“In the shade of gardens, in Italy and abroad”: A lecture by Prof. Ada V. Segre, Technion and WIZO School of Design in Haifa.
The Medici family promoted the transformation of Florence, from a small communal state to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in the time range comprised between the end of the 14th century and the first half of the 18th century: from Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464), the founding father, to the Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa, the last of the Medici, responsible for the succession of Tuscany to the Lorraine family. Important figures, from the political perspective, but more so from the cultural point of view, are Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cosimo I, Francesco I, Ferdinando II and many others. They were patrons of the arts in all their forms, they promoted land management, the building of palaces, villas and gardens. In this talk, the presence of the Medici in the agricultural landscape will be shown, with the help of Giusto Utens’ lunettes (c.1599). Further, the following gardens will be discussed: the Oricellari gardens, the garden at Villa Medici in Fiesole, the garden of Il Trebbio castle, the Villa of Poggio a Caiano with the farm known as Cascine di Tavola, the garden at Castello, Boboli and Pratolino.
Ada V. Segre, garden historian and conservator, studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at the University of Bologna (Italy) and at the University of York (UK). She was involved in the restoration of the Secret Gardens at the Villa Borghese in Rome, the garden of the Doria-Pamphilj Palace in Genua, the Este Delizia of the Verginese near Ferrara, the garden of Poggio Torselli in S. Casciano near Florence and the Garzoni Garden in Collodi. She taught at the University of Bologna, at the New York University in Florence, and is currently teaching at the Technion and at the Wizo College in Haifa. She published numerous papers and two books on the history of landscape architecture. At present she is the historic garden conservation consultant for the Municipality of Tel Aviv and for the Weizmann Institute of Tel Aviv.
Event held in Italian.
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016, at 19:00
Italian Cultural Institute
rehov Meir Rutberg 12 – Haifa
FREE ADMISSION