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Since its foundation, the Centre of Italian Studies has always desired to link traditional Italian art and handicraft courses together with the teaching of the Italian language and culture. The reason for this desire is very clear if one considers that Urbania is situated in the heart of the old duchy of Urbino, one of the the principal centres of irradiation during the Italian Renaissance. The opportunity to combine the Italian language and culture study with the theory and practice of painting and sculpture and Italian handicrafts is yet another original aspect of our courses, and one which is greatly appreciated by the students. We perceived this idea owing to the very favourable environmental conditions of the area which are rare, even for Italy. In this native land of Raffaello and Bramante, art and handicrafts are still practised today at the highest levels. These courses have proved to be an excellent opportunity for conversing in Italian and for getting to know and making friends with local people. Our area (the province Pesaro and Urbino) is a territory bordering between four regions which are extremely rich in terms of art, history and culture: the Marches, Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. Here, the major Masters of Italian art worked: Giotto, Piero della Francesca, il Perugino, Paolo Uccello, Bramante, Raffaello, Federico Barocci. Here, the countryside has remained practically uncontaminated; a countryside of incomparable landscapes that provided the backgrounds for the great masterpieces of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Also, reflecting on the Renaissance, the Centre of Italian Studies has modelled an original formulation of its art courses: the "Master's studio" style. In fact, our students work together with Italian artists and they are not obliged to fulfil a programme that has been established for them by others. The study programme is made to measure according to the expressive requirements of each individual student. The Centre of Italian Studies' philosophy is to consider and place the student, each single student, together with his aspirations and capacities, at the centre of the course.
Having said all this, the courses aim at the rediscovery and recovery of this enormously rich inheritance and, at the same time, at the elaboration of new expressive formalities, reflecting always upon the Renaissance, a period which admirably knew how to unite numerous aspects of internal research: the centrality of mankind, the harmony of balance and proportion, the desire to use science and the search for perfection of expression, even by experimenting with new techniques. To summarize, we would like to offer, at the same time, everything brought from the past together with a projection towards the future in its continual evolution.
Those in charge of
the art courses are: Prof. Marcello Motta, course director, who
has a degree in art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino and a
specialization at l'Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris
(Superior University Institute of Fine Arts of Paris), Prof. Emanuela
Ivaldi who has a degree in art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino
and an Arts degree at the University of Urbino. Furthermore, collaborations with other prestigious
external contacts are always in act.
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