ARTH 28.08 Italian Art from Renaissance to Baroque: Crisis and Invention
In studios and workshops across early modern Italy, artists developed new forms, styles, and ideas that transformed how they responded to the changing world around them. With a focus on the years between 1400 and 1700, this course will consider the cultural dynamics that gave the arts new meaning and urgency and fueled innovations in Italian cities large and small. Taking a chronological approach to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, we will consider topics such as: self-fashioning and identity; the role of art in moments of ideological or political crisis; the dialogue between art and technology; and visual drama and deception. We will explore a wide range of objects, from the private pages of sketchbooks to painted ceilings, and from colossal sculptures to viral prints. Throughout, we will question how artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Caravaggio, and Bernini manipulated diverse materials and theorized the process of invention. The course will include frequent visits to the Hood Museum of Art and the Rauner Special Collections Library.
Instructor
Kassler-Taub