ARTH217 - EARLY RENAISSANCE ART

Prof. Monica Dominguez
Office Location: 309 Old College
Office Hours: Tuesday 4-5 pm
Email: MonicaDT@UDel.edu

Teaching Assistant: Annie Counter (acounter@udel.edu)

Course Information | Course Requirements | Grading | Calendar | Links and Study Guides | Tutorials

The Early Renaissance has been considered a pivotal point in the history of Western art. To understand its main features and tenets, this course has been devised as a critical survey of major artistic developments in Italy from 1350 to 1500. Special emphasis will be placed on the founders of the Renaissance tradition in central Italy such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Donatello, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, and Leonardo de Vinci. These main artists and their works will be presented through fourteen modules, organized both chronologically and thematically. 

Required readings

· Baxandall, Michael (1988). Painting and experience in fifteenth-Century Italy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

· Cole, Alison (1995). Virtue and magnificence: art of the Italian Renaissance courts. New York, H.N. Abrams.

· Turner, A. Richard (1997). Renaissance Florence: the invention of a new art. New York, Harry N. Abrams.

· Welch, Evelyn (1997). Art and society in Italy, 1350-1500. Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press.

Additional bibliography

Other titles placed on regular reserve at the Morris Library to assist you in your assignments are:

· Baldassarri, Stefano, and Arielle Saiber, eds. (2000). Images of quattrocento Florence: selected writings in literature, history and art. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.

· Belting, H. (1994). Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

· Brown, P. F. (1997). Art and life in Renaissance Venice. New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

· Burckhardt, J. (1988). The altarpiece in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press.

· Dunkerton, Jill et al (1991). Giotto to Dürer.   Early Renaissance painting in the National Gallery. New Haven/London, Yale University/National Gallery Publications.

· Edgerton, S. Y. (1975). The Renaissance rediscovery of linear perspective. New York, Basic Books.

· Gilbert, C. (1980). Italian art, 1400-1500: sources and documents. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall.

· Gioffredi, E. and Superbi, F., eds. (1994). Italian altarpieces 1250-1550: function and design. Oxford, Clarendon Press; New York, Oxford University Press.

· Hartt, F. (1994). History of Italian Renaissance art: painting, sculpture, architecture. New York, H.N. Abrams.

· Humfrey, P. (1993). The altarpiece in Renaissance Venice. New Haven, Yale University Press.

· Humfrey, P. and Kemp, M., eds. (1990). The Altarpiece in the Renaissance. Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press.

· Panofsky, E. (1997). Perspective as Symbolic Form. New York, Zone Books.

· Paoletti, J. T. and G. M. Radke (1997). Art in Renaissance Italy. New York, Harry A. Abrams Inc.

· Rosenberg, C. M., ed. (1990). Art and politics in late medieval and early Renaissance Italy, 1250-1500. Notre Dame, Ind., University of Notre Dame Press.

· Shearman, J. (1992). Only connect: art and the spectator in the Italian Renaissance. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press.

· van Os, H. (1994). The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

· Verdon, T. and Henderson, J., eds. (1990). Christianity and the Renaissance: image and religious imagination in the Quattrocento. Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press.

There will be three main assignments throughout the term:

· a mid-term test (30%)

· a short research paper (30%)

· and a final exam (30%)

The remaining 10% of the final grade would be assessed taking into account attendance, class participation, and submission of optional short assignments given in class.

Week 1                       Introduction to the course
Aug 31, Sept 2             Readings: Welch, pp. 9-33; Turner, pp. 9-21

Week 2                       Making "art" in the Early Renaissance
Sept 7, 9                      Readings: Welch, pp. 37-129; Baxandall, pp. 1-27

Week 3                       The revival of ancient art in the  13^th and 14^th centuries
Sept 14, 16                  Readings: Turner, pp. 22-33

Week 4                       The search for antiquity in the 15th century
Sept 21, 23                  Readings: Turner, pp. 34-82

Week 5                       Art meets science: perspective and proportion
Sept 28, 30                  Readings: Turner, pp. 90-115; Baxandall, pp. 29-40, 86-108

Week 6                       Altarpieces and the new dimensions of devotion
Oct 5, 7                       Reading: Welch, pp. 133-207; Turner, pp. 116-122, 142-150; Baxandall, pp. 40-66

Oct   12                       Mid-term

Oct 14                         Visit to the NGA (Click here for details)

Week 7                       Representing authority: Art in the civic sphere
Oct 19, 21                   Readings: Welch, pp. 211-219, 247-273; Turner, pp. 161-167

Week 8                       Courtly magnificence: The Montefeltro palace
Oct 26, 28                   Readings: Welch, pp. 277-311; Cole, pp. 7-43, 66-91

Week 9                       Art at the court of Alfonso of Naples
Nov 4                          Reading: Cole, pp. 44-65; Welch, pp. 223-229

Week 10                     Florentine art and architecture under Medici rule
Nov 9, 11                    Readings: Turner, pp. 82-89, 122-141,150-161

Nov   16                      Term paper due

Week 11                     The Gonzaga court in Mantua

Nov 16, 18                  Readings: Cole, pp. 142-169; 237-239

Week 12                     Art at the Este court in Ferrara
Nov 23                        Readings: Cole, pp.118-141

Week 13                     Milan and the Sforza family
Nov 30, Dec 2             Readings: Cole, pp. 92-117; Welch, pp. 229-237

Week 14                     Leonardo and the Paragone
Dec 7                           No readings

Week 1           Introduction to the course
Week 2           Making "art" in the Early Renaissance
Week 3           The revival of ancient art in the 13^th and 14^th centuries
Week 4           The search for antiquity in the 15th century
Week 5           Art meets science: perspective and proportion
Week 6           Altarpieces and the new dimensions of devotion
Week 7           Representing authority: Art in the civic sphere
Week 8           Courtly magnificence: The Montefeltro palace
Week 9           Art at the court of Alfonso of Naples
Week 10         Florentine art and architecture under Medici rule

Week 11         The Gonzaga court in Mantua

Week 12         Art at the Este court in Ferrara
Week 13 Milan and the Sforza family
Week 14         Leonardo and the Paragone

Course Information | Course Requirements | Grading | Calendar | Links and Study Guides

University of Delaware