Art History: The Italian Renaissance
This lecture course introduces students to Florentine Renaissance art from the early 15th century to the end of the High Renaissance in 1527. Study key practitioners including Masaccio, Botticelli, Ghiberti, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Explore mathematical perspective, classical rediscovery in architecture and sculpture, and the pursuit of balance and harmony. Examine works within their historical, political, and religious contexts for deeper understanding of Renaissance masterpieces.
Fall • Spring • Summer
Prerequisite: None
Florence as a Cultural Laboratory
Examine Florence as a cultural laboratory where collecting, display, and interpretation have shaped global understandings of art and heritage. Blending museum studies and curatorial practice, explore how artworks, architecture, and cultural institutions reflect evolving preservation and education ideas. Trace museum development from Medici collections to today's cultural networks. Engage with curatorial concepts—exhibition narrative, interpretation, spatial storytelling—to understand meaning construction and communication in contemporary cultural heritage.
Fall • Spring
Prerequisite: None
History of Contemporary European & Italian Art
Explore artistic directions from the late 1940s to today, including Happenings, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, Body Art, Earth Works, and Installations. Focus on European and Italian art with special attention to contaminations between visual art and music/sound. Conduct comparative investigation between European and American approaches. Gain historical and critical familiarity with image representation complexity to understand contemporary mixed artistic languages and new media art investigations facing 21st-century challenges.
Fall • Spring
Prerequisite: None