Join us for this illuminating 3-session study day in readiness for a major new exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Lecture 1:FLORENCE AND THE BIRTH OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

We are all so familiar with the ideas and culture of the (Italian) Renaissance; a phenomenon that emerged in the 15th century. But why did Florence act as the midwife for this? What did this city provide that enabled this birth, and encouraged it to flourish? Is it something that was so efficiently reported and propagandised by people such as Giorgio Vasari in his 'Lives of The Artists', or can we accept that Florence was indeed where the Italian Renaissance emerged?

Lecture 2:RENAISSANCE RIVALS: HOW COMPETITION BETWEEN LEONARDO, MICHELANGELO AND RAPHAEL PROVIDED THE FUEL THAT DROVE THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Three giants of the Italian Renaissance who were involved in fierce competition with each other, Leonardo, the master, Michelangelo the brooding upstart genius, and Raphael, the artist who carefully crafted his stellar career in the shadows, to emerge as a bright light that was tragically extinguished by an early death just as he began to be recognised as an artist in his own right. "Everything that Raphael had, he took from me", is what Michelangelo remarked, as Pope Julius II pitted them against each other in the Vatican.

Lecture 3:MICHELANGELO'S 'DAVID', AND ITS POSITION IN THE VISUAL LANGUAGE OF WESTERN ART

When Michelangelo landed the commission to complete a gigantic statue of the prophet David, he was already aware of the legacy that he would give to art. Embodying the core ethics of Renaissance sculpture, and challenging his contemporaries, but most powerfully, the ancient past, his statue is rightly regarded as iconic. This talk takes us through the history of this piece, and its place in the canon of art.