How can great works of art deepen our understanding of Western civilization? This immersive week-long seminar explores the intersection of art, culture, ideas, and historical change through the masterpieces of the Western tradition. Based in Philadelphia, participants will engage with leading scholars who place painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts within their broader intellectual, political, religious, and cultural contexts.
The seminar traces the evolution of Western art from the Renaissance recovery of the classical world to the revolutionary transformations of modernism. Participants will explore a new heroic world, featuring Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Holbein, examine portraits of Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Poussin, and Velázquez; explore light and the enlightenment, from the Baroque masters through Reynolds, Gainsborough, and West; investigate class and classics, featuring Tiepolo, David, and Ingres; join the Romantic rebels, with Géricault, Delacroix, Turner, and Constable; and scrutinize the collapse of form, while exploring Renoir, Manet, Degas, Cassatt, and Cézanne. The seminar concludes with anarchy unloos’d, examining how Picasso, Bacon, Dalí, Pollock, and Warhol challenged traditional ideas of beauty, representation, and artistic order.
The American experience will be considered within this broader Western tradition by featuring Copley, Durand, Cole, Church, and Eakins.
Led by The Golden Thread author Dr. Allen Guelzo of the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education, the seminar combines classroom instruction with guided study at such legendary art institutions as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rodin Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through close analysis of iconic works and discussions with scholars and museum educators, teachers will gain a deeper understanding of how art reflects and shapes the history of Western civilization, with practical approaches for incorporating great works of art into history, civics, literature, and humanities instruction.
The program will be hosted at the Union League of Philadelphia’s historic 1865 building.
Speaker:
Allen C. Guelzo, PhD
Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is Professor of Humanities in the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida and a distinguished scholar of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War era, and American intellectual history. He joined the Hamilton School in 2025 after serving as the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar and Director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship at Princeton University. Previously, he was the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College.
Guelzo earned his MA and PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania. A prolific author, his major works include Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President; Gettysburg: The Last Invasion; Robert E. Lee: A Life; and Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment. Most recently, Guelzo collaborated with historian James Hankins on The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, a sweeping two-volume history published by Encounter Books that traces the intellectual, political, religious, and cultural traditions of Western civilization from antiquity to the present.
Guelzo is the only three-time recipient of the Lincoln Prize. His many other honors include the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, the Bradley Prize, and the James Q. Wilson Award for Distinguished Scholarship. He has also held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History.
Typically scheduled from Sunday through Friday in the summer, Founding Forward’s week-long teacher seminars are hosted at Union League Liberty Hill, a 300+ acre private conference center and golf course in suburban Philadelphia. Each seminar has a single theme and consists of content-focused talks by highly regarded scholars (morning and afternoon) interspersed each day with activation sessions featuring either lesson demonstrations from master teachers and presentation from resource providers like Retro Report or Periodic Presidents. Finally, each seminar includes an out-of-classroom field study to historic sites, archives, and museums.
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