In Sickness and In Health: The Renaissance Body

3 units

From birth to death (and beyond), the Renaissance body both required and inspired a wide variety of art and material culture. This course will explore the Art of the Renaissance Body, primarily in Italy, from c. 1300-1600. We will consider the objects associated with life's most important moments, including birth, childhood, pregnancy, aging, dying, and the afterlife, as well as the necessary material culture associated with grooming, illness, plague, and general body care. We will also examine artists' response to growing interest in the body, beginning with Masaccio and Pollaiuolo and continuing through Leonardo and Michelangelo. In addition, we will study the rise of scientific, anatomical literature and the competing visions of anatomical modeling. We will therefore dissect both the physical reality of the Renaissance Body as well as its impression on artists and scientists over the course of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.