Art History: The Italian Renaissance

This lecture course introduces students to Florentine Renaissance art from the early 15th century to the end of the High Renaissance in 1527. Students will study key practitioners of this period and their contributions to art history such as mathematical perspective, the rediscovery of the classical elements found in architecture and sculpture, as well as the relentless search by certain artists for the perfection of balance and harmony. Renaissance artists such as Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, and Filippo Brunelleschi, along with artists working in the High Renaissance style of the late 15th and early 16th centuries like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael of Urbino, will be studied. In addition to the aesthetic and stylistic qualities of the works, students will study the historical, political, and religious context in which the artists made their work as a means to allow for a greater understanding of the works themselves.