Prof. Sean Roberts
Tuesday and Thursday 4:00 to 5:20pm
Spring 2013
VKC 258
AHIS 343: Renaissance Art
In this course we will investigate the social, political, and stylistic contexts of European
art and material culture from 1300 to 1550. We will explore the careers of well known
artists including Giotto, Dürer, Leonardo, and Titian. We will critically examine themes
including the rise of naturalism, the role of patronage, the visual culture of science, and
the revival of antiquity. Artists, works of art, sites of production, techniques, patrons, and
publics will all be related to the social, intellectual, and cultural conditions of fourteenththrough sixteenth-century Europe. We will investigate artistic production in a wide
variety of media, and our focus will range over the Italian peninsula, the North, and a
wider Mediterranean world. We will further explore the ways in which Renaissance
visual and material culture circulated throughout an expanding globe.
Office Hours and Contact Information:
I will hold office hours from 1:00 to 2:00pm on Wednesdays throughout the semester and
by appointment. My office is located on the third floor of VKC, room 351.
The best way to get in touch with me is through email, which I check regularly. My
address is seanrobe@usc.edu. I can also be reached by voice or text at 310-779-0348.
Required Text: Stephen J. Campbell and Michael W. Cole, A New History of Italian
Renaissance Art (Thames and Hudson, 2012).
This book provides useful background information on many of the artists and works we
will be studying in this course.
All other readings will be available on Blackboard.
Grading and Expectations
Regular attendance and participation in class discussion 25%
Midterm essay exam 25%
Final essay exam
25%
Final research paper 25%
Schedule of Class Meetings (subject to announced changes)
Week 1
Jan. 15 The Changing Conditions of Art: 1300-1550
Jan. 17 Geographic Centers of Renaissance Art
Reading Assignment
Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1977), selection.
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists (1550 and 1568), “Life of Michelangelo,” selection.
Week 2
Jan. 22 Naturalism at the Dawn of the Renaissance
Jan. 24 Public Spaces in Florence and Siena
Reading Assignment
Pamela Smith, The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 3-30, 31-58.
Christine Sciacca ed., Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and
Illumination, 1300-1350 (Los Angeles: Getty Museum, 2012), selection.
Saturday January 26: Optional Visit to Getty Center to view the
exhibition “Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance”
Week 3
Jan. 29 Competition and Collaboration in Fifteenth-Century Florence
Jan. 31 The “International Gothic” and the Coexistence of Styles
Reading Assignment
Gary Radke, “Lorenzo Ghiberti: Master Collaborator.” In The Gates of Paradise:
Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Renaissance Masterpiece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007,
50-71).
Week 4
Feb. 5 Portraiture in Italy and the North
Feb. 7 Donatello, Verrocchio, and Tuscan Sculpture
Reading Assignment
Patricia Simons, “Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance
Portraiture,” History Workshop, no. 25, Spring 1988, 4-30.
Week 5
Feb. 12 Early Printmaking in Italy and the North
Feb. 14 No Class: College Art Association Annual Meeting
Reading Assignment
Patricia Emison, “Prolegomena to the Study of Italian Renaissance Prints,” Word and
Image, vol. 11, no.1, Spring 1995, 1-15.
Susan Dackermann ed. Prints and the Pursuit of Visual Knowledge (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2011), selection.
Week 6
Feb. 19 Art and Court Culture in Early Modern Europe
Feb. 21 The Rebirth of Antiquity in Florence: Sandro Botticelli and
Francesco Berlinghieri
Reading Assignment: Sean Roberts, Printing a Mediterranean World: Florence,
Constantinople, and the Renaissance of Geography (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2013), 45-88.
Week 7
Feb. 26 Painting in Early Renaissance Venice
Feb. 28 Midterm Review
Week 8
Mar. 5 Midterm Exam
Mar. 7 The Artist as a Young Man: Leonardo and Michelangelo
Reading Assignment
Vasari, The Lives of the Artists, selections.
Week 9
Mar. 12 Italy and the Islamic Mediterranean
Mar. 14 Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg and Venice
Reading Assignment
Roberts, Printing a Mediterranean World, selection.
Joseph Leo Koerner, The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), selection.
Week 10
Mar. 19 and 21 No Class, Spring Break
Week 11
Mar. 26 Ingenuity, Art, and Science in Early Modern Europe
Mar. 28 Michelangelo, Raphael, and Julius II’s Rome
Reading Assignment
Simon Werrett, Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2010), selection.
Week 12
Apr. 2 Poetry, Painting and Studiolo Culture
Apr. 4 No Class: Renaissance Society of America Meeting
Reading Assignment:
Stephen Campbell, “The Rise of Mythological Painting in Sixteenth-Century Italy,” from
The Cabinet of Eros: Renaissance Mythological Painting and the Studiolo of Isabella
d’Este (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 251-269.
Week 13
Apr. 9 Leonardo in Milan and France
Apr. 11 New Worlds: Europe and the Americas
Reading Assignment
Daniela Bleichmar, Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the
Hispanic Enlightenment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), selection.
Week 14
Apr. 16 Ferrara and Mantua in the Sixteenth Century
Apr. 18 Mannerism in Sixteenth-Century Florence
Reading Assignment
Michael Cole, Ambitious Form: Giambologna, Ammanati, and Danti in Florence
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), selection.
John Shearman, “The ‘Dead Christ’ by Rosso Fiorentino,” Boston Museum Bulletin, vol.
64 (1966), 148-172.
Week 15
Apr. 23 The Reformation and the Image in the North
Apr. 25 Michelangelo’s Last Judgement
Reading Assignment
Joseph Leo Koerner, The Reformation of the Image (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2004), selection.
Alexander Nagel, “Gifts for Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna,” The Art Bulletin, vol.
79 (1997), 647-668.
Week 16
Apr. 30 Rivalry in Renaissance Venice: Titian and Tintoretto
May 2 Research Paper Presentations
FINAL EXAM - May 9, 4:30 PM