The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies VILLA I TAT TI Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy Volume 30 E-mail: [email protected] / Web: http://www.itatti.it Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2010 or the eighth and last time, I fi nd Letter from Florence to see art and science as sorelle gemelle. Fmyself sitting on the Berenson gar- The deepening shadows enshroud- den bench in the twilight, awaiting the ing the Berenson bench are conducive fi reworks for San Giovanni. to refl ections on eight years of custodi- In this D.O.C.G. year, the Fellows anship of this special place. Of course, bonded quickly. Three mothers and two continuities are strong. The community fathers brought eight children. The fall is still built around the twin principles trip took us to Rome to explore the scavi of liberty and lunch. The year still be- of St. Peter’s along with some medieval gins with the vendemmia and the fi ve- basilicas and baroque libraries. In the minute presentation of Fellows’ projects, spring, a group of Fellows accepted the and ends with a nostalgia-drenched invitation of Gábor Buzási (VIT’09) dinner under the Tuscan stars. It is still a and Zsombor Jékeley (VIT’10) to visit community where research and conver- Hungary, and there were numerous visits sation intertwine. to churches, museums, and archives in It is, however, a larger community. Florence and Siena. There were 19 appointees in my fi rst In October 2009, we dedicated the mastery of the issues of Mediterranean year but 39 in my last; there will be 31 Craig and Barbara Smyth wing of the encounter. The weekly shoptalks, in the year to come. The full-year Fel- library, the fruit of careful planning by however, evoked livelier discussion than lows remain fi xed at 15, with the occa- Michael Rocke and valiant fundraising almost any lecture series has ever had. sional addition of a Burckhardt Fellow that Alexa Mason will describe later in The Visiting Professors in sponsored by the ACLS. But thanks detail. It was completed on time after residence added wisdom and zest to to the Andrew W. Mellon Founda- an intense year of construction. While the year. Derek and Sissela Bok were tion, there are now also three-month hundreds of guests fi led through the unforgettable presences at Casa Morrill Craig Hugh Smyth Fellows drawn library admiring the brilliant design of for two months, taking a lively interest from the ranks of museum curators, the Roman fi rm of Garofalo and Miura, in everyone’s life and work. Daniel librarians, and conservators, with some Derek Bok shared memories of his fi rst Bornstein delved into local religion Smyth fellowships also designated for meeting and long collaboration with in Cortona, while Christiane Klapisch the scholarly mother. The Readers in Craig. The staff surpassed themselves explored the social dimensions of the Renaissance Studies are (usually) Har- to make the inaugural dinner one of Good and Bad Thieves in Renaissance vard graduate students who come for the most elegant ever. Kathryn Bosi art and society. Christine Shaw a semester’s wide reading, guided by arranged a concert by the German reminded us that the Renaissance was the director and by conversation at the group Singer Pur, who performed Four a time of incessant war, Joanna Woods- lunch table. Thus, each year, four or I Tatti Madrigals, commissioned from Marsden that Titian knew more than a fi ve pairs of eager young eyes are set on the British composer Gavin Bryars, to thing or two about gender, and Deborah the books in our ever growing library, a standing room only audience in the Parker that Michelangelo was the best and former Readers, now a sizable Myron and Sheila Gilmore Limonaia. of pen pals. The Visiting Professors contingent at the RSA, often speak of The inauguration was preceded by a who arrived in mid-year blended in a quantum leap in their personal and two-day symposium to mark the 50th eff ortlessly. Babette Bohn shared her intellectual growth. anniversary of the death of Bernard love of Barocci and joined forces with Fall and spring trips have helped Berenson in October 1959, which was Elisabetta Cunsolo and various Fellows the community bond. They have taken planned by Louis Waldman (VIT’06) to show us her beloved Bologna in mid- us to Renaissance sites as well as some and me. The limonaia was full to winter. Ann Moyer reminded us that of the major exhibitions of recent years bursting, and I have seldom sensed such intellectual history is still a vital fi eld, in northern Italy. In addition, I have electricity in the air. and shared her vision for the future traveled to Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, With the Florence Gould Hall not of the RSA. Kate Lowe showed that Croatia, and Berenson’s own Lithuania yet ready, it was a year with fewer public the Renaissance was thirsty for news to make contacts with former Fellows events than usual. Claus-Peter Haase’s from Africa and urged us to widen our and explore common interests in the lecture on Djem Sultan, “the fi rst geographical horizons. Martin Kemp Renaissance. Turkish European?,” stood out for its energized the community and taught us Continued on page 4. 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 JAMEY GRAHAM (2nd sem), Literature. VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2009-2010 JUSTIN GROSSLIGHT (1st sem), History. JESSE HOWELL (2nd sem), History. MICHAEL TWOREK(1st sem), History. Fellows “Pagan Culture and the Humanist Portrait EMILY ZAZULIA (2nd sem), University of Pennsylvania, Music. AMY BLOCH, CRIA Fellow, State Univer- of Sigismondo Malatesta.” sity of New York at Albany, Art History. UNA D’ELIA, Robert Lehman Fellow, Visiting Professors “Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and Queen’s University, Art History. “Raphael’s BABETTE BOHN (2nd sem), Lila Wallace - the Renaissance Biblical Imaginary.” Ostrich: Allegory & Ambiguity in Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, Texas CLAUDIA BOLGIA, Rush H. Kress Fellow, Cinquecento Rome and Florence.” Christian University, Art History. “Exhi- University of Edinburgh, Art History. ANNE D UNLOP, Hanna Kiel Fellow, Tulane bition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints “The ‘Long’ Trecento: Rome without University, Art History. “Materials, the by Federico Barocci (St. Louis 2012 and the Popes (c. 1305-1420).” Imagined World, and Trecento Artistic National Gallery London 2013).” SUZANNE BOORSCH (1st sem), Craig Change.” DEREK BOK (1st sem), Harvard Visiting Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Yale Uni- SERENA FERENTE, Francesco De Dom- Professor, Harvard University, History. 2 versity Art Gallery, Art History. “Exhi- browski Fellow, King’s College, London, “The Challenges Facing Universities bition and Accompanying Monograph History. “Factions as Passions in Renais- and How to Meet Them.” on Sienese Painter Francesco Vanni.” sance Italy.” SISSELA BOK (1st sem), Harvard Visiting ABIGAIL BRUNDIN, Deborah Loeb Brice FRANCESCA FIORANI, Frederick Professor, Harvard Center for Popula- Fellow, University of Cambridge, Literature. Burkhardt Residential Fellow, University tion & Development Studies, History. “Rewriting Trent: The Practice of Poetry of Virginia, Art History. “Leonardo’s Shadows. “Renaissance Humanism and the Tra- in Counter-Reformation Florence.” Images of Knowledge in Renaissance Art and dition of Philosophical Dialogues.” DUNCAN BULL (2nd sem), Craig Hugh Culture.” DANIEL BORNSTEIN (1st sem), Robert Smyth Visiting Fellow, Rijksmuseum, ZSOMBOR JÉKELY (2nd sem), Andrew Lehman Visiting Professor, Washington Amsterdam, Art History. “Catalogue of W. Mellon Research Fellow, Museum University in St. Louis, History. Italian Paintings in the Rijksmuseum.” of Applied Arts, Budapest, Art History. “Religion, Culture, and Society in Late GÁBOR BUZÁSI (1st sem), Andrew W. “Italian Painters in the Service of Hun- Medieval and Renaissance Cortona.” Mellon Research Fellow, Pazmany garian Aristocrats, c. 1330-1430.” MARTIN KEMP (2nd sem), Lila Wallace Peter Catholic University, History. ROBERT G. LA FRANCE, Hanna Kiel - Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, “Neoplatonic Metaphysics of Light in Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana- Oxford University, Art History. “Living the Thought of Marsilio Ficino.” Champaign, Art History. “Timoteo Viti: with Leonardo: An Unreliable Memoir LORENZO CALVELLI, Deborah Loeb from Bologna to Urbino and Rome.” of the Leonardo Business.” Brice Fellow, Università Ca’ Foscari LAURA MORETTI (2nd sem), Craig Hugh CHRISTIANE KLAPISCH-ZUBER (1st sem), Venezia, History. “Le pietre romane Smyth Visiting Fellow, University of St. Lila Wallace - Reader’s Digest Visiting di Venezia fra tardo-medioevo e Andrews, Art History. “Palladio’s Patrons Professor, École des Hautes Études en Rinascimento.” and Music: Connections between Cul- Sciences Sociales, History. “Confession, CHRISTOPHER CARLSMITH, Andrew W. tural Interests and Architecture.” Penance, and Punishment in the Euro- Mellon Fellow, University of pean Representations of the Cru- Massachusetts, Lowell, History. cifi xion, 13th-17th Centuries.” “To Live and to Study: Col- KATE LOWE (2nd sem), Lila leges in Early Modern Italy.” Wallace - Reader’s Digest Visiting CLAUDIA CHIERICHINI, Jean- Professor, Queen Mary, University François Malle Fellow, of London, History. “Black Massachusetts Center for Africans in Renaissance Italy.” Interdisciplinary Renaissance ANN MOYER (2nd sem), Robert Studies, Literature. “E per Lehman Visiting Professor, mostrar ch’ancor ne’ povarelli University of Pennsylvania, History. regna virtù: The Literary Pro- Abigail Brundin & Claudia Chierichini; Carlo Taviani. “Studies of Florentine Cultural duction of the Congrega dei Rozzi in Identity in the Era of Cosimo I.” Siena, 1531-1552.” ROMANO NANNI (2nd sem), Craig DEBORAH PARKER (1st sem), Lila Wallace - DONAL COOPER, Hanna Kiel Fellow, Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Biblioteca Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, Univer- University of Warwick, Art History. Leonardiana, Art History. “Analisi delle sity of Virginia, Literature.