Renaissance Art in Florence and Venice

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

None

The subject focuses in depth on the art and culture of Renaissance Italy, from 1300 to 1570. In part we will examine the lives and works of some of the most significant artists in that period from Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Raphael, Titian and Michelangelo, in relation to the artistic theories of the period and the models they set for later artistic futures. The subject will explore the critical interpretations of works of art, spectatorship, patronage, the place of art in daily life in Renaissance Italy, the scientific analysis of works of art, restoration history and workshop practice.

Students who complete this subject will

• have an understanding of the contexts in which the art of the period was produced;
• have a broad understanding of the technical and stylistic achievements of the major practitioners of the Italian Renaissance;
• have developed critical and analytical skills appropriate to the study of the art of this period.

A subject reader will be available.

• Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting and On Sculpture: The Latin Texts of De Pictura and De Statua translated by Cecil Grayson, London, 1972.
• Paul Barolsky, Why Mona Lisa smiles and other Tales by Vasari, Pennsylvania, 1991.
• Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style, Oxford, 1972.
• Jill Dunkerton and others, Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery: Early European Painting in the National Gallery of London, Yale University Press, 1991.
• Michelle O’.Malley, The Business of Art. Contracts and Commissioning Process in the Renaissance, New Haven, 2005.
• C.M. Richardson, K.W.Woods & M. Franklin, Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources, Blackwells.
• John Shearman, Only Connect: Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance, Princeton, 1992.
• Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists. translated with an introduction and notes by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella., Oxford 1991.
• Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance. Consumer Cultures in Italy. New Haven, 2005.
• Evelyn Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500 Oxford University Press

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• be able to research through the competent use of the library and other information sources, and be able to define areas of inquiry and methods of research in the preparation of essays;
• be able to conceptualise theoretical problems, form judgements and arguments and communicate critically, creatively and theoretically through essay writing, tutorial discussion and presentations;
• be able to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through essay writing and tutorial discussion;
• be able to manage and organise workloads for recommended reading, the completion of essays and assignments and examination revision;
• be able to participate in team work through involvement in syndicate groups and group discussions.