Renaissance art and architecture

This unit explores the history and theory of Renaissance art and architecture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. You will be introduced to the work of artists and architects such as Giotto, Donatello, Alberti, van Eyck, Botticelli, Palissy, Michelangelo, Titian, Dürer, and Bronzino. Key topics in the visual and material culture of this pivotal period will be covered, including: the rise of the artist, the temporality of the work of art, humanism and the expansion of art theory, the emergence of new subjects and mediums of art from the grotesque to the automaton, aural and sensual histories of architecture, the contested reception of Mannerism, and the impact of non-European art on the Renaissance. Throughout the unit, you will develop a critical understanding of the cultural, theoretical, and historical contexts that shaped Renaissance art and architecture.