EARLY RENAISSANCE ART IN ITALY

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EARLY RENAISSANCE ART IN ITALY                                                       ART HISTORY 228 SPR 2010
MoWe 2:45-4:00                                                                             CUMMINGS 307

Robert Baldwin
Off: Cummings 210
Office Hours: Mo 4-5; Tu & Th 11:45-2:00
Email: rwbal@conncoll.edu

DESCRIPTION
Renaissance art and culture from 1300 to 1500 within a larger social history tied to the changing and overlapping values of
the church, the aristocracy, and mercantile elites. Topics include the invention of "art" and "artist," urban politics, wealth,
and social order, gender, family, and sexual values, penitential piety (Triumph of Death Apocalypse, Hell), the rise of
portraiture (humanist individualism and fame); and the rise of mythology and landscape (gardens, pastoral, villa). Major
artists include Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Piero, Mantegna, Botticelli, and Bellini.

REQUIREMENTS
EXAMS: One 90 minute final exam with one unknown essay and 20 slide identifications. Know all the “Required Works”
(artist, title, date within 30 years, original location & patron if listed). Required Works are in a PowerPoint slide shows.

PAPERS: Three short papers, each with a slide show of images. Students will use 20-30 pp. of primary sources to develop
original historical analyses of art works. Papers must use short passages or phrases from most or all of the readings.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: Students will also write 24 one page "writing assignments" (WA) assigned as class
preparation, each with a slide show). These will not be graded or returned. Their purpose is to get you to do some careful
looking and creative, historical thinking about a major work to be discussed in class.

Exams: One final exam with one essay on a work not yet seen (but similar to things discussed in class) and 20 slide
identifications. Know all the “Required Works” (artist, title, original location, and approximate date, i.e. early, middle, or
late 14th or 15th).


JANUARY (28 classes)
Mo25 Giotto’s Fresco Cycles in Assisi and Padua

We 27 Last Judgment and Triumph of Death
      READ: 1) Innocent III, Misery of Mankind; 2) Jacopone, Death; 3) Baldwin, Triumph of Death; 4) Usury Texts; 5):
       Voragine, Judas
       WA: Giotto, Last Judgment

FEBRUARY
Mo 1 Late Medieval Religious Art: Madonna Nursing, Gardens, Processions
     READ: 1) Baldwin, Late Medieval Christianity
     WA: Gentile, Adoration of the Magi

We 3    Court Art in the early 15th Century: Venus, Fountain of Youth, Hunting, Dragon-Slaying
        READ 1) Voragine, Eustace; 2) Baldwin, Hunting Intro; 3) Maio, “On Majesty”
        READ for WA: 1) Boccaccio, Venus (Ameto)
        WA: Worship of Venus

Mo 8    Secular Art in a Burgher Republic: Lorenzetti’s Good Government
        PAPER: Lorenzetti's Good Government
        READ (in this order): 1) Paper Assignment in WA folder; 2) Baldwin, Cosmos; 3) Synesius, Third Hymn; 4)
         Orphic Hymns; 5) Evrart, Cosmos-Microcosmos; 6) Siena, Background; 7) Siena Chronology; 8) Bruni, Florence

We 10 Renaissance Architecture I: Brunelleschi, Michellozzo
      Review: 1) Bruni, Florence
      READ: 1) Baldwin, Humanism I
      WA: Michellozzo, Medici Palace
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Mo 15 Renaissance Architecture II: Alberti, Lombardo, Sangallo
      READ: 1) Alberti, Architecture; 2) Alberti, Villa
      WA: Piero School, Ideal City

We 17 Massaccio and Masolino in the Brancacci Chapel
      READ: 1) Bible, Adam and Eve; 2) Bible Paul, Timothy; 3) Tertullian, Eve; 4) Philo, Adam and Eve; 5) Boccaccio,
            Eve; 6) Bruni, Study of Literature; 7) Salutati, Brother John; 8) Barbaro, Wifely Duties; 9) Alberti, Family I
     WA: Masaccio's Brancacci Chapel: Republican Piety and Sexual Politics

Mo 22 Masaccio II: Brancacci Chapel (continued) and Holy Trinity
      READ: Baldwin, Perspective
      WA: Masaccio’s Holy Trinity /

We 24 Nanni di Banco and Donatello’s Early Works
      REVIEW: 1) Bruni, Florence; 2) Innocent III, Misery of Mankind
      READ FOR DAVID: 1) Bible, David; 2) Cicero, Nature of Gods, 3) Cicero, Rhetoric; 4) Manetti, Dignity of Man
      READ FOR FEAST OF HEROD: Bible, Salome
      WA: Donatello's David

MARCH
Mo 1 Donatello II: Republican Gender: Salome, Judith, Magdalen
     READ FOR JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES: 1) Bible, Judith and Holofernes; 2) Pontano, On the Prince
     READ FOR PENITENT MAGDALEN: 1) Voragine, Magdalen; 2) Petrarch, Warrior of Pozzuoli; 3) Vergerio,
      Free Men
      WA: Donatello's Judith and Holofernes and Penitent Magdalen

We 3    Fra Angelico, Renaissance Art and Monastic Values
        Read: Baldwin, Memory and Devotions
        WA: Fra Angelico’s Annunciations / (no reading for this WA)

Mo 8 Madonna Imagery and the Cult of the Virgin
     READ: 1) Bible, Magnificat; 2) Baldwin, Circular Aesthetics
     WA: Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat & Circular Aesthetics

We 10 Religious Art 1440-1490, Part 1
      WA: Gozzoli’s Procession of the Magi / no reading


Mo 29 Religious Art 1440-1490, Part II: Eucharistic Imagery
       Review: Bible, Magnificat
       WA: Botticelli, Annunciation

We 31 Sixtus IV, the Sistine Chapel, and Triumphal Aesthetics in Christian Art
     READ: 1) Prudentius, Against Symmachus; 2) Eusebius, Constantine
     WA: Perugino’s Christ Giving Keys to Peter
     (Those who took my survey course will instead do a WA on Mantegna’s St. Sebastian)

APRIL
Mo 5 Ghirlandaio and the Sassetti Chapel, Florence
      READ: 1) Virgil, Eclogue; 2) Claudian, Saviour; 3) Voragine, Nativity (esp. section on Augustus)
      WA: Ghirlandaio’s Confirmation of the Franciscan Order

We 7 Apocalyptic Spirituality in Botticelli and Signorelli
     READ: 1) Bible, Revelations; 2) Savonarola, Compendium; 3) Savonarola, Sermon on Haggai; 4) Baldwin, Politics
         as Gender
     WA: Botticelli’s Mystic Crucifixion and Apocalyptic Spirituality
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Mo 12 Portraiture and Humanist Fame: Pisanello, Donatello, Verrochio
      READ FOR GENERAL BACKGROUND, “Baldwin, Humanism II. History”
      READ FOR EQUESTRIAN POTRAITS: 1) Claudian, Honorius Horse; 2) Statius, Equestrian Statue; 3) Maio, On
                Majesty
      WA: Verrocchio’s Colleoni

We 14 Court Portraits II
       REVIEW: 1) Cicero, Rhetoric; 2) Manetti, Dignity of Man; 3) Vergerio, Free Men; 4) Pontano, Prince, 5)
               Baldwin Humanism I & II
      READ: 1) Seneca, Letters; 2) Claudian, Honorius 4th ConsulshipA (not B); 3) Alberti, Teogenio; 4) Alberti,
             Family II; 5) Poggio, Nobility; 6) Vespasiano, Federico da Montefeltro; 7) Capilupo, Letter; 8)
             Hollingsworth, Federico da Montefeltro
       WA: Piero's Federigo da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza

Mo 19 Portraits of Women / Burgher Portraits
      Read for Portraits of Women: 1) Ficino, Beauty; 2) Colonna, Beauty; 3) Boccaccio, Female Hair
      Read for WA: 1) Cicero, Old Age
      Review for WA: Baldwin, Humanism II. History
      WA: Ghirlandaio’s Old Man and Grandson

We 21 Mythology I
      REVIEW: 1) Ovid, Venus April Spring; 2) Ovid, Venus Civilizer
      READ: 1) Greek Anthology, Hercules; 2) Alciati, Hercules
      WA: Pollaioulo, Hercules and Dejaneira

Mo 26 Botticelli and Mythology I
      REVIEW: 1) Lucretius, Venus Spring; 2) Ovid, Venus Civilizer; 3) Ficino, Venus and Mars; 4) Boccaccio,
      READ: 1) Plato, Venus and Mars
      WA: Botticelli’s Venus and Mars

We 28 Botticelli and Mythology II
      REVIEW: 1) Ovid, Venus April Spring; 2) Lucretius, Venus; 3) Ovid, Venus Civilizer; 4) Claudian, Wedding of
            Honorius and Maria
      READ: 1) Claudian, Honorius 4th Consulship B; 2) Boccaccio, Nymphs; 3) Medici, Gather Ye Roses; 4) Medici,
            Song of Seven Planets; 5) Medici, Wood of Love, 6) Politian, Silviae , 7) Politian, Loves of the Gods
       WA: Botticelli’s Primavera

MAY
Mo 3 Studiolo Painting and Female Patronage: Isabella d’Este
      REVIEW: 1) Ficino, Beauty; 2) Ovid, Venus, April, Spring
      READ FOR PARNASSUS: 1) Virgil, Georgics II; 2) Claudian, Wedding of Honorius and Maria; 3) Claudian, Mars
              Venus; 4) Lucretius,, Venus Spring; 5) Ovid, Venus April; 6) Ovid, Venus Civilizer; Civilizer; 7) Ficino,
              Venus and Mars; 8) Ficino, Marriage; 9) Muses texts; 10) Conty, Vulcan (not yet available)
      READ FOR MINERVA: 1) Baldwin, Garden Intro; 2) Evrart, Venus; 3) Ovid, Apollo and Daphne
      PAPER: Mantegna’s Parnassus and Minerva

We 5 Mythology (cont) Bellini’s Mythological Works and Allegories
     READ: 1) Ovid, Lotis and Priapus; 2) Colonna, Rape; 3) Colonna, Nymphs; 4) Colonna, Pastoral
     WA: Bellini’s Feast of the Gods

Mo 10 Mantegna and Court Culture II: Federigo Gonzaga in Mantua
      REVIEW: 1) Baldwin, Humanism (esp. section on court humanism); 2) Baldwin, Humanism, History
      READ: 1) Cole, Gonzaga
      WA: Mantegna, Gonzaga Court

We 12   Bellini: Religious Works
        REVIEW FOR PAPER: 1) readings for class on Botticelli Primavera; 2) Cicero, Nature of Gods; 3) Alberti, Villa
        SKIM: 1) Bonaventure, Francis; 2) Celano, Francis
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      READ FOR PAPER: 1) Francis, Canticle of Sun; 2) Lorenzo de' Medici, Supreme Good; 3) Medici, Let Those
               Who Care
      Read: for Bellini, Madonna of the Meadow: 1) Giles of Viterbo, Eclogue on the Nativity
      PAPER: Bellini's Ecstasy of St Francis

FINAL EXAM READING: To Be Announced