Welcome to Albiani Art!
Ars lunga, vita brevis... Life is short, but art is long -- revel in it.
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A Little Background 
I saw my first Botticelli at the age of 7.

I majored in Art History and Italian at UC Berkeley and spent my junior year abroad in Venice.  Then I received my Master's in Art History at Stanford, where I specialized in 16th-century Venetian painting but never quite finished my dissertation.  While a graduate student, I was a Graduate Lecturing Fellow at the National Gallery in Washington, DC -- http://www.nga.gov -- and then a Fulbright Scholar in Venice. 

I moved to Seattle in 1996 and began my association with the Frye Art Museum as a gallery guide -- http://www.fryeart.org -- when the Frye reopened in the spring of 1997.  I gave my first lecture there in August of 1997.  Currently, I teach art history classes at the Frye every summer and give a monthly lecture series there.  I lecture widely at other venues throughout the Seattle area and occasionally beyond.

Vision
 
The more I learn about an artist or period of art history, the more it appeals to me.  The more it appeals to me, the better I am able to lecture about it.  In my experience, even art that initially leaves me cold (the pale, sickly figures of the Northern Renaissance, the entire Rococo) becomes fascinating and attractive once I study it more in depth. 
 
What I try to convey to my audience are the telling details that can make a piece of art come alive.  I sketch in the cultural and historical background, from the broad (the invention of movable type, the Inquisition) to the narrow (Caravaggio throwing a plate of artichokes in a waiter's face).  If I find parallels with our own times -- if, say, Goya's corrupt politicians remind me of our own -- I do not fail to point them out.  Great art has a humanity which makes it relevant to the present, perhaps in ways its author never envisioned.
Rave Reviews
 
"I wanted to thank you for reigniting my passion for the visual arts."
 
"I attended a week's worth of Ms. Albiani's lectures in the past, and I must again say how gifted a lecturer and scholar I found her to be.  She is a jewel and you [the Frye] are lucky to have her."
 
"Fabulous class!  Incredibly knowledgable teacher who does a remarkable job of synthesizing her material and presenting it so clearly to the lay person.  I'd take any class taught by Rebecca."
 
 "...you presented the material in a scholarly manner and with a great deal of warmth and humor.  I cannot imagine anyone being much better at what you do."