Visions · Online course
Anima
Mundi
Four meetings on art in Florence, from the thirteenth century to the end of the sixteenth.
Dates and enrolmentThe course
A journey through four centuries of art in Florence, from the Byzantine tradition to Giotto, from Donatello and Botticelli to Michelangelo and Buontalenti. Four meetings devoted to the works, artists and places that transformed not only the way the world was represented, but our very capacity to imagine it.
The title refers to the Anima Mundi: the ancient idea that the world is animated in every one of its parts. This will be our guiding thread, bringing into relation images, texts and ideas usually studied separately.
The programme is deliberately selective. Art history remains at its centre.
How can these images still alter our relationship with the world?
Programme
01
Thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries
The Theft of the Soul
Byzantine tradition, Cimabue, Nicola Pisano and Giotto will be at the centre of a meeting on the origins of Italian art. Through icons, ancient sarcophagi and exchanges across the Mediterranean, we will observe how the relationship between the sacred image, the body and visible reality changes. Saint Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio will provide the necessary cultural context.
02
The early
fifteenth century
Cosimo’s Garden
The early fifteenth century in Florence will be read through Brunelleschi’s inventions, Masaccio’s space and the energy of Donatello’s sculpture. Palazzo Medici and its garden will be the concrete centre from which to examine the rediscovery of antiquity in sculpture, collections and new philosophies, from George Gemistos Plethon to Marsilio Ficino.
03
The late
fifteenth century
Pink Madness
The Florence of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Poliziano and Sandro Botticelli, with the Primavera and the Birth of Venus at the centre of the journey. In the figure of the nymph, in eros and in the movement of drapery, we will see how ancient forms survive by changing context and meaning. Dionysus will carry the story towards madness and metamorphosis.
04
The
sixteenth century
The Anti-Renaissance
The idea of an orderly and perfect Renaissance cracks open in the work of Michelangelo, Rosso Fiorentino and Cellini. The experiments of Francesco I de’ Medici and Buontalenti will be read in relation to alchemy and the transformation of matter, culminating in the artificial nature of Pratolino. Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, at the origins of opera, will close the journey in 1600, when ancient myth becomes the material of a new art.
Practical information
How it works
Format
4 live online meetings
Duration
90 minutes, 6:30–8:00 pm Italian time
Platform
Google Meet
Participants
From 4 to 12 people
English edition
10, 17 and 24 November
1 December 2026
Italian edition
12, 19 and 26 January
2 February 2027
€140for the complete course
A recording will be sent after each meeting. The course also includes handouts and a bibliography.
To take part, write to me and indicate which edition you would like to attend. You will receive the necessary information and a link for payment by card. Your place will be confirmed once payment has been received.
The complete cancellation and refund terms will be provided before enrolment.
Write to take partA possible meeting in Florence
During the course, we will consider the possibility of bringing the journey to a close with an in-person meeting in a place connected to the themes we have explored. The meeting will be optional and organised separately.
Further reading