Introduction to Renaissance Art

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

When we think of the Renaissance today, we likely consider a few great artists – Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo. Early writers like Giorgio Vasari and Jacob Burckhardt codified the period (ca. 1400-1600) as a time of dramatic and sudden change from an earlier ‘dark ages’, which first bloomed in Italy and spread throughout Europe. This course offers a re-examination of the European Renaissance by reassessing standard media (painting, sculpture, drawing) and bringing to light overlooked forms (printmaking, landscape, textiles, ceramics). While the course will teach canonical artists and their works, it will also examine lesser-known and anonymous makers. In addition to expanding the canon of European Renaissance Art History, key themes of the course include the varied responses to Antiquity as well as the continuities and ruptures associated with different media histories. This course will include a visit to the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.