The Italian Renaissance Podcast

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The Italian Renaissance Podcast

This podcast aims to provide a general overview of historical themes of the Renaissance in Italy.

22/05/2026

New Patreon Exclusive!

Giovanni Santi's Tiranni Chapel

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Often overshadowed by the extraordinary success of his son Raphael, Giovanni Santi is frequently neglected in discussions of Renaissance art. This episode explores Santi’s masterwork, the Tiranni Chapel, revealing not only how artistic trends spread beyond the major cultural courts, but also how Santi absorbed and adapted innovations from Florence, Venice, and Flanders within the sophisticated environment of the Urbino court.

The chapel offers a richly layered theological meditation on the human cycle of life and death, while also demonstrating Santi’s remarkable skill in integrating religious narrative with architectural space. Through his seamless blending of fresco painting and the chapel’s real architecture, Santi creates an immersive visual experience that reflects both intellectual depth and technical mastery.

According to legend, the angel near Saint Francis is the portrait of the very young Raphael.

Giovanni Santi, Tiranni Chapel, ca. 1490, San Domenico di Cagli https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_Tiranni

18/05/2026

New Podcast Out Now!

Federico da Montefeltro and Urbino, featuring the magnificent Professor Linda Reynolds.

https://linktr.ee/italian_renaissance_podcast

Art Historian Linda Reynolds joins me to discuss the history of the court of Duke Federico da Montefeltro. Ruling over Urbino, the Montefeltro court was among the most important centers in Renaissance Italy. Professor Reynolds first explains how a simple mercenary like Federico was able to rise to the status of Duke. From there, she dives into the Duke's patronage of the arts, looking primary at the architecture of his palace in Urbino and his painters, Piero della Francesca and Justus van Ghent.

Works Discussed:

Luciano Laurana, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, second phase 1464-72 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_ducale_di_Urbino

The Ideal City, 1480's https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ideal_City_-_formerly_attributed_to_Luciano_Laurana_-_Galleria_Nazionale_delle_Marche,_Urbino

Piero della Francesca, Double Portrait of Duke Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, 1473-75 https://www.uffizi.it/opere/i-duchi-di-urbino-federico-da-montefeltro-e-battista-sforza

Justus van Ghent, Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro with His Son Guidobaldo, ca. 1475 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Federico_da_Montefeltro_with_His_Son_Guidobaldo

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04/05/2026

Perugino and Raphael: The Marriage of the Virgin

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This episode examines how artistic influence and innovation intersect in the work of Perugino and Raphael, using their two Marriage of the Virgin paintings as a lens. It explores the defining qualities of Perugino’s calm, orderly style alongside Raphael’s more dynamic and spatially refined approach. Set against the cultural importance of the subject in Renaissance Perugia, the comparison reveals how shared compositions can yield contrasting visual experiences. Ultimately, the discussion highlights a pivotal artistic moment: the transformation of a master’s visual language into something more expressive, marking Raphael’s emergence as one of the most compelling and influential painters of the Renaissance.

Works Discussed:

Perugino, Marriage of the Virgin, 1500-1504 https://mba.caen.fr/en/oeuvre/le-mariage-de-la-vierge

Raphael, Marriage of the Virgin, 1504 https://pinacotecabrera.org/en/collezioni/collezione-on-line/the-marriage-of-the-virgin/

More on Perugino and Raphael in our online course: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-florentine-renaissance/?referralCode=FF28E9B6B8BB41DD78AF

03/05/2026

New Patreon Exclusive: The Deposition by Federico Barocci
https://linktr.ee/italian_renaissance_podcast

An excellent example of the intersections of Mannerism and the Counter Reformation, Barocci's Deposition is a stellar representation of the supreme art produced in Perugia during the Renaissance.

This conversation links the new needs of religious art in central Italy after the Council of Trent, showing Barocci as on the cutting edge of new artistic developments in Italy during the 16th century.

Federico Barocci, Deposition, 1569 https://www.museiapperugia.it/en/descent-cross

20/04/2026

New Podcast!

Perugia and Perugino
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This episode explores how Perugia functioned as a dynamic center of Renaissance art and how Perugino emerged as its most influential painter. It considers the city’s political, religious, and economic structures as active forces shaping artistic production, while examining how workshop practices, patronage, and regional identity intersected with broader Florentine influences.

At the heart of the discussion is Perugino’s distinctive style—marked by clarity, harmony, and compositional balance—and the role his workshop played in spreading that visual language across central Italy. The episode ultimately frames Perugia not as a peripheral center, but as a key contributor to the artistic networks that helped define the transition toward the High Renaissance.

Works Discussed:

Perugino, Adoration of the Magi, 1470's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi_(Perugino,_Perugia)

Perugino, Apollo and Daphnis, 1475-1500 https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010064934

Perugino, Decemviri Altarpiece, 1495/96

13/04/2026

What's Next?

Starting next monday, we are back at it with regularly scheduled podcasts!

Phase 1:
Finishing with the courts, we will journey to central Italy, first to Perugia then to Urbino. The next episodes will look at the workshop of Perugino (image 1), then the Montefeltro court in Urbino (image 2).

Phase 2:
Perugino's star pupil was Raphael of Urbino. On the cusp of the High Renaissance, Raphael spent an early part of his career in Flornce. We will explore his art development as a reaction to and balancing of Florentine style. This path, like all roads, leads us to Rome.

Phase 3:
We will finally tackle Renaissance Rome, stepping back into the 15th century and moving into the High Renaissance. We will discuss major works, like Michelangelo's Pietà (image 3), but also the wider network of artists working in Rome for the many wealthy patrons and multiple popes. We will eventually discuss in detail the major works in the Varican, like Raphael's School of Athens (image 4), among many others.

I expect Phase 3 to be a long voyage!

Stay tuned and buckle up!

06/04/2026

New Podcast Out Now! Michelangelo Reimagined - Playwright Justin Garascia on His New Play: Mikey!

Michelangelo takes to the stage, and playwright and actor Justin Garascia joins us to discuss his dynamic reimagining of the early life of Michelangelo. Set in Renaissance Italy, MIKEY! unfolds as a gothic, q***r fever dream, moving between the sculpting of David and the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. As Michelangelo reflects on the life that brought him to this moment, he wrestles with how he wants to be remembered — as a sculptor, not a painter.

Through a reimagined history, the play asks: what if there was a secret relationship at the House of Medici that shaped the artist’s emotional life and propelled the work we still revere over 500 years later?

Crowd Fund: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/mikey-a-new-play/campaigns/f6cecfad-a8b2-4ca1-a00f-b50d6d6e053d

Show Dates (2026):
Tue, May 19 at 7 PM
Tue, May 26 at 7 PM
Thu, May 28 at 7 PM
Sat, May 30 at 3 PM
Sun, May 31 at 7 PM

Tickets on Sale Now: https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2026/5/19/mikey

Follow along: and

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05/04/2026

Agnolo Bronzino, Christ's Descent into Limbo, 1552, Santa Croce

According to Christian tradition prevalent in the Renaissance, on the Saturday before his ressurection, Christ descended into Limbo, a realm within Hell that holds the souls born before Christ or the unbaptized righteous. These souls were the first saved after his Crucifixion. They include many of the most important characters from the Old Testament.

Image 2: Adam, Eve, Judith
Image 3: David, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Noah

This episode was put to verse centuries earlier in Dante's Divine Comedy, Canton IV of Inferno:

Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,
And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient

Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,
Israel with his father and his children,
And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,

And others many, and he made them blessed;
And thou must know, that earlier than these
Never were any human spirits saved.

Happy Easter Renaissance People

26/03/2026

New Patreon Exclusive Podcast:

Andrea del Sarto's Drawings for Tribute to Caesar

Andrea del Sarto was one of the leading artists in Florence during the time when the High Renaissance was taking over Rome. In 1520, Ottaviano de' Medici commissioned frescos for the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, the villa built by Giuliano da Sangallo for Lorenzo the Magnificent. This collaboration created a precise conceptual tie between the legacy of the Medici and the legacy of Julius Caesar.

Beyond the political and symbolic readings of this work, two preparatory drawings for this work give us keen insight to Andrea del Sarto's process. They also speak to the budding concepts of art theory in the early 16th century, where drawing, or disegno, was concisely tied to the idea of Florentine pictorial dominance.

Images:
Andrea del Sarto, Tribute to Caesar, 1519/21, black chalk, Louvre: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020002331

Andrea del Sarto, Study for the Head of Julius Caesar, 1520/21, red chalk, the Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/377426

Andrea del Sarto, Triumph of Caesar, 1520, fresco, Poggio a Caiano: https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/a/andrea/sarto/2/caiano.html

06/03/2026

Out now, join me on Udemy for my on-demand course on the art and culture of Renaissance Florence.

The Florentine Renaissance course offers an overview of the iconic art of the 15th and 16th centuries and the histories that made them possible.

Not only does this course cover Renaissance giants like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, but it offers a deeper look at the wider scope of Renaissance art in Florence, including painting, sculpture, and architecture.

Get the course here: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-florentine-renaissance/?referralCode=FF28E9B6B8BB41DD78AF

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