Context brings the brightest minds to your living room with perspective-shifting online lectures.

The Nativity in Italian Art and Music with Kate Bolton-Porciatti

The Nativity in Italian Art and Music with Kate Bolton-Porciatti


No events are scheduled at this time. Want to be notified when it’s back? Click the blue button to the right and we’ll notify you.

Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

The musical soundscapes accompanying Nativity scenes in Italian art range from singing angels and soft-voiced lutes to earthy shepherds playing bagpipes and reedy shawms. This talk explores the connections between images and sounds - real or implied - and the ways in which artists and composers use music to suggest the immaterial divine or to evoke idealized pastoral settings, triggering forgotten memories of Eden or Arcadia. 

Our conversation will explore Nativity tableaux by Bronzino, Domenichino, Giotto, Giovanni della Robbia, and Piero della Francesca, with musical illustrations of songs and lullabies, and the Italian folk traditions that inspired celebrated Christmas music by Bach, Berlioz, Corelli, and Handel.
Led by an expert on Italian culture and music, Kate Bolton-Porciatti, this interactive seminar will discuss how images and music were intended to illuminate the darkest month of the year. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of the connections between art, music, and devotion in the Renaissance.

Kate Bolton-Porciatti is a professor of Italian cultural history and music at the Istituto Lorenzo de'Medici in Florence, where she teaches BA and MA courses in the humanities. She also lectures at the British Institute, Florence, and at the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena. Kate has published extensively as an academic and a journalist; she is a music critic for BBC Music and a travel writer for The Daily Telegraph, UK. Before moving to Italy permanently in 2005, she was a senior producer and broadcaster for BBC Arts & Classical Music in London and has won prestigious Jerusalem and Sony Awards for her programs. She did her M.Phil. thesis in Italy, exploring the musical culture of early Renaissance Florence.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 15 reviews
100%
(15)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
D
D. (Oak Park, US)
A Joyful Christmas Gift

This seminar is a perfect and joyful Christmas gift: Kate’s expertise in music, art, and literature helps us see and hear familiar and unfamiliar works in new ways. Her uncanny knack for sharing just the right image or archival photo or clip and her graceful presentation style make this a terrific experience.

N
N.J.G. (Austin, US)
An Extraordinary Seminar!

No one should miss this outstanding lecture. Kate presents a scholarly, yet accessible integration of lovely nativity masterpieces and relevant sacred music.

J
J.F. (Buffalo, US)

The best conversation ever!

D
Darci (Saratoga, US)
Another fascinating talk by Kate

I cannot overstate how thoroughly I enjoy listening to Ms. Bolton-Porciatti's talks. Her delivery is elegant, nicely paced and soothing yet entirely engaging. She is like a tonic. The subjects she discusses are unique and highly interesting.

A
Anonymous (Bellmore, US)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 15 reviews
100%
(15)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
D
D. (Oak Park, US)
A Joyful Christmas Gift

This seminar is a perfect and joyful Christmas gift: Kate’s expertise in music, art, and literature helps us see and hear familiar and unfamiliar works in new ways. Her uncanny knack for sharing just the right image or archival photo or clip and her graceful presentation style make this a terrific experience.

N
N.J.G. (Austin, US)
An Extraordinary Seminar!

No one should miss this outstanding lecture. Kate presents a scholarly, yet accessible integration of lovely nativity masterpieces and relevant sacred music.

J
J.F. (Buffalo, US)

The best conversation ever!

D
Darci (Saratoga, US)
Another fascinating talk by Kate

I cannot overstate how thoroughly I enjoy listening to Ms. Bolton-Porciatti's talks. Her delivery is elegant, nicely paced and soothing yet entirely engaging. She is like a tonic. The subjects she discusses are unique and highly interesting.

A
Anonymous (Bellmore, US)

Guest did not leave comment