Beyond Painting: Innovation in Prints and Sculpture in Early Modern Europe

3 units

Prints and sculpture are frequently overlooked in the study of early modern European art, yet the issues they raise are critical to our understanding of the period. Both categories, too often seen as secondary to painting, entail frequently complex technical and intellectual innovations that were fundamental to their time. This course will focus on these two important media in order to offer a fuller and richer picture of how artists of the Renaissance and baroque periods reinterpreted and expanded their visual vocabularies in response to, and in participation with, changing technologies and ideologies. Beyond Painting is based on direct interaction with works of art with the aim of facilitating enhanced looking and evaluation skills essential to the study of art history. Held at the Saint Louis Art Museum, each session will focus on the Museum's collection as well as the objects in the exhibition Learning to See: Renaissance and Baroque Masterworks from the Phoebe Dent Weil and Mark S. Weil Collection. Prerequisites: Intro to Western Art (L01 113) or Intro to Modern Art (L01 215); one 300-level course in Art History preferred; or permission of instructor.