Humanities 132
Renaissance
Spring 2002
Dr. Maria Jaoudi
Office: Mendocino 2018
E-mail:jaoudim@csus.edu
Telephone: 278-8473
Office Hours: TR 9:00 -10:00 a.m; F Noon - 1:00
Course Description
Investigates the nature and implications of Renaissance Humanism in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries as well as its impact in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The course will
include the literary works of such writers as Petrarch, de Pizan, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Cervantes,
and Shakespeare, along with representatives in the arts and music such as Giotto, Botticelli,
Michelangelo, Gentileschi, Brunelleschi, da Vinci, Durer, Dutay, and Palestrina.
This is an Advanced Study course and the WPE requirement is a prerequisite.
Learning Objectives
Students should be able by the end of the course, to explain, organize, discuss, and interpret, the
topics listed in the syllabus. The comprehension of the arts and ideas in the Renaissance, offers a
unique opportunity to understand the values of Humanism, idealism, and Rationalism in a
conceptual framework in which to study the arts. Cross-cultural connections between the diverse
cultures of Africa, the Americas, and European colonialism, will enrich students multicultural
studies by examining the ideas and implications of racism and cultural chauvinism which
significantly “colored’ Renaissance thinking.
Students will also have the opportunity in their individual research papers to explore scholarly and
creative material both through their own scholarly research and by developing their aesthetic
appreciation through their choice of three representative works of art.
Required Texts
Gloria K. Fiero, The Humanistic Tradition, Fourth edition.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest (be sure to have the Bantam text edited by David
Bevington, with a Foreward by Joseph Papp).
Recommended Texts
Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
Michel de Montaigne, The Essays
Thomas Moore, Utopia
J. R. Ross, editor, The Portable Renaissance Reader
Giorgio Vasari, Uves of the Artists, Volumes I & II
Katharina Wilson, Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation
Class Schedule & Reading Assignments (bring appropriate texts to class)
Flore reading Assignments
Week 1
Pages: 279-285
Introduction
Dante Alighieri
Week 2
Pages: 349-362
The Age of the Renaissance
Giovanni Boccaccio
Christine de Pizan
Week 3
Pages: 362-372
Chaucer
Art and Music in Transition
Giotto
Ars Nova in Music
Week 4
Pages: 373-383
Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance
The Medici’s
Petrarch
Pico
Albertli
FIRST EXAM
Week 5
Pages: 383-390
Castiglione & “L’uomo universale”
Renaissance Women
Marinella
Week 6
Pages: 390-407
Machiavelli
The Early Renaissance
The Revival of the Classical Nude
Early Renaissance Architecture
Week 7
Pages: 408~415
The Renaissance Portrait
Early Renaissance Artist-Scientists
Leonardo da Vinci
From da Vinci’s Notes
Week 8
Pages: 415-418
Leonardo & Raphael
The Del Robbia Legacy
Week 9
Pages: 419-427
Architecture of the High Renaissance
Michelangelo Buonarroti & Heroic Idealism
SECOND EXAM
Week 10
Pages: 426-433
The High Renaissance in Venice
Early and High Renaissance Music and Dance
Week 11
Pages: 473-479
Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
Week 12
Pages: 479-490
Northern Renaissance Art and Literature
Durer
Grunewald, Bosch, and Brueghel
Erasmus and More
Week 13
Pages: 490-502
Cervantes
Rabelais & Montaigne
Shakespeare
Reading of The Tempest (bring your copy to class)
Week 14
William Shakespeare continued
Third Exam
Research Paper Due
Week 15
Pages: 437-472
Africa, The Americas, and Cross-cultural Encounter
Course Requirements
The student is responsible for the reading assignments, lecture material, films, and audio
selections.
There are three exams; see the above Schedule. The exams are not cumulative, but begin where the
course material was completed at the time of the earlier exam. Together the exams constitute 80%
of the course grade. Each exam has ten fill-in questions and three short essays. There are no
make-up exams. The research paper is 20% of the course grade. Active participation in class is
also a grading component in the final grade for the course. if you have any special testing needs,
please give me at least two weeks notice to schedule with the Testing Center.
The writing requirement for the course consists of your exams and a ten page paper,
double-spaced, 12 point Ariel font, with an additional page for Bibliography. The paper Is on an
aspect of the Renaissance from the fourteenth century through the seventeenth century including
any of the geographic regions we cover in class. Three color xeroxes are necessary to illustrate
your subject. Thus, including your text, Bibliography, and three color xerox pages, the paper is a
total of fourteen pages. The philosophy and/or religious meaning expressed through the work of
art, architecture, literature, stage design, food (the restaurant, for example, was developed during
this time period in the West), fashion, everyday life, human relations, banking, music, or science,
will form the basis of the paper, as will intricate description of the history of that person, region,
development of the topic you are writing about in your paper. For example, you could select as one
of your works of art, a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi which expresses her experiences as a
Renaissance woman in Italy elaborating on how that particular painting’s philosophical-religious
theme reflects her own biography, her mastery of technique, and the artistic milieu of her time.
There will be a sign-up sheet in class in order that students cover the entire period of the course and
do not duplicate each other’s topic. The text by Fiore contains ample visuals if you need help
contemplating what might be of particular interest to you. Please feel free to come and see me in
my office during Office Hours if you need any assistance. Five scholarly sources are to be quoted
and annotated by footnotes and annotated in your Bibliography.
The Research Paper is due at the time of your Third Exam. Late Papers are not accepted. If
the paper is not done on time it defeats the purpose of the paper. The research paper helps each
student to be an engaged participant by having the student study the contextual material for class
time, which will then greatly enhance the individual student’s comprehension and learning. The
paper is a vital methodological tool for the student.
If you would like a copy of your paper returned with comments, provide me with an additional
copy of your paper and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. This must be given to me at the same
time as the original color copy. I will keep the color copy thereby insuring that no one plagiarizes
your work knowingly or unknowingly in the future.
I will bring to class early in the semester samples of research papers from former students who
have graciously donated their papers as excellent examples for you to peruse.
Class attendance is mandatory. Over two absences will result in the grade being reduced for the
course. Do not come late to class or leave the classroom while the class Is in session.
Attendance is taken only once at the beginning of class; if you disrupt the class by being late, you
have already been marked absent.
Do not eat during the class.
Employ only academically appropriate language and behavior.