Decoding the Italian Renaissance

Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ) by Giotto, an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the "Gothic or Proto-Renaissance" period.

An eight week course offering a thorough look at the Italian Renaissance will start at Dubai's XVA Gallery next month. Rose Balston, founder of Art History UK and Art History UAE will be hosting the course through consecutive weekly lectures traversing the period of history that she says is "the world's greatest cultural boom". 

This first session on October 4, will focus on why and how the Renaissance reverberated through the towns of northern Italy. Balston will discuss Cimabue, Giotto and the Lorenzetti brothers as she takes participants through an information-soaked visual tour of Florence, Siena and Padua. She will also cover the role of trade and of how the early poets such as Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio delved into the concept of man being made in the image of God by using classical antiquity as an inspiration.

In later sessions, she will cover Masaccio’s sublime paintings that paved the way for all future 15th century painting and Donatello’s utterly shocking sculptures as well as the Medici family, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and ending it with the Counter-Reformation and the rise of the Baroque.

• Signs and Symbols of the Italian Renaissance: Decoding the World’s Greatest Cultural Boom. Eight weekly sessions starting from Wednesday October 4, from 10-12pm. Arrival coffee, tea and cakes from 9.30am. Cost AED 250 per session, or AED 200 if you purchase all eight in one payment. For more info please contact XVA Gallery on xva@xvagallery.com or 04-353-5383 to book.