Session	Dates	Price
Spring Semester 2009 - Palazzo Rucellai - Architecture	January 7 - May 2, 2009	$15,995
Spring Semester 2009 - Palazzo Rucellai - Liberal Arts	January 7 - May 2, 2009	$12,995
Fall Semester 2009 - Palazzo Rucellai - Architecture	Late August - Mid December 2009	TBA
Fall Semester 2009 - Palazzo Rucellai - Liberal Arts	Late August - Mid December 2009	TBA
Academic Year 2009-2010 - Palazzo Rucellai - Liberal Arts	Late August 2009 - Early May 2010	TBA

Full Description

Course Description

The course focuses on the relationship between the Italian villa and garden, considering the garden as a part of a complete architectural system. While the origins of the garden are found in the eastern Mediterranean area, Tuscany is the context of the early formal garden. Renaissance rationalism influenced the evolution of the geometrical garden as an extension of the villa. The model was also exported to France, but here plays here a different role in the combination villa-garden. The late Renaissance Palladian villa is a model whose progeny is found not only in the Northern Europe, but in America as well. Starting from 18th century, a new sensibility of garden perception is investigated in England, with strong echoes in Florentine culture; Giuseppe Poggi, after traveling in Northern Europe, acquires and elaborates the English artificial landscaping. Several years later, Cecil Pinsent, educated according to English romantic garden culture, re-invents the formal garden connected with the villa in Tuscany.
Lectures with slides and visits on site will explain the evolution of the concept, considering a collection of styles and forms.

Reading Materials

- C. Thacker, The History of Gardens, London, 1979
- J. Ackerman, The Villa, Washington, D.C., 1990
- D. Mignani, The Medicean Villas by Giusto Utens, Firenze, 1991
- Cecil Pinsent and his gardens in Tuscany, edited by M. Fantoni, H. Flores, J. Pfordresher, Firenze, 1999
- Photocopied extracts of specific books will be provided by instructor

Course descriptions may be subject to occasional, minor modifications at the discretion of the instructor.

During orientation at the Institute, students will receive a list of textbooks they are required to purchase. Students should not purchase any texts before orientation.