The Great Cathedrals, Basilicas and Churches of Italy

Italy

The great churches of Italy are renowned for their art treasures, from Giotto’s fresco decorations of the 14th century in Padova and Assisi to the great bronze doors of San Pietro in Roma by Giacomo Manzu in the 20th century. Some churches have one great art treasure that makes a pilgrimage a necessity, such as the Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Firenze. Other churches, such as Santa Maria Novella in Firenze, the Frari in Venezia and the Duomo of Siena, tell virtually the whole history of the art and culture of their cities. In this lavishly illustrated four-lecture series, Dr. Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, discusses some of the greatest repositories of ecclesiastical art in Italy, the churches of Venezia, Roma, Siena and Firenze.