ARTS + ARCHITECTURE / DRAWING INSPIRATION

Arts + Architecture [A+A] international education travel program focused on the allied arts of architecture, drawing, painting, and sculpture. This travel program recognizes the long-standing tradition and value of the physical experience of travel and drawing research as an integral part of a designer’s education. In short, we call it Drawing Inspiration.

September 2027 / FLORENCE

In September 2027, the A+A program will offer a week of drawing and watercolor painting in Florence.

FLORENCE / ITINERARY

The workshop will include instruction in topics related to the traditions of watercolor of architectural scenes, including hand-drawing, perspective studies, architectural geometry, proportion, history, innovations, materials, and methods. We will apply lessons in drawing and watercolor sketches in the Renaissance context of Florence. We will also be visiting inspirational buildings and Museums accompanied by a Renaissance Art Historian based in Italy.

FLORENCE / ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419, is widely celebrated as the first true work of Renaissance architecture. It introduced a new architectural language emphasizing geometric harmony, classical proportions, and rational symmetry.

• Santa Maria Novella is a Dominican church in Florence. It is considered the most important Romano-Gothic church in Tuscany and is a World Heritage Site. The Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista designed the upper part of the façade, finished in 1470. Leon Battista Alberti used precise classical geometry and mathematical proportions to resolve the clash between the existing Gothic structure of Santa Maria Novella and Renaissance ideals. By circumscribing the façade in a massive square, he employed cascading ratios—like \(1:2\) and \(1:1\)—to ensure divine harmony.

  Santa Maria Novella's two most famous artworks are Giotto's Crucifix, which changed the way that Christ had been represented in the cross for two centuries, and Massacio's Holy Trinity, the first monumental Renaissance painting to utilize linear perspective.

• Visit to the Uffizi Gallery art museum, designed by Giorgio Vasari, adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence.

• Visit to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, a museum containing many of the original works of art created for Florence Cathedral, including the adjacent Florence Baptistery and Giotto's campanile.

• Daily Sketching and Watercolor Painting. Instruction in topics related to the traditions of watercolor of architectural scenes, including hand-drawing, perspective studies, architectural geometry, proportion, history, innovations, materials, and methods.

FLORENCE / DIRECTOR

The A+A program is led by Program Director SEÁN MCARDLE, a polymath with a Master of Arts degree with a focus in Architecture and Building Arts and intensive post-graduate Fine Arts training in the classical methods of drawing, painting, and sculpture. Seán spent his final undergraduate semester studying Architecture in Vicenza, Italy, followed by Masters ’s of Building Arts and Architecture. Seán has continued his professional work in the fields of architecture while pursuing classical education in the allied arts of drawing, painting, and sculpture.

FLORENCE / RENAISSANCE ART HISTORIAN

The A+A program attendees will be fortunate to be joined by historian PAOLA VOJNOVIC. Paola is a Renaissance Art Historian in Italy with two master’s degrees and more than two decades of research and writing about Renaissance artists, Paola brings an exceptional level of expertise and passion to her work as lecturer, teacher, and tour guide.