Giovanna Giusti
Camarillo, Calif., Sept. 12, 2016 — Florence, Italy’s Great Flood of 1966 and the Medici family’s elaborate sugar sculptures are topics included in a series of public presentations to be given by CSU Channel Islands (CI)’s Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Giovanna Giusti, art historian and veteran curator of the world famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Giusti’s first public presentation, “Sweets at the Court” is Tuesday, September 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. in Del Norte Hall, Room 1500 on the CI campus.
The lecture will cover the sugar sculptures in Italian Renaissance courts, most notably the sculptures at the Florentine wedding of Maria de’ Medici and Henry IV of France in the year 1600.
“Those were the big events to demonstrate the power of the Medici family,” Giusti said. “It was the moment to really show their treasures by organizing a big banquet. They had unbelievable sugar sculptures as big as a person. They were animals, mythological creatures, coats of arms. Absolutely amazing.”
Giusti, who holds an Italian doctorate in Art History, as well as degrees in Paleography and Computerized Cataloguing of Cultural Heritage will be a guest of CI from September through November.
Giusti will spend that time speaking to art history, art and museum classes at CI, sitting on panels and giving public lectures about her career as a curator at the Uffizi Gallery from 1978 to 2014.
“Having someone with her art historical knowledge is absolutely extraordinary,” said CI Professor of Art Irina D. Costache, Ph.D., who helped arrange Giusti’s visit. “The students will get a chance to hear from someone who has worked with works of art that are absolute masterpieces.”
The Uffizi is well-known for its extraordinary works by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as well as other legendary artists such as Botticelli, Raphael and Caravaggio.
Many of these works were damaged during the Great Flood of 1966, which marks its 50th anniversary this year. The flood and what it took to restore the works of art is the subject of Giusti’s second public presentation.
Giusti will be the keynote speaker for “The Uffizi Flood: Nature/Natural Disasters and Culture,” a multi-disciplinary panel that includes representatives from CI, CSU Long Beach and Oxnard College. The event takes place on Thursday, Oct. 13 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at CI’s Martin V. Smith Center for Integrative Decision-Making.
“I will speak about how the works of art were damaged and restored and how many people came immediately as volunteers from everywhere in the world,” Giusti said. “Where we invented new techniques to save the works of art that were deeply damaged by the flood. The restoration is continuing today, 50 years later.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 18, Giusti will make introductory remarks for an exhibit in the John Spoor Broome Library Art Gallery called “Gilbert Franklin: The Bridge at the End of the Road,” a show that explores Franklin’s work from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Giusti’s final presentation, “Interdisciplinary Panel on Women in Art, Culture and Society,” will be Tuesday, Nov. 1 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Malibu Hall, Room 100. The panel will include faculty members from various CI programs.
Giusti is here at the invitation of former CI President Richard Rush and current President Erika Beck.
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