Saturday, April 11th Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence Professor Brown tells a true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile, and repatriation in her 2021 book, The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and its Empire .  It chronicles the 16 th  century marriage of Giulia Bembo and Girolamo Della Torre and reveals the complexities of the Venetian Empire, family life, and power struggles.  In her Studiolo talk, Professor...

Saturday, April 4th Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence Painter and portraitist Nicholas Todhunter returns to Paola’s Studiolo  to discuss the work of Jacopo Tintoretto (1518–1594), described as Venice’s most dramatic painter—a whirlwind of speed, shadow, and swagger.  Nicknamed Il Furioso  for his wild energy, he painted saints like stage actors, miracles like lightning strikes, and ceilings as if gravity were optional.  Tintoretto worked fast, thought...

Saturday, March 28th Live on Zoom 10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence During his all-too-brief career, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (1483-1520), frequently benefited from the patronage of women and painted works intended for female viewers ranging from nuns to noblewomen. Raphael’s women patrons and viewers came from different social classes and were often linked via bonds of kinship, marriage, and friendship. This conversation with Sheryl Reiss...