Overview
Located in a restored Tuscan hilltop estate 25 kilometers north of Florence, the Tuscan Classical Academy is based on long-standing traditions, ideals, and values. The Academy was founded by architectural restorer and educator Lynn Fleming Aeschliman, who started renovating the Capitignano property in the late 1960s. The Academy brings together talented and experienced architects, artists, teachers, and theorists who are devoted to the classical, medieval, and Renaissance traditions in the arts. The Academy Fellows promote the arts as essential to human flourishing and well-being as well as professional competence and growth.
The Capitignano estate has several major buildings that contain a library, studio, lecture hall, salon, living and dining accommodations, as well as a swimming pool, old tennis court, and lovely terraces. The Academy runs collaborative programs with the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, INTBAU, the Boston University College of Fine Arts, TASIS The American School in Switzerland, and for fourteen years (1996-2009) the Erasmus-Jefferson Summer Institute (University of Virginia) and for two summers (‘06 & ‘07) with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. Independent students are welcome to apply to attend on a credit or non-credit basis.
The aim of the summer program is to introduce art and architecture students and professionals to the rich architectural heritage of Florence and Tuscany. More than any other city, Florence was the seat of Renaissance Humanism, and the center for the flourishing of the classical arts. Throughout the quattrocento and cinquecento, Florence witnessed a revival of architecture and the building arts that decisively changed the way Europe and the West thought about the built environment.
Structure
The summer program is open to those whose focus is primarily architecture or fine art. The two groups do, however, share a number of lectures and exercises and all the tours are done jointly. Additionally, two shorter Professional Intensives are offered during the course of the program focusing on classical architecture and the civilized landscape.
Participants
The program is for
- Professionals and non-professionals seeking a rich summer opportunity to draw, paint, and be inspired by the beauty of Tuscany, as well as receiving continuing-education credits, if so desired;
- Professionals and non-professionals seeking a shorter intensive program on either Renaissance urbanism or the Tuscan landscape;
- Art and architecture students seeking summer-school college credits at both the 200-level introductory and 400-level advanced courses;
- Rising high-school seniors seeking college-level summer courses in painting or architecture for college credit.
General Information
3 credits, Deupi & Hyde/ 8:30-12:30 & 15:00-18:30 MTWTF
Admission to the Academy is by permission of the Director and on a space-available basis. Applicants are required to submit three examples of their work in the form of digital images, photocopies, or photographs. Students are housed for the duration of their stay in restored villas and farm buildings on the estate of Capitignano in the Mugello valley, 45 minutes north of Florence. All courses and studio work are carried out in the restored haybarn (Fienile) and stable (Stalla) of the complex, as well as extended to different sites in Tuscany.
The complete cost of the three-week Academy, including housing, meals, tours, Notre Dame tuition for credit, and fees is $4,400. Need and merit-based scholarships are available upon request to the Director. The shorter Professional Intensive offerings are prorated on the number of days attending the Academy. Drawing and painting supplies are not included. A $500 deposit is required along with the application to hold a place. Full payment of the remaining cost is required by June 1. All payments minus a cancellation fee of $150 are refundable until this date.
Faculty
Victor Deupi
Architect & Painter
B.S. Arch. University of Virginia, M. Arch. Yale University
Ph. D. Arch. University of Pennsylvania
(Click thumbnail to view website)
Maureen Hyde
Painter
B.A. Wellesley College; M.A. Courtauld Institute of Art
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh
(Click thumbnail to view website)
Sally Smith
Art Historian
B.A. Wellesley College; M.A. Courtauld Institute of Art
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh
(Click thumbnail to view biography)
Lynn Fleming Aeschliman
Architectural Restorer, Educator, & Founding Director Tuscan Classical Academy
B.A. Barnard College, Columbia University
(Click thumbnail to view her biography)
view a faculty biography
Fellows of the Academy
- Diane Afton Aeschliman, BFA, RISD, Painter (CT) link
- Michael D. Aeschliman, PhD, PhD, Columbia; Professor, Boston University and University of Italian Switzerland
- Maxim Atayants, Architect (St. Petersburg, Russia)
- Pier Carlo Bontempi, Architect (Parma, Italy) link
- Bill Dennis, Urban Planner (Providence, RI) link
- Mary Dennis, Landscape Architect (RI)
- Victor Deupi, Architect & Painter (NYC) link
- David T. Mayernik, Master Planner, Architect & Painter link
- Sheldon Kostelecky, Architect (Boston) link
- Steven Semes, Architect & Professor, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture (IN) link
- John Smalley, MFA, U. of Iowa; Painter & Head of Art Dept., TASIS England
- Sarah P. Smith, PhD, U. of Pittsburgh; Art Historian
- David M. Steiner, PhD, Harvard; Commissioner of Public Education, State of New York; formerly Director of Arts Education, National Endowment for the Humanities
Course Descriptions
The program covers three areas:
1) The History and Theory
of Florentine Humanism
2) Tuscan Classicism & the City
3) Drawing and Painting
The History and Theory of Florentine Humanism (all TCA students)
The History and Theory component consists of a series of lectures on medieval civilization and Renaissance Humanism and site visits to important cities and buildings throughout Tuscany. These center primarily on Florence and the Mugello Valley, birthplace of the Medicis.
Tuscan Classicism and the City (Architectural students)
The study of Tuscan Classical Architecture and its Regional Variants examines the rediscovery of classical architecture in quattrocento Florence, and its creative interpretations throughout Tuscany. For advanced students, the course offers design exercises that explore the Renaissance notion of “concetto” or conceptualization of form and its intrinsic iconographic content. Students work in pencil, watercolor, and wash.
Drawing Painting (Landscape painting students)
The Drawing and Painting component introduces students to the basics of landscape drawing and painting based on observations from nature. Students work in watercolor, pencil, charcoal, and chalk to learn how to develop preliminary work in design and composition, then progress to develop paintings in oil, applying this medium to create an illusion of reality through atmospheric perspective and the rendering of various components that go into a landscape.
TUSCAN CLASSICAL ACADEMY:Podere Capitignano, San Cresci, Borgo San Lorenzo, Province of Florence, Italy July 25 – August 14, 2010 (Tentative Itinerary)
| All day trips include tours, drawing, and water coloring. On a typical day, when not touring, all participants do field drawing and watercolor in the morning, and in the afternoon students pursue their chosen track: landscape painting students
paint with Instructor Maureen Hyde, while architectural students work with Professor Deupi in the design studio or on site.
Consult the following pages to see the detailed Itinerary |
Week 1, July 25 - August 1, 2010
| Su | Arrivals, Orientation & Opening Dinner |
| M | A.M. Intro to Field Drawing, Landscape Painting, Design Studio/P.M. Field Drawing/ Eve. Lecture: “Tuscan Classicism” |
| Tu | A.M. Field Drawing /P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio/Eve. Film: Discovering Florence, Prof. Rab Hatfield |
| W | Day Trip: Florence I - Renaissance Painting & Sculpture (San Marco, Santa Maria Novella, Bargello, Santa Croce, Pazzi Chapel); Zecchi art store for supplies |
| Th | A.M. Introduction to Watercolor/P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio /Eve. slide show of landscape painting |
| F | A.M. Field Drawing/Watercolor – Scarperia: Piazza & Palazzo dei Vicari/P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio |
| Sa | ½ Day Trip: Fiesole (Fiesole Antica: Roman Theater & Archeological Museum, Duomo, Monastery of San Francesco) /PM Free (Florence, over-night trip, or Capitignano) |
| Su | Free Day |
Week 2, August 2 - 8, 2010
| M | A.M. Watercolor – Villa La Quiete/P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio (Borgo San Lorenzo) / Eve. Lecture: Gentility and Sanctity in Italian Landscape, Literature, and Life |
| Tu | A.M. Watercolor – Villa Le Balze or Villa Medici/P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio (Borgo San Lorenzo) / Eve. Lecture: Purpose and Meaning in Renaissance Painting |
| W | Day Trip: Florence II - The City in Context (San Miniato, Ponte Vecchio, Uffizi, Piazza della Signoria, Orsanmichele, Piazza della Repubblica, Mercato Nuovo, Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Ruccellai, Centro Sacro) |
| Th | A.M. Watercolor - Villa Trebbio/P.M Landscape Painting & Design Studio (Borgo San Lorenzo)/Eve. sunset painting |
| F | A.M. Watercolor - Monte Senario/P.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio (Borgo San Lorenzo)/ Eve. Lecture. |
| Sa | Day Trip to Siena (Piazza del Campo, Palazzo Publico, Duomo, Baptistry, Piccolomini Library, Museo dell’Opere del Duomo, Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala Museum) |
| Su | Free Day |
Week 3, August 9 - 14, 2010
| M | Aug 9 A.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio/P.M. Watercolor -Borgo San Lorenzo /Eve. sunset painting |
| Tu | Aug 10 A.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio/P.M. Watercolor -Ponte a Vicchio/ Eve Lecture. |
| W | Aug 11 Day Trip: Florence III - Patrons & Painters (San Lorenzo, Palazzo Davanzati, Palazzo Medici, Palazzo Pitti, Boboli Gardens) |
| Th | Aug 12 A.M. Landscape Painting & Design Studio/P.M. Watercolor - Villa Gamberaia |
| F | Aug 13 A.M. Open studio & painting/P.M. Final Review, Presentations & Final Dinner |
| Sa | Departures |
Please Contact
Mrs. Lynn F. Aeschliman
Erasmus Institute
c/o TASIS
CH6926 Montagnola
Switzerland
tuscanclassicalacademy@gmail.com
TEL (++41 91) 986-5429
FAX (++41 91)994-6475


