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ARTH 112 Spring 2008 -1-

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Renaissance Art and the Birth of the

Modern World ====================================================================Prof. J. Saslow Klapper 167 Office Hours: Thurs. 3:30-5:00

[email protected] 718.997.4803, 4820 or by appointment

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In this course, students will become familiar with the profound innovations in painting, sculpture, and

architecture created in Europe from about 1300 to 1700, which set the course and standards for much of

western visual culture down to the past century. From Giotto to Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and

Rembrandt, we will examine what is meant by the term Renaissance in the visual arts and Europeansociety at large, including its contacts and exchanges with global cultures outside the west. The period

was marked by not only a rebirth of the artistic forms of ancient Greece and Rome, but a broader reawak-

ening of curiosity about the natural world and human character, about life here on earth and how it mightbe shaped and improved by reason and ingenuity, that led to the modern world. Although the Renais-

sance has often been glorified as the triumph of science, secularism, and reason, we will see how it was

energized by a broader tension between the new secular spirit and the ongoing influence of faith and the

church -- a situation that is still with us.

Because this is an art history course, part of what we will study is about art: We will come to understand

the crucial role of the visual arts in expressing and shaping this and all human cultures, and will learn a

set of skills for reading the multiple meanings of artworks. These methods range from visual analysis -

- learning to see and describe such fundamental artistic elements as color, line, composition -- to ico-nography (the study of meaning) and social history. But the other half of this course is about history, be-cause this semesters class is a beta test, or a pilot course, for the system that will replace LASAR re-

quirements next year [not for you]. The new general education system (called PLAS -- Perspectives on

the Liberal Arts and Sciences) will also introduce students to a particular academic subject as a world of

values and ideas in its own right, and provide an understanding of what the liberal arts are as a whole,

how each of them find out their distinct brand of knowledge, and why they matter to an educated person.

In addition to the major personalities and cultural centers of Europe, we will investigate how artistic de-

velopments there were influenced by increasing contacts with Africa, Asia, and the Islamic lands, and

how Europeans interacted with cultures around the world as they explored and colonized the globe, par-

ticularly Latin America. Special attention will be paid to the birth, goals, and methods of the academic

discipline of art history, which was itself a characteristic invention of the Renaissance period, and how ithas changed over time since its inception.

Lectures, readings, discussion, and student projects are aimed at developing three interconnected appre-

ciations and competencies:

1. Students will learn the basic terms and concepts of visual and art-historical analysis, and de-

velop an ability to analyze the form and meaning of individual artworks.

2. Students will understand the Renaissance as a historical period and concept, and the correla-

tions between its artistic production and contemporaneous social and cultural values, beliefs, and prac-

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tices. They will have a base of knowledge in what constitutes modernity and how it developed out of

the early modern period (ca. 1400-1750).

3. Students will learn about the discipline of art history itself: how and why it began; what its

goals are, and how they have changed over time; how scholarly judgments and generalizations are re-

searched and formulated, including consideration of the new art history of the last three decades and itsattempts to compensate for former neglect of issues of economics, politics, gender, ethnicity, and cross-

cultural influences; and the place and role of art history within the broader area of the liberal arts.

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Textbook: GardnersArt through the Age: The Western Perspective, 12th edn., pp. XXXV-XLVII (introduction):

Readings:

Mark Roskill, What Is Art History? , Introduction: The origins and growth of art history, pp. 8-17.Recommended:

Sylvan Barnet,A Short Guide to Writing About Art, 9th edn. chap. 1, Writing About Art, pp. 1-35. Gardner, XXIII-XXIII (basic reference: Greek myth, Jewish-Christian narratives, architectural terms).

Students unfamiliar with the Jewish and Christian Bible should read the book of Genesis and the Gospel of Mat-

thew.

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Readings:

Sylvan Barnet,A Short Guide to Writing About Art, chap. 10, Some Critical Approaches, pp. 220-245.

Recommended:

Guido Ruggiero,A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance: chap. 20, Loren Partidge, Art, pp. 349-65.Carlo Ginzburg, Clues and the Scientific Method: Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes, in Umberto Eco and T.

Sebeok,eds., The Sign of Three, pp. 81-118.___________________________________________________________________________________

GardnersArt through the Ages, 400-411.

Readings:

Giorgio Vasari,Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects...(1568), transl. George Bull: Life of

Giotto, vol. 1, pp. 57-65, 80-81.

Theodor Mommsen, Petrarchs Conception of the Dark Ages, chap. 9 in Paula Findlen, ed., The Italian Renais-

sance, pp. 219-36.___________________________________________________________________________________

GardnersArt through the Ages, 418-20, 452-480.

Readings:

Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting(1435), transl. John Spencer: Prologue, pp. 39-40; Book 2, pp. 63-81 (on isto-

ria = narrative painting)

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Erwin Panofsky,Meaning in the Visual Arts (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955): chap. 1, Iconography and Iconology:

An Introduction, pp. 26-41 only (including chart on pp. 40-41). ___________________________________________________________________________________


Readings:

Erwin Panofsky, Disguised Symbolism. [pages TBA]

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Readings:

James Saslow, Michelangelo: Sculpture, Sex, and Gender, in S. McHam, ed., Looking at Italian Renaissance

Sculpture, pp. 223-243.

Recommended:

Charles Stinger, The Renaissance in Rome, chap. 5, TheRenovatio Imperii and theRenovation Romae.

Arnold Hauser, The Psychological Approach: Psychoanalysis and Art, in his The Philosophy of Art History, 43-

71.

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GardnersArt through the Ages, pp. 448-489, 542-564 (for this week and the next)

Readings:

Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Emergence of Print Culture..., in Keith Whitlock, ed., The Renaissance in Europe: A

Reader, chap. 4, pp. 55-73.

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GardnersArt through the Ages, pp. 448-9, 542-564 (continue from last week)

Readings:

Carol Richardson et al., eds.,Renaissance Art Reconsidered, The Reform of Images, pp. 409-28.

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GardnersArt through the Ages, 526-27 (Isabella dEste), 531-32 (Anguissola), 560-62 (Hemessen and Teerlinc),

583-4 (Gentileschi), 597 (Peeters), 604-5 (Leyster), 611-2 (Ruysch)

Readings:Paul H. D. Kaplan, Isabella dEste and Black African Women, in T.F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe, eds., Black Africans

in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005), chap. 6, pp. 125-154.

Recommended:

Catherine King, Made in Her Image: Women, Portraiture, and Gender in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,

in Gill Perry, ed., Gender and Art(Yale UP, 1999), part 1, pp. 33-86.

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GardnersArt through the Ages: over the next 3 weeks, you should read all of chap. 19, pp. 568-627.

Readings:

Peter Burke, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, chaps. I-III, pp. 1-37.

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GardnersArt through the Ages, 568-627, continued.

Readings:

Elizabeth Holt, ed.,A Documentary History of Art, vol. 2, pp. 62-70: The Council of Trent and Religious Art, and

the transcript of Paolo Veroneses appearance before the Inquisition .

Carolyn Valone, Women on the Quirinal Hill: Patronage in Rome 1560-1630, Art Bulletin 76 (1994): 129-146.

[Full text available on JSTOR database in Library]

Recommended:

Anthony Blunt,Artistic Theory in Italy 1450-1600 (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1962, repr.), chap. 8, The Counter-

Reformation and Religious Art.

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GardnersArt through the Ages, 568-627, continued.

Readings:

Eileen Reeves,Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the Age of Galileo, Introduction, pp. 3-22, and chap. 4,

1610-12: In the Shadow of the Moon, pp. 138-70 only.__________________________________________________________________________________

Readings:

Rosamond Mack,Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600: Introduction, pp. 1-14, and chap. 9,

The Pictorial Arts, pp. 149-171.

Gauvin Bailey, Art of Colonial Latin America, chap. 3, The Image of Empire: Arts of the Viceroys, pp. 111-141.

Recommended:

Gauvin Bailey,Art on the Jesuit Missions, 1542-1773 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1999). Chapters on European in-

teraction with China, Japan, India.___________________________________________________________________________________

Readings:

John Jeffries Martin, ed., The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad: Introduction: The Renaissance Between Myth and

History, pp. 1-24Medina Lasansky, The Renaissance Perfected. [chapter TBA]

Recommended:

John E. Law and Lene Ostermark-Johansen, Victorian and Edwardian Responses to the Italian Renaissance.

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1. Weekly readings and class discussion. You are expected to read all assignments prior to the day when they will

be discussed in class, and to be able to outline their main ideas and apply those concepts to lecture material.

May include in-class writing. 20% of grade

2. Visual analysis paper, based on two works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 4-5 pages: description, analysis,

and comparison of two works of Renaissance art, both their style and meaning.DUE DATE: Thursday, March 13 30% of grade

3. Reading review and critique. 2 pages, critical analysis of one of the assigned readings. Students will be expected

to address four questions:

--Summarize main ideas concisely

--Critique the argument and scholarship

--Evaluate the goals and contributions of the essay to our knowledge

--Respond to the study in relation to ones personal concerns and interests

DUE DATE: Tuesday, April 1 20% of grade

4. Final project: Research essay on cultural issues of the Renaissance and modernity. 5 pages.

DUE DATE: Monday, May 19, 4:00 in art history office (Klapper 167) 30% of grade

There will be no extra credit assignments. To do well, concentrate on the required coursework.

PLAGIARISM: Appropriating the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own is directly contrary

to the ethics of the intellectual community and of all professions. All work you submit is expected to be new,

original, and produced exclusively for this course. When you quote from a previous writer, enclose the words in

quotation marks and provide a footnote giving the exact source. If you are merely paraphrasing someone elses

words, you should not use quotation marks, but you must still provide a source note. Any use of published material,

or any material by individuals other than yourself, without proper and adequate acknowledgment will result in a

grade of F for that assignment, and may be reported to the appropriate College bodies. Remember that the World

Wide Web is a form of publication.

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James Elkins, ed. Is Art History Global? (New York: Routledge, 2006).

Eric Fernie,Art History and Its Methods: A Critical Anthology (London: Phaidon, 1995): a good dictionary refer-

ence, offering short summaries of each method, major figures in their development, and a glossary section

on basic concepts and terms.

Jonathan Harris, ed. Art History: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Jonathan Harris, The New Art History: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Catherine King, ed. Views of Difference: Different Views of Art. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1999.

W. Eugene Kleinbauer, Modern Perspectives in Western Art History (Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P, repr.

1989): Introduction, pp. 1-36. Also Genres of modern scholarship, pp. 37-106.

Elizabeth Mansfield, ed.,Art History and Its Institutions: Foundations of a Discipline. New York: Routledge, 2002.Vernon Hyde Minor,Art Historys History, 2nd. ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001).

Robert Nelson and Richard Shiff, Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996).

Gill Perry, ed. Gender and Art(New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open University, 1999).

Donald Preziosi, The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1998), Introduction, pp. 13-18,

and additional essays on various methods.

Kymberly Pindar, ed., Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History. New York: Routledge,

2002.

Jeremy Tanner, ed. Sociology of Art: A Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003).

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Michael Zimmermann, ed., The Art Historian: National Traditions and Institutional Practices. Williamstown, MA:

Clark Institute, 2003.

Michael Cole, ed., Sixteenth-Century Art(Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006) [anthology]

Peter Elmer et al., eds. The Renaissance in Europe: An Anthology (New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open Uni-versity, 2000) [period primary sources]

Paula Findlen, ed., The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Readings (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002) [modern

scholarly essays].

Kenneth Gouwens, ed., The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004). [primary

texts of the period]

History of Italian Art, 2 vols., preface by Peter Burke (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell/Polity, 1996).

John Jeffries Martin, The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad(London: Routledge, 2003) [Rewriting Histories series]

Carol Richardson et al., eds., Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Malden, MA:

Blackwell, 2007)

Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our Worldview

(New York: Ballantine, 1991)

Keith Whitlock, ed., The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader (New Haven and London: Yale UP/Open University,

2000) [modern articles]

John Berger, Ways of Seeing(Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin, 1972, repr.)

John F.A. Taylor,Design and Expression in the Visual Arts (New York: Dover, 1964, repr.)

Joshua Taylor,Learning to Look(Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1957, repr.)

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