ARTH 364 Studies in Renaissance Art and Architecture

• Instructor: Dr. Steven Stowell

This course will provide an overview of visual art in Renaissance Italy, from the late-medieval origins of Renaissance culture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to the High Renaissance and Mannerist period at the beginning of the sixteenth century.  The Renaissance was a period of extraordinary development in art making practices, fueled by a myriad of social, intellectual, historical and spiritual changes. Focusing primarily on Florence and Rome (with some consideration of other Italian cities such as Venice, Padua and Siena), this course will predominantly focus on figurative arts such as painting and sculpture. Following a roughly chronological framework, the course will discuss important topics such as: the evolution of sacred art in altarpieces, devotional icons, and chapel decorations with large-scale narrative paintings; images created for civic spaces, and to express civic ideals; sculpture in private and public locations; imagery for private domestic environments, including mythological images; the rise of Renaissance humanism and its impact on the arts; the evolving status of the artist; the impact of increased global travel; the controversies surrounding images during the Reformation. In exploring these topics this course will emphasize the methods of contextual art historians, who seek to understand the meanings of works of art in relationship to their original social contexts. The course will overview important historical information, while giving students the opportunity for in-depth visual examination of important images.