Italian Renaissance Art

Catalog description

The major arts in Italy from the thirteenth century CE through the Renaissance; emphasis on sculpture and painting. ARTH 303 Italian Renaissance Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 303 provides an introduction to the art of the early and "high" Renaissance in Italy, conceived in chronological terms as the period from c. 1300 to c. 1530, and embracing developments from the emergence of the Mendicant orders on the later 13th century to the rise of Mannerism in the 16th century. Monuments form all parts of the Italian peninsula will be considered, with emphasis on the major centers of Florence, Siena, Venice, Rome, Milan, and Naples, as well as Mantua, Ferrara and Urbino. The basic structure of the course is chronological, and is divided into three sections corresponding to the three centuries defined by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists. In each section, an attempt will be made to present the careers and major works of the most significant artists in relation to their historical and cultural context. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross-cultural issues as representations of gender. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to Italian Renaissance art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study.