During this 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, Giuliana Castellani Koch, a Florentine living in America, presents how Florence transformed the way Americans understood Renaissance art in the 19th and early 20th centuries through lived experience.

Centered on figures such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Singer Sargent, and Bernard Berenson, and others, the talk highlights how Florence was not simply admired, but inhabited, challenged, and ultimately carried forward into modern artistic practice which also defined the work of iconic artists of our time.

Through literature, sculpture, painting, and even personal travel practices, the lecture demonstrates that Florence did more than inspire Americans—it fundamentally altered their
perception of art itself, revealing it as something lived, dynamic, and transformative rather than distant or historical.