Academics in Orvieto

Fall 2023 Curriculum

Throughout the semester students will take ORV 101: Italian Language Studies, a course in conversational Italian with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in the life of the Orvieto community. [2 credits]

1st Month All students take:

ORV 270: Disegno in Orvieto (Instructor: Matthew Doll) This drawing-based course is taken during the first month of the semester by all students, both art majors and non-art majors. The course prepares each student to engage deeply with their surroundings, giving the visual language of description a lead role in forming a relationship with the landscape and townscape. [4 credits]

2nd Month Students choose between:

ORV 371: Landscape Painting Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: Philippe Fretz) As a studio in the methods and materials of oil painting, this course will consider the landscape as a way to ground our connection to the exterior geography through the representation of Italy and the local setting. Utilizing field studies and studio work, we will work towards specific views of the territory to expand our vision for Orvieto. [4 credits]

ORV 375: (Special Topics in Literature and Creative Writing) Reading Virgil in Umbria (Instructors: Graeme Bird, Ian Drummond) The word versus (Latin) means a line, a row, and the metaphor is of plowing—of turning from one line to another (vertere) as a plowman does. The landscape is one of the reasons that we are drawn to this beautiful country, and when you drive through it on your way to a monastery or a vineyard to help with the harvest you see such lines and turns. Virgil writes about cultivating the land and bees in his Georgics, and in the Aeneid he turns his lines to tell the origin story of Rome. He is revising Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey at the same time that he seeks to distinguish his own epic and national identity. Much later Dante takes Virgil as his guide through hell and purgatory, where his will is purified. We will read this story and think about its being part of a line of stories about having great and long conversations with each other through the centuries. But we will also think about the land in which we are learning to dwell for a time, the labor of storytelling in civilization making and the work of bees. We will read the map of his journey, harvest grapes and see Bernini’s sculpture of Aeneas while absorbing Rome’s sense of itself as an empire as we walk its streets and statuary. [4 credits]

3rd Month Students choose between:

ORV 320: Photography Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: William Franson) Through immersion into the landscape and culture of Orvieto, students will explore the limits and possibilities of the photographic image, from visual description to visual poetry. Photography in Orvieto is a course designed to instruct students in camera function, image processing in Adobe Lightroom and in a photographic composition. The history of photography will be woven into instruction, enriching an appreciation for photography’s influence on the human experience. Students are expected to provide their own DSLR or mirrorless camera and a copy of Lightroom on their own laptops. [4 credits]

ORV 330: Women, Religion and Reform (Instructor: Agnes Howard) The Renaissance and Reformation not only brought changes in art, science and belief but prompted extraordinary writings by distinguished women in Italy. Women contributed literature, argument and devotional works. Religious institutions, particularly convents, fostered this work. Convents were set apart from the world but integral to the life of the community. In this period Catholics opened new venues for women to teach and serve, while Protestants offered different paths for faith and learning. This course will examine texts and institutions from the period, situating them within the religious communities in Orvieto. [4 credits]

4th Month Students choose between:

ORV 315: Printmaking Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: Brent Good) A printmaking studio utilizing a variety of printing processes such as relief, drypoint and collagraph. The architecture and landscape that defines our subject matter as well as the local setting of Orvieto will be used to investigate formal issues of color theory and larger themes of "memory" and "place." The course will conclude with a printed portfolio that reflects the time learning in the semester and joined with the source material taken from our focus upon imagery in the cinematic context. [4 credits]

ORV 350: Poetry and Ekphrasis (Instructor: Hannah Armbrust) Explores the relation between poetry and pictorial arts in the classical Renaissance tradition of ekphrasis (poetry about art or visual art based on poems). Students both study tradition and practice the craft of ekphrasis. [4 credits]

Spring 2024 Curriculum

Throughout the semester students without previous Italian language study will take ORV 101: Italian Language Studies, a course in conversational Italian with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in the life of the Orvieto community. [2 credits]

1st Month All students take:

ORV 270: Disegno in Orvieto (Instructor: Matthew Doll) This drawing-based course is taken during the first month of the semester by all students, both art majors and non-art majors. The course prepares each student to engage deeply with their surroundings, giving the visual language of description a lead role in forming a relationship to the landscape and townscape. [4 credits]

2nd Month Students choose between:

ORV 372: Sculpture Studio (Instructor: Emily Friesen) Sculpture in the context of Italy’s long tradition of stone carving and sculpture in clay, plaster and casting; attention is given to mass and space relationships, volume, surface planes, textural variety and narrative organization. [4 credits]

ORV 378: Selected Topics in Art History (Instructor: Katie Kresser) Starting around the year 1300, central Italy became the epicenter of an artistic paradigm shift that would change the world forever. We call it the "Renaissance." In this course, we'll probe the origins of Renaissance art and explore its implications for the following centuries, including the Baroque era, the age of Revolutions, and the dawn of modernity. We will use our location and proximity to many of the works of art in order to study them in their original contexts and setting. [4 credits]

3rd Month Students choose between:

ORV 312: Tempera Painting Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: Marie-Dominique Miserez) The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the fascinating yet demanding techniques of traditional egg tempera painting on wooden panel (a dominant medium during the Medieval and Renaissance periods in Italy and Europe), learning how to prepare the panel, gesso it with a prepared glue and pigment and prepare colors from natural materials. An underlying goal is to learn to live one’s creativity together with prayer, the gospel and one’s personal sensitivity, learning to listen in order to discover God’s talent given to us; and to inhabit the long tradition of our predecessor painters, learning through them, questioning their works, learning how to use their main pictorial tools and to give a form to what emerges from one’s self and one’s devotion to a biblical text or subject. [4 credits]

ORV 350: Poetry and Ekphrasis (Instructor: Grace Shaw) Explores the relation between poetry and pictorial arts in the classical Renaissance tradition of ekphrasis (poetry about art or visual art based on poems). Students both study tradition and practice the craft of ekphrasis. [4 credits]

4th Month Students choose between:

ORV 315: Printmaking Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: Greg Deddo) A printmaking studio with a primary focus on silk screen printing. The architecture and landscape native to Orvieto will be the primary subject matter used to investigate both formal issues of color theory and larger themes of “memory” and “place.” The course will conclude with a printed portfolio that reflects the time learning in Orvieto. [4 credits]

ORV 370: Media, Power and Civilization (Instructor: Rachel Yoo) This course explores media theories, with a focus on the changing landscape of media technologies and society from the premodern to the digital era. We will consider how media play a major role in constructing and controlling power and in influencing human civilization, including communication and the Roman Empire, media ownership and politics of Italy and cultural representation and popular culture in the Italian media. The purpose of the course is to gain insights into the ways in which the media impact cultural formations and communication. Students will learn about theories and practices of technological social change. By using case studies we will consider both the potential and limitations of media as a solution for social inequality, political division and poverty. Throughout the course, we will examine a variety of media forms, from papyrus to clocks, from film to television to streaming platforms, as well as social media. [4 credits]

Fall 2024 Curriculum

Throughout the semester students without previous Italian language study will take ORV 101: Italian Language Studies, a course in conversational Italian with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in the life of the Orvieto community. [2 credits]

1st Month All students take:

ORV 270: Disegno in Orvieto (Instructor: TBD) This drawing-based course is taken during the first month of the semester by all students, both art majors and non-art majors. The course prepares each student to engage deeply with their surroundings, giving the visual language of description a lead role in forming a relationship to the landscape and townscape. [4 credits]

2nd Month Students choose between:

ORV 372: Sculpture Studio (Instructor: Sophie Linnell) Sculpture in the context of Italy’s long tradition of stone carving and sculpture in clay, plaster and casting; attention is given to mass and space relationships, volume, surface planes, textural variety and narrative organization. [4 credits]

ORV 375A: (Selected Topics in Literature) Italy in Film and Fiction (Instructor: Mark Sargent) Modern Italian cinema and literature are renowned for their seasons of realism, but Italians have never relinquished a longing for the magical. The people who have lived through Fascism, world wars, political corruption, and economic whirlwinds have often sought renewal and escape through imagination. In the last century and a half, Italy’s novelists and filmmakers have pioneered forms of “neorealism,” but they have also given us some extraordinary dreams and illusions. This course will sample a wide variety of Italian writers and filmmakers—some Nobel laureates and Oscar-winners as well as several directors and authors who are deeply loved by the Italians. We will examine the cinema and literature in the context of recent Italian history. The Orvieto program has long seen beauty in connecting the past and the present, and the class will also explore how the artistic and religious heritage of medieval and Renaissance Italy infuses the cinematography and narratives of modern filmmakers and authors. Fulfills core literature requirement for Gordon students. [4 credits]

3rd Month Students choose between:

ORV 376: Design Studio at Orvieto: Form, Function and Spatial Significance (Instructor: Tim Miller) With a focus on furniture and objects, we will investigate the relationship between concept, design, material and creation. Students will be introduced to the process of designing and building furniture and objects through a range of exercises aimed at developing technical skills, gaining confidence working in three dimensions, and seeing an idea through to an actualized form. Through the observation and study of local architecture, traditions, materials and processes, we will focus on designing work that honors the spaces we inhabit, with an added emphasis on our shared life in the convent. [4 credits]

ORV 342: Introduction to Medieval Monasticism (Instructor: Liesl Smith) Examines one of the most influential modes of spiritual life and intellectual thought in the Middle Ages. Examines the particular Italian contribution of Umbrian saints (such as Benedict, Francis and Clare of Assisi) within the larger tradition of Western monasticism. [4 credits]

4th Month Students choose between:

ORV 371: Painting Studio at Orvieto (Instructor: Philippe Fretz) Oil Painting Advanced studio in methods and materials of oil painting with historical attention to narrative tradition of Renaissance painting. [4 credits]

ORV 350: Poetry and Ekphrasis (Instructor: Paul Willis) Explores the relation between poetry and pictorial arts in the classical Renaissance tradition of ekphrasis (poetry about art or visual art based on poems). Students both study tradition and practice the craft of ekphrasis. [4 credits]

Spring 2025 Curriculum

Throughout the semester students without previous Italian language study will take ORV 101: Italian Language Studies, a course in conversational Italian with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in the life of the Orvieto community. [2 credits]

Please note, courses are subject to change.

1st Month All students take:

ORV 270: Disegno in Orvieto (Instructor: TBD) This drawing-based course is taken during the first month of the semester by all students, both art majors and non-art majors. The course prepares each student to engage deeply with their surroundings, giving the visual language of description a lead role in forming a relationship to the landscape and townscape. [4 credits]

2nd Month Students choose between:

ORV 371: Painting Studio (Instructor: TBD) Advanced studio in methods and materials of oil or tempera painting with historical attention to narrative tradition of Renaissance painting. [4 credits]

ORV 375A: (Selected Topics in Literature) Italy in Film and Fiction (Instructor: Mark Sargent) Modern Italian cinema and literature are renowned for their seasons of realism, but Italians have never relinquished a longing for the magical. The people who have lived through Fascism, world wars, political corruption, and economic whirlwinds have often sought renewal and escape through imagination. In the last century and a half, Italy’s novelists and filmmakers have pioneered forms of “neorealism,” but they have also given us some extraordinary dreams and illusions. This course will sample a wide variety of Italian writers and filmmakers—some Nobel laureates and Oscar-winners as well as several directors and authors who are deeply loved by the Italians. We will examine the cinema and literature in the context of recent Italian history. The Orvieto program has long seen beauty in connecting the past and the present, and the class will also explore how the artistic and religious heritage of medieval and Renaissance Italy infuses the cinematography and narratives of modern filmmakers and authors. Fulfills core literature requirement for Gordon students. [4 credits]

3rd Month Students choose between:

ORV 376: Special Topics in Art (Screen printing): Memory, Palimpsests, and Joy  (Instructor: David West) In this course, primarily through the medium of screen printing with other media used as needed, we will look at how the things we build are containers for our past and indicators of our future. By looking at the architecture and landscape of Orvieto and it’s surroundings, we will pay attention to how the successive inhabitants have made use of the natural and man-made resources, what the histories of those usages recall, obscure, and point to. [4 credits]

ORV 379: Special Topics in History: Art and Spirituality in Medieval Italy (Instructor: Jennifer Hevelone-Harper) Description coming soon. [4 credits]

4th Month Students choose between:

ORV 374: Design Studio at Orvieto: The Ethics of Intervention (Instructor: Kelly Foster) The work we do when we design things for the world around us – images, objects, spaces, experiences – affects the everyday lives of those who encounter our work. Our design process should therefore be embedded in the social realities, history, and culture of the communities for whom we design. In this studio we will work in multiple design media to explore how an ethic of loving our neighbors takes the social embeddedness of our work seriously, establishing a design process that includes sensitivity, care, and delight.

Piazza Ventinove Marzo is a public space in Orvieto that was touched in multiple ways by Italian Fascism in the first half of the twentieth century. We will analyze previous interventions in the space, its current culture and uses, and how the forms, spaces, images, and text in the piazza relate to its history and its present. We will then create designs in media such as environmental graphics, landscape design, or architecture that can imagine what grieving, healing, and joy might look like in this particular place. [4 credits]

ORV 377: Special Topics in Literature: Literature, Landscape, and Memorialization (Instructor: Jennifer West) In this course, we will engage with the question, how should we remember difficult history? We will practice interpreting a wide variety of genres that do the work of memorializing, including literary texts like poetry, fiction, and film, and visual texts like public spaces, monuments, and memorials. We will think together about cultural memory related to World War II and the Holocaust in Italy by visiting memorials and monuments, reading the works of Italian poet, essayist, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, and watching the film Life Is Beautiful. Our questions will center around cultural and national identity, foreignness and exile, and the ways that narratives of the past shape our relationships to place, culture, and, ultimately, a vision of humanity. [4 credits]