Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
There is a particular drama in the way the Italian imagination has pictured love’s arrival. Dante looks at Beatrice and is starstruck. Petrarch spirals into a labyrinth at the sight of Laura. Tasso’s knights, on encountering Armida, lose not only their composure but their sanity.
In these accounts, love does not grow; it takes. This talk, presented by Emanuele Lugli of Stanford University, considers the way early modern Italy lingered in that instant of disorientation—what had already been called “love at first sight”—and explores how it offered a framework for thinking about attraction, emotions, the divine, and the mysterious pull of art itself.
The annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art features distinguished scholars presenting innovative research. Learn more: nga.gov/research/center/programs/sydney-j-freedberg-lectures-italian-art
#renaissance #italy #italianartist #titian #art #nationalgalleryofart #italianart
There is a particular drama in the way the Italian imagination has pictured love’s arrival. Dante looks at Beatrice and is starstruck. Petrarch spirals into a labyrinth at the sight of Laura. Tasso’s knights, on encountering Armida, lose not only their composure but their sanity.
In these accounts, love does not grow; it takes. This talk, presented by Emanuele Lugli of Stanford University, considers the way early modern Italy lingered in that instant of disorientation—what had already been called “love at first sight”—and explores how it offered a framework for thinking about attraction, emotions, the divine, and the mysterious pull of art itself.
The annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art features distinguished scholars presenting innovative research. Learn more: nga.gov/research/center/programs/sydney-j-freedberg-lectures-italian-art
#renaissance #italy #italianartist #titian #art #nationalgalleryofart #italianart
