A city at cultural and geographic crossroads, Venice was one of the most flourishing urban and artistic centers of the Italian Renaissance. Its state and religious communities sponsored the construction of numerous buildings that reflected its prosperity, as well as its openness to new styles and ideals.
Venetian artists, from Bellini to Tintoretto, introduced new subjects or re-invented traditional ones in a marvelous blend of naturalism and love of ornament. In addition to the cultural exchanges that influenced their approach, they were inspired by the extraordinary light found in this city on the sea to create masterpieces of color that had few parallels among their peers elsewhere.
Join art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine in a daylong survey of the artists who shaped Venice into a unique place of beauty during the Renaissance.
9:30–10:45 a.m. A City at Cultural Crossroads
Explore the ways in which the city of Venice fashioned its identity through a complex exchange with a number of different political and cultural realms, from Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire to the East, to major centers of trade in Northern Europe.
11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. The Invention of Venetian Art: Painting as Poetry
Understand the two central figures who shaped the Venetian school of painting at the beginning of the 16th century, Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione.
12:15–1:15 p.m. Lunch (participants supply their own)
1:15–2:30 p.m. The Triumph of Colorito
Explore the most important contributions to the art of painting by Tiziano Vecellio, better known as Titian, arguably the greatest painter of Renaissance Venice.
2:45–4 p.m. Titian’s Rivals and Heirs
Two equally fascinating artists had the fortune—or misfortune—to be Titian’s contemporaries: Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto.
Georgievska-Shine teaches in the department of art history and archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and has served as an art expert in Venice for Smithsonian Journeys and other organizations.
World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1 credit
