This is a multi-session seminar and must be taken as a series.
The Renaissance begins in Italy, a Florentine invention. This course surveys the art, architecture, literature, and history of the Florentine republic during the 14th and 15th centuries. We will examine Giotto’s frescoes, Petrarch’s and Boccaccio’s writings, Donatello’s and Ghiberti’s sculptures, and Brunelleschi’s architecture and engineering. We will also study the thinkers at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Interest in anatomy and perspective accelerate throughout the 15th century, as we will see in Fra Angelico, Verrochio, and others. Despite political ups and downs, the High Renaissance produced Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. We will read Machiavelli’s Prince and examine Mannerism. This course will show how Florence started the modern period of human history characterized by observation, rigorous craftsmanship, experimentation, resistance to authority (but respect for the ancients), and an abiding belief that man is the measure of all things.
Cost: $195
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