moving works – the “Incredulity of St. Thomas.” The skeptical apostle Thomas probes Christ’s wound with his finger in a disturbingly graphic way that only Caravaggio could represent.  

Episode 262 - Answers to Open Questions XIX

January 24, 2024 11:30 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MB

From the source of the canvases used for large Venetian paintings in the Renaissance, to the death and burial of Masaccio, to the tradition of Madonarri in the Renaissance, to the difference between chiaroscuro and tenebrism, and much, much more - this episode answers the very questions that you ask me about the great art, artists and history of the Italian Renaissance.

Episode 261 - Caravaggio’s “St. John the Baptist” and the “Taking of Christ”

January 17, 2024 11:30 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MB

After the “Supper at Emmaus,” Caravaggio produced two more paintings for the Mattei brothers. The first was the unorthodox “St. John the Baptist” that today is in the Capitoline Museums in Rome and is a rather unabashed representation of a naked youth embracing a ram and lacking any conventional imagery.  The second painting is the dramatic “Taking of Christ,” which was thought lost for centuries before being rediscovered in 1990 in the dining hall of the house of Jesuit fathers in Dublin, I...

Episode 260 - Caravaggio’s “Supper at Emmaus”

January 10, 2024 11:30 - 20 minutes - 19 MB

Located in the National Gallery in London, Caravaggio’s “Supper at Emmaus” was painted in 1601 for the influential Cardinal Girolamo Mattei. The painting depicts the episode from the Gospel of Luke where two apostles dine with a traveler and realize to their astonishment that their companion is the resurrected Christ once he breaks bread.

Episode 259 - Caravaggio’s “Conversion of St. Paul”

January 03, 2024 11:30 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MB

The second painting that Caravaggio produced for the Cerasi Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, depicts the dramatic conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. While certainly inspired by Raphael’s and Michelangelo’s earlier interpretations of the same subject, Caravaggio has transformed St. Paul’s conversion into a deeply theatrical, spiritual, and intimate event.

Episode 258 - Caravaggio’s “Crucifixion of St. Peter”

December 27, 2023 11:30 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MB

Caravaggio’s interpretation of St. Peter’s particular martyrdom – crucifixion in an upside-down position – for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, is a moving example of realism and physicality. Three executioners struggle to lift the burly fisherman who seems to embrace his death.

Episode 257 - Caravaggio’s Cerasi Chapel

December 20, 2023 11:30 - 15 minutes - 14.4 MB

Located in the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, the Cerasi Chapel contains two paintings by Caravaggio – the “Crucifixion of St. Peter” and the “Conversion of St. Paul.” The paintings were commissioned by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi, who was the treasurer general of Pope Clement VIII, in 1600. Curiously, Cerasi had asked a different painter named Annibale Caracci to paint the altarpiece of the chapel, which is executed in stark contrast to Caravaggio’s style.

Episode 256 - Caravaggio’s “St. Matthew and the Angel”

December 13, 2023 11:30 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MB

In 1602, Caravaggio signed his final contract with the Contarelli family to paint an altarpiece for their family chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. The first painting (now lost) that Caravaggio produced was rejected because it depicted St. Matthew as a rustic and rather simple looking figure. But the second version – which we say in the chapel today – is a triumph of Caravaggio’s realistic theatrical style.

Episode 255 - Caravaggio’s “Calling of St. Matthew”

December 06, 2023 11:30 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MB

The “Calling of St. Matthew” was the second of three paintings that Caravaggio executed for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. It depicts the dramatic moment when Christ called Matthew, the tax collector, to follow him in his mission. Caravaggio transforms a simple moment into a theatrical event set within a contemporary early 17th-century Roman setting.   

Episode 254 - Caravaggio’s “Martyrdom of St. Matthew”

November 29, 2023 11:30 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MB

The first of three paintings that Caravaggio painted for the Contarelli Chapel in the official French church of Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi, the “Martyrdom of St. Matthew" was the artist’s first large scale painting.  It depicts the assassination of the saint and evangelist at high mass in a dramatic fashion that only Caravaggio could invent.

Episode 253 - Caravaggio and the Contarelli Chapel

November 22, 2023 11:30 - 19 minutes - 18 MB

Only July 23, 1599, Caravaggio signed the contract with the heirs of Cardinal Matthieu Cointerel (“Contarelli” in Italian) to produce three paintings for their family chapel in the official French church of Rome called San Luigi dei Francesi. This episode examines the history of the church, chapel and commission surrounding Caravaggio’s great paintings.

Episode 252 - Caravaggio’s “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” “Penitent Magdalene,” and “Judith and Holofernes”

November 15, 2023 11:30 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MB

This episode addresses three more of Caravaggio’s innovative early paintings in Rome, Italy. Each of the paintings treats conventional subjects in unconventional ways, including using well-known prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, and introducing unprecedented violence into the Judith subject.

Episode 251 - Caravaggio’s Paintings in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

November 08, 2023 10:30 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MB

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence contains three paintings by Caravaggio. Two of them, the “Bacchus” and “The Medusa Shield” were sent by Cardinal Del Monte to Grand Duke Ferdinand de’ Medici, while the third, the “Sacrifice of Isaac,” was acquired later. All three paintings reflect Caravaggio’s unique and revolutionary painting style which incorporates shocking realism, violence, and the dramatic use of light and shadow.

Episode 250 - Caravaggio’s Early Works (Sick Bacchus, Boy with Basket of Fruit, Fortune Teller, Cardsharps, Musicians)

November 01, 2023 10:30 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MB

After an inauspicious beginning to his artistic career in Rome, Caravaggio’s photorealistic style and “street” iconography began to draw the attention of some important patrons. The most important of the patrons was Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, whose patronage launched Caravaggio’s career. This episode will examine Caravaggio’s paintings and his entirely new approach to painting, which involved a close observation and faithful reproduction of nature and the introduction of non-tradit...

Episode 249 - The Life of Caravaggio – The Cursed Painter

October 25, 2023 10:30 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MB

Known as the “pittore maledetto” – or the “cursed painter”, Caravaggio not only revolutionized painting at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries with his “hyper-realistic” style, but he also literally turned Rome on its head with his often-criminal behavior. Spending much of his time between brothels and taverns, Caravaggio’s love of the vulgar and violence became his primary artistic inspiration. His paintings would often reflect his sociopathic lifestyle, frequently depicting Christian ...

Episode 248 - Answers to Open Questions XVIII

October 18, 2023 10:30 - 31 minutes - 29 MB

From the water source of the Neptune Fountain in Florence, to the animal symbolism of the Nativity subject, to the restorations of Masacccio’s Brancacci Chapel and “Holy Trinity,” to how Leonardo’s notebook ended up in the Windsor collection, to the accuracy of historical fiction movie and television series dealing with the Renaissance and much, much more - this episode answers the very questions that you ask me about the great art, artists and history of the Italian Renaissance.

Episode 247 - Titian’s “Pietà” (Accademia Gallery, Venice)

October 11, 2023 10:30 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MB

Left unfinished at this death in 1576, Titian’s “Pietà” was intended to serve as his funerary monument. Its extreme use of loose brushstroke and unconventional color combinations led one art historian to describe the painting as an example of “chromatic alchemy.”

Episode 246 - Titian’s “Crowning with Thorns” (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)

October 04, 2023 10:30 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MB

Painted in the last year’s of Titian’s life, the “Crowning with Thorns” in Munich revisited a theme that he painted 30 years earlier in a painting today located in the Louvre in Paris. Examined side by side, there is perhaps no better way to demonstrate the dramatic evolution of Titian’s style to very loose and suggestive brushwork in the final stage of his career.

Episode 245 - Titian’s “Venus Blindfolding Cupid” (Borghese Gallery, Rome)

September 27, 2023 10:30 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MB

Painted around 1565, this exquisite painting exemplifies Titian’s later style with its loose brushstroke, sophisticated use of color, and delicate tonal transitions. The meaning of the painting is somewhat controversial as it does not fall into any traditional iconographical schemes and has consequently resulted in various scholarly theories being proposed.

Episode 244 - Paolo Veronese’s “Feast in the House of Levi” (Accademia Gallery, Venice)

September 20, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MB

In 1573, Paolo Veronese was commissioned by the Dominicans at the church of Saints Giovanni and Paolo in Venice to paint a “Last Supper” to replace an earlier version by Titian that had been destroyed by fire. The result was a massive image full of numerous figures engaged in a hedonistic celebration. Not surprisingly, a few months after completing the painting, the artist was called before the Holy Tribunal of Venice to answer to accusations of indecorous religious painting. Veronese was ab...

Episode 243 - Paolo Veronese’s “Wedding Feast at Cana” (Louvre, Paris)

September 13, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MB

In 1562, Veronese was commissioned to paint a massive painting of the “Wedding Feast at Cana” to adorn the end wall of the refectory of the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio in Venice, Italy. What he produced was an extraordinary impression of typical Venetian revelry in the late 16th century with more than 100 figures participating in the great feast.

Episode 242 - Paolo Veronese’s Church of San Sebastiano in Venice

September 06, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MB

Paolo Veronese is the third member of the great Venetian late Renaissance trio that also includes Titian and Tintoretto. The church of San Sebastiano in Venice was decorated over 15 years with paintings exclusively by Veronese and is a veritable shrine to the genius of this great painter.

Episode 241 – Tintoretto’s Scuola di San Rocco 5 (Chapter Hall Paintings Continued)

August 30, 2023 10:30 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MB

This episode addresses the paintings in the second half of the Chapter Hall of the Scuola, which focus specifically on the theme of food with scenes of “Manna Falling from Heaven” and the “Last Supper.”

Episode 240 – Tintoretto’s Scuola of San Rocco 4 (The Chapter Hall Paintings)

August 23, 2023 10:30 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MB

Once he completed his paintings for the Albergo, Tintoretto continued the decoration of the Scuola with a series of paintings for the Chapter Hall. These paintings are some of Tintoretto’s best and demonstrate his revolutionary approach to painting. 

Episode 239 - Tintoretto’s Scuola di San Rocco P. 3 (The Albergo Paintings)

August 16, 2023 10:30 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MB

Tintoretto’s paintings in the Albergo (board room) of the Scuola of San Rocco are dramatic representations of the Passion of Jesus Christ. From his tragic “Ecce Homo” all the way to his Hollywood-style “Crucifixion,” Tintoretto produced some of the most innovative and theatrical paintings of the Renaissance.

Episode 238 – Tintoretto’s Scuola di San Rocco P. 2 (The Competition)

August 09, 2023 10:30 - 19 minutes - 18 MB

In 1564, the Scuola of San Rocco announced a competition for the commission for the ceiling paintings of the Albergo (board room) of their meeting house. True to his nature, Tintoretto surprised and outwitted all his competitors. Find out how in this episode!

Episode 237 – Tintoretto’s Scuola of San Rocco (Venice)

August 02, 2023 10:30 - 22 minutes - 30.3 MB

The Scuola Grande of San Rocco in Venice, Italy, is the only active “scuola,” or confraternity, in the city. It has maintained its original appearance and magnificent decoration – nearly all of which was by Tintoretto - for the last five centuries. This podcast explores the history of the scuola and its importance to Venice.

Episode 236 – Answers to Open Questions XVII

July 26, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 19 MB

From the original location and patron of Donatello’s “Mary Magdalene,”  to the influence of Giotto on Taddeo Gaddi, to the original meeting hall of the Florentine government, to the dome of St. Peter’s, to the authenticity of the recently discovered “Flaget Madonna” attributed by some to Raphael, and much, much more - this episode answers the very questions that you ask me about the great art, artists and history of the Italian Renaissance.

Episode 235 – Gallery of the Maps (Vatican Museums)

July 19, 2023 10:30 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MB

Stretching 120m in length with its walls covered entirely in 16th century maps of various Italian city states, principalities, and islands, the Gallery of the Maps is one of the most spectacular spaces in the Vatican Museums.

Episode 234 – Giambologna’s “Rape of the Sabine” (Piazza della Signoria, Florence)

July 12, 2023 10:30 - 16 minutes - 15.1 MB

Still located in the Loggia dei Lanzi where it was installed in 1583, the “Rape of the Sabine” was produced for Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. While the group of three figures may seem like a fitting representation of the mythological event where Roman men took Sabine women as their wives, the statue was originally subject-less.

Episode 233 – Vasari’s “Last Judgment” (Florence Cathedral)

July 05, 2023 10:30 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MB

The dome frescoes of Florence Cathedral cover nearly an acre of dome surface, making it the world’s largest fresco. Begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1572 and completed by Federico Zuccari in 1579, the main subject of the fresco is the Last Judgment and incudes some strikingly graphic imagery in the Hell sections.

Episode 232 - Ammannati’s “Neptune Fountain” (Piazza Signoria, Florence)

June 28, 2023 10:30 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MB

Commissioned by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici for the marriage of his son Francesco to Johanna of Austria, the massive fountain occupies the northwestern corner of the Palazzo Vecchio. Portraying the duke as the god of the sea, the fountain imagery was intended to glorify the Medici dynasty, but was not well received by their subjects.

Episode 231 - Titian’s “Perseus and Andromeda” (Wallace Collection, London)

June 21, 2023 10:30 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MB

This painting is the last of six paintings that make up Titian’s extraordinary “Poesie” series for King Philip II of Spain. Of all six, it is in the worst state of conservation and went through major compositional changes while it was being painted. Nevertheless, the “Perseus and Andromeda” is an important work of beauty, innovation, and visual interpretation of a classical literary source. 

Episode 230 – Titian’s “Rape of Europa” (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston)

June 14, 2023 10:30 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MB

One of the greatest masterpieces of Italian Renaissance painting, Titian’s painting depicts the abduction of the nymph Europa by Jupiter, who has disguised himself as a bull. Titian employs all of his painterly skill to create a dazzling array of textures, colors, and images that coalesce into a hypnotically beautiful work of art. 

Episode 229 – Titian’s “Diana and Callisto” (National Galleries, London and Edinburgh)

June 07, 2023 10:30 - 16 minutes - 15.2 MB

Part of Titian’s magnificent “Poesie” series which he painted for King Philp II of Spain in the 1550s, the “Diana and Callisto" represents the exposure of the pregnancy of the nymph Callisto who had been loved by Jupiter. 

Episode 228 – Titian’s “Diana and Acteon” (National Galleries, London and Edinburgh)

May 31, 2023 10:30 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MB

The third of six paintings constituting Titian’s famous “Poesie” series for King Philip II of Spain, “Diana and Acteon” represents a mythological account of divine punishment. A hapless hunter named Acteon stumbles upon Diana, goddess of chastity and of the hunt, and is punished for violating her decency by being transformed into a stag and killed by his own hounds.

Episode 227 – Titian’s “Venus and Adonis” (Prado Museum, Madrid)

May 24, 2023 10:30 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MB

Part of Titian’s six mythological paintings for King Philip II of Spain known as the “Poesie,” the innovative and sensual “Venus and Adonis” was the most popular. We know this because some 30 versions of the painting exist today, all of which can be traced back to 2 main prime types – the Prado and the Farnese versions – both of which are discussed in this episode.

Episode 226 - Titian’s “Danaë” (Capodimonte Museum, Naples)

May 17, 2023 10:30 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MB

In 1544, Titian produced the first of at least six versions of the Danaë subject for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III. Shortly thereafter, a second version was painted and sent to King Phillip II of Spain. The immense popularity of Titian’s sensual painting style combined with the erotic nature of the subject made the “Danaë” one of the most famous paintings of Renaissance Europe. 

Episode 225 - Titian’s “Poesie” Paintings

May 10, 2023 10:30 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MB

Titian’s six “poesie” – or “painted poems” – depict subjects from classical mythology and were painted for King Philip II of Spain. The paintings represent a landmark in the history of western art and exemplify the Venetian master’s late style that was characterized by dramatic subjects, sensual forms, and loose, almost “impressionistic” brushwork.

Episode 224 - Tintoretto’s “Finding of the Body of St. Mark” (Brera Gallery, Milan)

May 03, 2023 10:30 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MB

Another of the great canvases for the Scuola Grande of San Marco dramatically depicts the episode where the body of the evangelist was discovered. The dark painting is dominated by theatrical chiaroscuro and showcases unconventional characters and gestures.

Episode 223 - Tintoretto’s “Stealing of the Body of St. Mark” (Accademia Gallery, Venice)

April 26, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MB

Fourteen years after exploding onto the art scene in Venice, Tintoretto produced another dramatic work for the Scuola Grande of San Marco. The intense painting depicts the legendary story of two Venetian merchants stealing the body of St. Mark away from Alexandria in the 9th century.

Episode 222 - Tintoretto’s “Miracle of the Slave” (Accademia Gallery, Venice)

April 19, 2023 10:30 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MB

The Venetian painter Tintoretto exploded onto the art scene in his native city with this large canvas depicting St. Mark rescuing one of his devotees from a horrific death.  With its dramatic proscenium characterized by strong foreshortening and dramatic spotlighting, as well as a surprising and daring representation of St. Mark, Tintoretto introduced a style of painting that Venice – or the world – had never seen.

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