The arts blossomed in Renaissance Italy, an era that encompassed the innovations of perspective and oil paint, a new emphasis on the study of anatomy and antiquity, and the growing independence of the artist. Rocky Ruggiero, a specialist in the Early Renaissance, explores some of the great masterworks of art and architecture created from the late-14th to the 16th centuries as he examines the intellectual trends and social context that gave rise to such giants as Giotto, Botticelli, and Michelangelo.

MAR 30  Framing the Renaissance

The first art historian, 16th-century artist Giorgio Vasari, begins his chronicle of the Renaissance art world with the shift from an iconic image of Christ to a more naturalistic one as seen in the works of Giotto in Florence and Simone Martini in Siena.

APR 6  Renaissance in Florence: Cathedral and City

Explore 15th-century Florence as it gives birth to new ideas of beauty and a new role for man as “the measure of all things.” Learn how Brunelleschi capped a cathedral with a dome whose scale had not been attempted since antiquity, and enter the private world of one of the city’s greatest patrons, Lorenzo the Magnificent.

APR 13   Renaissance in Rome: Sacred and Profane

The return of the papacy in the 15th century transformed Rome from a dilapidated town littered with ruins to a city at the center of the Renaissance movement in Europe. The pope and cardinals spent lavishly as Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael were given one commission after another to complete and beautify the city of God.

APR 20   Decorum and Invention

The overarching principles that define Italian Renaissance art are decorum, the suitability of style to purpose, and invenzione, the imaginative linking of subject and its treatment. Using these twin concepts as a guide, examine Michelangelo’s return to the Sistine Chapel to paint The Last Judgment, Titian’s use of color, and the Florentine mannerism of Bronzino and Pontormo.

4 sessions

World Art History Certificate core course: Earn 1 credit*

Patron Information

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*Enrolled participants in the World Art History Certificate Program receive 1 core course credit. Not yet enrolled? Learn about the program, its benefits, and how to register here.