Total immersion: Italian art and language

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A holiday with a difference – Darrelyn Gunzburg attends a course in Italian art history in one of the great historical centres of Italian art

If you had to construct a narrative using the following ingredients — Florence, the Italian language, summer, and art history — where would you begin? You might start at the Palazzo Lanfredini on Lungarno Guicciardini, located between the bridges of Ponte Santa Trinità and Ponte alla Carraia. The building itself is a splendid 16th-century palazzo located on the south side of the river Arno, sheltered by trees from the brilliant sunshine that prevailed during my July visit.

Before its present incarnation as the Harold Acton Library and Cultural Centre of the British Institute of Florence, it was, from the early 1500s until 1741,home to the Lanfredini family. Then, after the death of the last male heir, Cardinal Jacopo Lanfredini, it passed via his sister into the estate of the Corboli family, who owned it for more than century. In the mid-1800s it passed to the Bernini family and was transformed into a hotel. Finally it was acquired by the Acton family and it was the son, Sir Harold Acton, who bequeathed it to the British Institute of Florence.

The Institute began as an independent organization, founded in Florence in 1917 by a group of Anglo-Italian scholars, intellectuals and public figures keen to counter anti-British propaganda towards the end of the First World War. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1923, became the first of the British cultural institutes to operate overseas, and served as a model for the establishment of the British Council in 1934. It has since been accredited by the Regione Toscana as an educational institution, offering a multitude of courses in fine art, Italian language skills, English, and history of art, along with an array of cultural events, public lectures and concerts. Surprisingly and contrary to public perception, it receives no funding from the UK government.

So our four plot points mentioned above, this rich mix of city, language, summer and art, are well-served by the setting in which they find themselves. One only needs to add a gregarious native-speaking Italian language teacher with a sense of humour, glorious weather and visits to a breathtaking range of early modern (Renaissance) Florentine buildings, paintings and sculptures to complete our narrative of an art lover’s paradise.

And as it had been envisaged, so it was. The four-day short course I attended at the British Institute of Florence was tailored to art lovers. The first part of the day’s sessions was devoted to reading articles in Italian describing the works of art we were to visit later that morning; the second part was given over to on-site visits. This sequence of background reading in Italian, which allowed us to revise the language as well as add new art historical terminology specific to the work we would be considering, followed by the confrontation with the work itself, was the masterstroke of this course.

It has been said many times before but I reiterate it here, that despite the best photographic or digital reproduction in the world, nothing can replace standing in front of a building, sculpture or painting for the perception of its fullest experience. Our itinerary included viewing and discussing the sculptures at the church of Orsanmichele and the Piazza della Signoria; viewing and discussing the work of Lorenzo Monaco in the Bartolini-Salimbeni Chapel and Ghirlandaio’s work in the Sassetti Chapel, both in the church of Santa Trinità; an architectural walking tour from the Palazzo Strozzi to the Piazza del Duomo; and a visit to the Bargello Museum considering sculptures and frescoes in the Mediaeval, Renaissance and Mannerist styles. Afternoons were left free for us to explore the city on our own. Our final lesson came over lunch in a trattoria with an Italian teacher who knew very little English, forcing us to converse in Italian.

Language immersion is the preferred method of teaching at the Institute and whether one has a working knowledge of Italian or is just a beginner, the safety net is always the teacher’s skill and capability. This course was offered for the first time in July 2012, and we who enjoyed it so much keenly hope it will be offered many more times in the future by the British Institute of Florence.