15 Learn Italian & Arts & Literature in Venice

This Itinerarte language course focuses on two in-person lessons at Palazzo Grimani in Venice to introduce the main differences between Venice and Padua, two important towns in Veneto region. Venice is not as old as Padua (which dates back to the Roman Empire). Venice is overall a Byzantine city (VIII century) and its art and architecture reflect exactly that cultural background. In the middle of the XVI century, collecting Roman and Greek treasures became of great interest to the noble societies of both Venice and Padua. Two lessons of this course will be hosted in Padua.

The Venetian economy has always been based on commerce and trade. Foreign entities traveled to Venice for business and long-term economic agreements were signed between the Most Serene Republic and nations such as Albany, Greece, Croatia, and the Ottoman Empire. Venice was the central European city where all exchanges were held and the Rialto area was an emporium all the year long. Lessons in Venice will focus on three foreign communities: the Armenians, the Greeks and the Dalmatians. First, you will visit the Armenian island of San Lazzaro and the Zenobio Palace. Second, you will focus our attention on the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George and Byzantine Icons Museum. The third lesson will focus on Dalmatian School dedicated to Saint George. The famous painter “Carpaccio” worked there creating one of the most complete and interesting pictorial Renaissance cycles in the early XVI century.

This Itinerarte language course will show the deep connection between Venice and Byzantium (the city that changed its name first to Constantinople and then to the present day Istanbul). Learning about important and delicate relations between the two cities, you will focus your attention on architectural structures and on materials brought during the centuries from Byzantium to Venice. The Venetian Government gave to the ancient statues, columns, capitals, reliefs and marble decorations a new political significance. The course starts with an in-person lesson at Palazzo Grimani followed by four in-person lessons in Venice to study the Byzantine heritage.

The Renaissance period in the Veneto region differed from the one that developed in Tuscany or other Italian regions. Donatello arrived in Padua to work at the Saint Anthony’s Basilica giving you a trove of magnificent sculptures . At the same time, the painter Andrea Mantegna was one of the best painters of the early Renaissance era in Veneto. The Itinerarte language course will focus on the most important painters and architects between the XV and XVI centuries. Lessons will be held in Padua, Vicenza and Venice.

The concept of “schools” in Venice might be translated as guilds or brotherhoods. Citizens, not noblemen, handled management of the schools and pictorial decorations of their buildings. Competition among the numerous Venetian schools contributed to the development of incredible historical pictorial cycles. Some of them can still be found in their original settings. Renaissance paintings and architecture are the focus of our course, but additionally, you will also discover how the schools operated and their political roles in Venetian society. Lessons will be at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, Scuola Grande di San Marco, Scuola dei Calegheri, and the Scuola dei Carmini.

This Itinerarte language an art history course will focus on the many festivities celebrated in Venice all year round. Some of them are connected to the celebration of a saint (such as the 16th of August: Saint Roch’s day) or to a special historical event (such as March 25th the birth of Venice or the end of a plague) or also to devoted sacred relics. To remember such special days in the calendar, churches and Grand Schools were built and consecrated to celebrate the festivities over the centuries. This course will follow thematic itineraries such as ceremonies to honor the end of the plague or visits to Santa Maria della Salute and the Redeemer Churches. Other visits will focus on Madonna dell’Orto and Saint Alvise churches.

The epoch of the second Venetian Renaissance began with the publication of Jacopo de Barbari's Bird's Eye View: an extraordinary work that depicted Venice as perfection and truth, as well as dignity and power. Following the deaths of Giorgione, Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio, a new moment of artistic culture took place which inaugurated with the Pala dei Frari and The Assumption by Titian. Following the sack of Rome by barbarian invaders, Jacopo Sansovino arrived on the Venetian scene and was responsible for much of the ensuing architectural and urban renewal of Venice in the new Renaissance style. Architects and sculptors such as Andrea Palladio, Scamozzi and Sammicheli became major contributors to this second Renaissance revival. In painting, following the likes of Pordenone, Francesco Salviati and Giuseppe Porta, the career of the great Tintoretto was launched largely with his creation of The Miracle of the Slave. His services were in great demand and culminated in his working in the Doge’s Palace where he met Paolo Veronese. Veronese was also involved in the extraordinary feats of Palazzo Ducale. Soon, the aristocracy, schools, religious orders and the clergy all began competing for the best master artisans. This course offers the opportunity to investigate - through the events of the commissioning of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese - the artistic dynamics of the second Venetian Renaissance. The preparatory lesson in the classroom will be followed by visits and ongoing lessons to sites, museums.

This Itinerarte language course begins with an in-person lesson about the world renowned painter, Giotto, who worked in Padua at the Scrovegni Chapel at the start of the XIV century. Giotto’s privately-commissioned masterpiece brought Renaissance art to the Veneto region for the first time. New styles, new geometrical rules for frescoes, new sensibilities and exceptional results ensued. The teachers will underline the comparison and the difference among Giotto and other contemporary artists like Guariento, Altichiero, and Giusto de’ Menabuoi. Lessons will be lead in Verona, Padua and Venice.

The eighteenth century was the last in the 1100 year-old history of La Serenissima - the Venetian Republic. And it was also a century of splendor and artistic regeneration. The long and slow decline of Venice in the eighteenth century was also punctuated by very high peaks of cultural production. A frivolous and haughty city, the international capital of music and entertainment, Venice expresses excellence and sophistication at the highest levels that artists and travelers will love. Internationally renowned Venetian and the greatest exponent of eighteenth-century painting in his city, Giambattista Tiepolo left many pearls in "his" Venice, and it is to the discovery of some of them that the course the school offers is dedicated. You will explore from the church of Santa Maria del Rosario and its imposing frescoed ceiling, to the church of Santa Maria del Carmelo and the adjacent Scuola Grande dei Carmini with the Virtues of the Sala Capitolare. In the church of San Polo, in addition to Giambattista, we will discover Giandomenico Tiepolo, son of an artist struggling with his first work, the fourteen scenes of the Via Crucis - The Stations of the Cross. The same scenes of the Via Crucis will await you in the beautiful fourteenth- century church dedicated to San Ludovico di Tolosa better known as Sant’Alvise. It is a place of relics, fugitive nuns and works of art that bear witness to and represent the succession of centuries of fashions and styles. You will then turn your attention to some of the great patrician palaces, such as Palazzo Labia and Palazzo Pisani Moretta where the master Tiepolo created some of his most beautiful and elegant frescoes. Through Tiepolo, the course will look at the Venice of the time; to the many figures of art, architecture, theater and music who made it memorable in the eighteenth century.

This Itinerarte language course focuses its attention on Venetian residential architecture through discovering the differences between fondaco, house and palace. Architecture represented the answer to specific aims that a family or a community had. A fondaco was a public building where foreign merchants and traders stayed while sharing business and living areas. Families typically owned houses where the ground floor’s main function was the storage of produce while the upper floors were uses as living areas. Some houses, however, were palace-like structures that were closer to, from an architectural point of view, a villa or a castle. Lessons will be in Venice visiting the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Palazzo Loredan Farsetti and Palazzo Pisani Moretta.

Students will explore the works of famous Venetian painters and architects.This kind of coure can be organized in any time of the year. Ideally it is aimed at students who have at least an intermediate level of Italian - B1 of the European framework for languages. We suggest to take at least a minimum of 5 hours, each class of 2.5 hours, as students usually go out together with their teacher on a tour, possibly entering museums, palaces, churches etc. In private art history courses entrance tickets are NOT included in tuition fee.

Lessons could be moved to the afternoon, depending on the opening hours of museums, palaces, churches etc. All entrance fees included.With the art history teachers, you will explore the works of famous Venetian painters and architects. The course is 3 hours a day, from Monday to Friday, usually from 9.30 am to 12.30 am, but the schedule may change according with the opening time of churches, palaces and museums. Entrance tickets are included. Private lessons can be booked too, in Italian as well as in English.

The lessons are held in the Querini Stampalia Library and Museum, with classes held in a different room each day.