{"id":7725,"date":"2023-01-23T12:10:33","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T17:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/modern-languages-literatures\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=7725"},"modified":"2023-04-11T13:50:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T17:50:40","slug":"botticellis-secret","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/modern-languages-literatures\/event\/botticellis-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Botticelli’s Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tApril 27, 2023\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t @ \t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t5:00 pm\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t – \t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t6:30 pm\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Gilman 50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synopsis<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 500 years ago, Sandro Botticelli, an Italian painter of humble origin, created work of unearthly beauty. An intimate associate of Florence\u2019s unofficial rulers, the Medici, he was commissioned by a member of their family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy<\/em> by the city\u2019s greatest poet, Dante Alighieri. A powerful encounter between poet and artist, sacred and secular, earthly and evanescent, these drawings produced a wealth of stunning images but were never finished. Botticelli declined into poverty and obscurity, and his illustrations went missing for 400 years. This presentation will show how the nineteenth-century rediscovery of Botticelli\u2019s Dante drawings brought scholars to their knees: this work embodied everything the Renaissance had come to mean. Today, Botticelli\u2019s Primavera<\/em> adorns household objects of every kind. Together, we will see how and why Botticelli became iconic, but why we need still need his work\u2015and the spirit of the Renaissance\u2015today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Luzzi<\/u><\/strong> (PhD Yale, 2000) is the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard and the author of Botticelli\u2019s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance <\/em>(Norton), a New Yorker <\/em>Best Books of 2022 selection. His other books include Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2008), which received the MLA\u2019s Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies; A Cinema of Poetry: Aesthetics of the Italian Art Film<\/em> (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), a finalist for the international prize The Bridge Book Award; My Two Italies<\/em> (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), a New York Times Book Review<\/em> Editors\u2019 Choice; and In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love<\/em> (HarperCollins, 2015), which has been translated into multiple languages. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times<\/em>, Los Angeles Times, Chronicle of Higher Education,<\/em> TLS<\/em>, Bookforum<\/em>, and American Scholar<\/em>, among others, and among his media appearances are a profile in the Guardian<\/em> and interviews with National Public Radio. Luzzi\u2019s honors include a Dante Society of America essay prize, Yale College teaching prize, and fellowships from the National Humanities Center and Yale\u2019s Whitney Humanities Center, a Wallace Fellowship from Villa I Tatti, and an NEH Public Scholars Award in support of his current book project, Brunelleschi\u2019s Children: How a Renaissance Orphanage Saved 400,000 Lives and Reinvented Childhood<\/em>, which will be published by Norton. Luzzi\u2019s other forthcoming books are Dante\u2019s New Life: A Translation of the \u201cVita Nuova\u201d <\/em>(Norton, 2024) and Dante\u2019s \u201cDivine Comedy\u201d: A Biography <\/em>(Princeton University Press, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Event Category:<\/dt>
Italian<\/a><\/dd><\/div>\n\n\n\t
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