Politics and Art in Machiavelli’s Florence

FREDERICK, Md.—The connections between the art of Renaissance Italy and those who had the power to commission it is the topic of the final fall colloquium lecture Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Whitaker Campus Center at Hood College.

Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, former associate professor of art at Hood, in a lecture entitled ‘I love my native city more than my soul’; Politics and Art in Machiavelli’s Florence, will discuss the parallels between the use of violence to maintain power during the time of Machiavelli and the themes of the art produced during that era.

Taylor-Mitchell taught Italian Renaissance art and other art history courses during her 10 years at Hood. She has written numerous articles on Florentine art and sculpture, and co-authored a book on Florentine art and the religious order of the Humiliati.

The series will continue in the spring with a bioethics panel in February on power and the public good in relation to mental illness; a lecture in March by Jean-Vincent Blanchard of Swarthmore College, author of Eminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France; and a panel discussion and film screening in April that focuses on the historical and political significance of Richard III.

For more information about the colloquium series, contact Katy Fulfer, NEH Libman Professor of the humanities, at fulfer@hood.edu.