Instructor: Sam Gruber
This two-week workshop focuses on the life of Italian hill towns as seen through the unsurpassed visual art and architecture in Assisi, as well as original documents and contemporary literature. We will make morning visits to archaeological sites, churches, palaces, and museums in Assisi and its environs, to see up-close the art of antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and modern times, with several visits to the unsurpassed art and architectural ensemble of the church of St. Francis., just a few minutes’ walk from our hotel. There will be relaxed discussion sessions later in the day. In our walks and talks we will trace the development of Italian art and learn how to “read” the townscape for the secrets of art and everyday life.
Since ancient times, Assisi has been an important center in Umbria, one of Italy’s most beautiful regions. Impressive ancient remains survive in town and throughout the region. Beginning in the 13th Century, when St. Francis publicly renounced his secular life and founded the Franciscan order, the town has been a world center of art and the home to extensive works by many of Italy's greatest painters. Commerce, pilgrimage, painting, and politics have all shaped the town. Today Assisi survives as a rich and near-perfect center of medieval and Renaissance art and architecture.
There may be two or three excursions outside of Assisi which are not included in the tuition. This can range from $100 to $400 per excursion for transportation, gratuities, museum fees, and guided tours.
Sam Gruber (B.A. Medieval Studies from Princeton University, Ph.D. in art and archaeology from Columbia University) is an internationally recognized art and architectural historian, and historic preservationist. His specialties are medieval Italian art and architecture and the art and architecture of Judaism. Sam is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (Rome Prize in Art History), and has been a recipient of an NEH fellowship, and research grants from many foundations and institutions. He presently teaches Jewish Studies and Art History at Syracuse University (since 1994) and Cornell University (since 2017) and he has taught at Temple University (Rome); Columbia University; Colgate University, Binghamton University; and LeMoyne College. Sam is an expert on Medieval and Renaissance Italian architecture and cities. His doctoral dissertation is “Medieval Todi: Studies in Architecture and Urbanism,” and he has published many articles on medieval Italian cities.
For 30 years Sam has also been a leader in the documentation and presentation of Jewish heritage worldwide. He was founding director of the Jewish Heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund and Research Director of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, with projects in Italy and many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. He is presently working on a research project to document the roles and spaces of women in Italian Synagogues from the Middle Ages to today.
Instructor photo by Marc Safran
