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VILLA I TAT TI Via Di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies VILLA I TAT TI Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy Volume 29 E-mail: [email protected] / Web: http://www.itatti.it D D D Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2009 nce again I fi nd myself sitting on Letter from Florence ping nudes from the debate about the Othe Berenson garden bench past artist’s homosexuality. Jaynie Anderson, sunset on the feast of San Giovanni, fresh from organizing a splendid refl ecting on a good I Tatti year. It meeting of the Comité Internatio- began in July 2008 when Françoise nale d’Histoire de l’Art in Melbourne, and I visited Butrimonys, the village explored the Morellian origins of in rural Lithuania where Bernhard connoisseurship. Fredrika Jacobs of Valvrojenski, later Bernard Berenson, Virginia Commonwealth University was born in 1865. Dainora Pociūtė studied Marian devotion and image (VIT’08) helped us discover the effi cacy. Nicholas Terpstra of Toronto overgrown Jewish graveyard on a teased out of reluctant archives shock- nearby hillside. It was painful to ing mortality rates for girls lodged think of the tragedy that overtook the in a female conservatory, exploring town’s Jewish community in 1941, but the darker side of Florentine social I also refl ected on the resilience of the structures. scholar who, then seventy-six, had just In the second semester Erling Skaug been told that Harvard would never of Oslo moved from the punch mark accept his legacy and who went into analysis for which he is celebrated to hiding not long afterward. Luckily, Tuscany to perform it in the Myron & larger issues of Giotto’s career in his lecture by the time Mr. Berenson died on 6 Sheila Gilmore Limonaia. on the great Florentine fl ood of 1333, October 1959, Harvard had changed its Envying those Benedictines of the while Karen Skaug brought to life both mind, allowing I Tatti to grow into the strictest observance who took a fourth the von Bülow piano in the Papiniana fl ourishing research institute that it has vow, that of Stability, I nevertheless and the Frederick Hammond (VIT’72) become. found myself often on the move: to harpsichord in the Studio Berenson. Wietse This year’s Fellows came from the Los Angeles for the meeting of the de Boer of Miami University analyzed United States, Italy, the United King- Renaissance Society of America, to the revisions to Castiglione’s Corteggiano, dom, France, Switzerland, and Australia. London for a lecture, to south India in particular on the subject of war, while They included four Craig Hugh Smyth for a family reunion on Christmas Eve Renée Baernstein of Miami University Visiting Fellows as well as three Mellon in Goa, to Cambridge for meetings at spoke on the letters of a noblewoman Research Fellows, this year all from the casa madre, and to Boston for a visit of the Counter-Reformation, Costanza Hungary, and four Readers in Renais- with the I Tatti Council to the splen- Colonna. Bram Kempers of Amsterdam sance Studies from the English and Art did exhibition of Venetian painting off ered his rethinking of many of the History departments at Harvard. off ered by its eloquent curator, Frederick projects of Julius II at the Vatican, especially Shortly after the September Ilchman. on the pope’s library and St. Peter’s. vendemmia we went on the fall trip to Visiting Professors once again The Casa Morrill, a beautiful Vicenza for a visit to the magnifi cent contributed to the vitality of the com- house in the Oltrarno, hosted Robert Palladio exhibition with the curators, munity, among other things by partici- (VIT’91,’09) and Jana Kiely in the Howard Burns (VIT’77,’84) and Guido pating in the Tuesday shop talks. John spring. At Harvard, this gregarious, Beltramini (VIT’08). In October the Paoletti of Wesleyan explored the con- elegant couple had been co-masters of founders were brought back to life by cept of public nakedness as a context Adams House for 26 years. Bob studied the performance of Simon Gray’s play, for Michelangelo’s David, joining with the iconography of sainthood and Jana The Old Masters. After a successful run Michael Rocke (VIT’91,’98-’10), who worked on translations of contemporary in the West End it was revived by the used his knowledge of Florentine social Czech poetry. Their gracious presence spirited actors of London’s Garden history to remove Michelangelo’s strap- was felt both on the Costa di San Suburb Theatre, who traveled to Giorgio and at I Tatti. Continued on back page. Cambridge Office: Villa I Tatti, Harvard University, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-5762 Tel: +1 617 496 8724 or +1 617 495 8042 / Fax: +1 617 495 8041 / Web: http://www.itatti.it P. Renée Baernstein (2nd sem), Lila VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2008-2009 Wallace - Reader’s Digest Visiting Pro- fessor, Miami University, Ohio, History. Fellows Defi ning Moment in Renaissance Italy.” “Gender and Marriage in Late Renais- Carmen Bambach (2nd sem), Craig Paola Marini (2nd sem), Craig Hugh sance and Baroque Rome: The Colon- Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, The Met- Smyth Visiting Fellow, Museo di na Family, 1527-1600.” ropolitan Museum of Art, Art History. Castelvecchio, Verona, Art History. “Paolo Wietse de Boer (2nd sem), Lila Wallace “Drawings around Michelangelo.” Veronese, Andrea Palladio e i ‘creati’ vero- - Reader’s Digest Visiting Profes- Dora Bobory (2nd sem), Andrew nesi di Michele Sanmicheli.” sor, Miami University, Ohio, History. W. Mellon Research Fellow, (Central Roberta Mucciarelli, Francesco De “Castiglione and the Crisis of the European University), History. “The Dombrowski Fellow, Università di Renaissance.” Horoscopes of Gerolamo Cardano as Siena, History. “Fama. Indagini intorno Fredrika Jacobs (1st sem), Lila Wallace Biographies.” a un’idea (XIV-XV secolo).” - Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, Benjamin Brand, Francesco De Patrick Nold, Deborah Loeb Brice Virginia Commonwealth University, Dombrowski Fellow, University of Fellow, State University of New York History. “Marian Devotionalism and North Texas, Musicology. “Cathedral at Albany, History. “Heresy and Ortho- Image Effi cacy in 16th Century Italy.” 2 Liturgies in the Golden Age of the Tus- doxy in Early Trecento Florence.” Bram Kempers, Lila Wallace - Reader’s F can Communes.” Klaus Pietschmann, Deborah Loeb Digest Visiting Professor, University Mario Casari, Andrew W. Mellon Fel- Brice Fellow, Universität Bern, Musicol- of Amsterdam, Art History. “Raphael, low, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza,’ ogy. “Liturgical Polyphony in Florence Julius II and God: The Stanza della Seg- Literature. “The Oriental Studies of between Reform Theology and Local natura in Context.” G.B. Raimondi in Late Renaissance Politics.” Robert Kiely (2nd sem), Harvard Vis- Italy.” Denis Ribouillault, Florence J. Gould iting Professor, Harvard University, Lit- Kathleen Christian, Robert Lehman Fellow, French Academy in Rome, Art erature. “Blessed and Beautiful: Read- Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, Art History. “Sacred Landscape and Ideol- ing the Saints with Help from Italian History. “Geniuses of the Place: ogy in Early Modern Italy.” Masters.” Nymphs in Italian Renaissance Art.” Camilla Russell, Hanna Kiel Fellow, John Paoletti (1st sem), Lila Wallace - Roberto Cobianchi, Ahmanson Fel- University of Newcastle, NSW, Aus- Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, Wes- low, Università di Messina, Art History. tralia, History. “Imagining the Indies: leyan University, Art History. “Strategies “Ceremonies for Canonisation in Conceptualising the Jesuit Missionary of Medici Patronage during the Fif- Renaissance Rome.” Enterprise in the Italian Renaissance.” teenth Century.” William R. Day, Jean-François Malle Arielle Saiber, Melville J. Kahn Fellow, Erling Skaug (2nd sem), Robert Fellow, University of Cambridge, His- Bowdoin College, Literature. “Well- Lehman Visiting Professor, University tory. “Florentine and other Italian Per- Versed Mathematics in Early Modern of Oslo, Art History. “Punch Marks in sonnel in Foreign Mints, 1200-1500.” Italy (1450-1650).” Tuscan Panel Paintings c.1300-1450.” Bianca De Divitiis, Lila Wallace - Zsolt Török (1st sem), Andrew W. Mellon Nicholas Terpstra (1st sem), Robert Reader’s Digest Fellow, Università Research Fellow, Eöt- Lehman Visiting Professor, Uni- IUAV, Venezia, Art History. “Tra Napoli vös Lorand University, versity of Toronto, History. “Life e Firenze: Giovanni Pontano e la cultura Budapest, History. “Ital- and Death in a Cinquecento artistica nel secondo Quattrocento.” ian Military Architecture, Conservatory for Abandoned Barbara Deimling (1st sem), Craig Renaissance Cosmog- Girls.” Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Syracuse raphy and Cartographic University Florence, Art History. “The Representation.” Research Associate Ingrid Baumgärtner, Univer- Conversion of Mary Magdalene in a sität Kassel, History. “Text, Image Fourteenth-Century Fresco Cycle in Readers in Renaissance and Space in Medieval Cartogra- South Tyrol.” Studies (all from Harvard phy (12th -16th centuries).” Dávid Falvay (2nd sem), Andrew W. Zsolt Török gave the Mellon Research Fellow, Eötvös Loránd University) 2009 Malcolm Young Max Freeman (1st sem), Senior Research Associates University, Budapest, History. “Il culto Lecture, “Francesco Eve Borsook, Villa I Tatti, Art His- Literature. toscano di sante ungheresi (XIV-XV Rosselli and Early Map tory. “Bequest of 9,000 photographs Anna Huber (2nd sem), ss.): testi, immagini, comunità.” Printing,” at the Inter- from Mario Di Giampaolo.” Art History. Laura Giannetti, Lila Wallace - Read- national Map Collec-
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