Francesco Vossilla Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy and History of Art
Diploma
of Maturità Classica, Liceo Ginnasio Niccolò Machiavelli, Firenze.
Laurea, Museum Studies, University of Florence
Ph.D., History of Architecture, University of Florence
Biographical Information
Francesco Vossilla is an
art historian born and educated in Florence.
For family reasons he has worked and lived in the United States and Taiwan. His
studies have focused on Renaissance Culture from philosophy to the visual arts.
Dr. Vossilla has published mostly on Renaissance sculpture and ceramics as well
as on the history of Italian museums. His most recent
publications have focused on Michelangelo and his contribution to the birth of
modern aesthetics. He is teaching classes on Renaissance
Philosophy of Art, Museum Studies, Renaissance Art History for few Italian and American
institutions.
Publications
F. Vossilla, Cosimo
I , lo scrittoio del Bachiacca, una carcassa di capodoglio e la filosofia
naturale, in <<Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in
Florenz>>, XXXVII, 1993, pp. 381-395.
F. Vossilla, La Loggia
della Signoria. Una galleria di scultura, Edizioni Medicea, Firenze 1995.
F. Vossilla,
L'altar maggiore di Santa Maria del Fiore di Baccio Bandinelli , in Altari e Committenza. Episodi a Firenze
nell'età della Controriforma, a cura di C. De Benedictis, Pontecorboli ed.,
Firenze 1996, pp. 36-67.
F. Vossilla, Baccio
Bandinelli e Benvenuto Cellini tra il 1540 e il 1560, in
<<Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz>> XLI,
1997, 3, pp. 254-313.
C. Francini, F.Vossilla, L'Ercole e Caco di Baccio Bandinelli, Alinea ed., Firenze 1999
F. Vossilla, Stanze regali per Cosimo de'Medici, in Palazzo
Vecchio.Officina di arte e ingegni , a cura di C. Francini,Silvana
ed., Cinisello Balsamo, 2006, pp. 100-121.
S.Risaliti, F. Vossilla, Il Bacco di Michelangelo.Il dio della
spensieratezza e della condanna, Maschietto ed., Firenze, 2007.
S.Risaliti, F. Vossilla, La zuffa dei Centauri, Electa, Milano, 2008.
Course Descriptions
Florence city of
museums. Museum Studies and History of Museums. Museums
are the treasure-houses of the human race. European museums, especially those
in Florence,
preserve artifacts that embody a large part of the cultural heritage of the
Western World. It will be our goal to both learn about Museum Studies and to
learn from the history of Florentine museums. First we will examine the value
and the function of such institutions mainly addressing the social role that
museums play in inspiring their visitors to learn about history. Then the class
will study the history of Florentine museum as outstanding examples of Italian
culture from the Renaissance to the 20th century. This historical
background is the beginning step of Museum Studies, because the historical
notion is ensuring museums a peculiar role in the regeneration of local
cultures.
Researching
the history of those collections treasured in a given museum also serves to
identify and to represent identity and continuity for the cultural heritage of
any modern society at times of grand global changes.
Renaissance Philosophy of Art This seminar will introduce students to the
interdependence of philosophy and art in the Italian Renaissance and will focus
mainly on Michelangelo Buonarroti.
To appreciate Michelangelo's great achievements in
sculpture, painting, and architecture students will be exposed to the thought
of philosophers and artists who shaped the development of Florentine Humanism
and influenced Michelangelo: from Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus to Dante,
Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, Alberti, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola.
To assist students in achieving a rigorous
interrogation of the meaning and value of beauty and art in Renaissance Italy
we will fully approach Buonarroti's art theories. To this end, special study
will be made of how specific moral, social, religious and philosophical
tendencies can be read from Michelangelo's art as well as of his contemporaries.
