Artistic Patronage in Europe

Catalog description

This course surveys the institutions and social networks in which European fine arts were created, consumed and critiqued. Beginning with the medieval period and ranging to the early 20th century, the course will examine the variety of communities where public and private often intersected and which sponsored innovations in the arts. Often indexing social movements and political change, such communities include convents and cathedrals, royal academies and courts, coffee houses, salons, and theaters. Artists, performers, patrons, politicians, journalists, and others collaborated and competed in these spaces. Such communities could embody political and economic power, or foster resistance to it. This approach to the history of the arts in western culture puts the focus less on the individual creative genius of great composers, writers, painters, and sculptors, and more on the social exchanges and institutions that sponsored and received their work. Such an approach brings to light particularly the ways in which women played significant roles in the production and reception of culture: as salon hostesses, patronesses, and divas, women often enabled and enacted cultural production. Some examples of particular units of study might include: the German convent of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), where monophonic chant and allegorical morality plays developed; the Mantuan (Italy) court of Isabella d'Este ,the first lady of the world, (1474-1539) where the roots of the madrigal began and where notable painters found support and sponsorship; the French salons of Mme. Geoffrin (1699-1777) and Mme. de Staël (1766-1817); and the student residences in Madrid where avant-garde writers and artists interacted. Each unit will also consider the relationships between the aesthetic norms and values of a period and the economic and political realities of sponsorship. The course will require that students attend at least one musical performance or concert held on campus during the semester and complete a brief writing project based on that experience. This requirement will encourage students to think about their own university as a contemporary space of cultural sponsorship.