The Revolution of Renaissance: the Foundations of Modern Art and Science

In this course we will analyze the birth of the Renaissance in Florence, its artistic antecedents and then dwell on Brunelleschi and his revolutionary theories on perspective as a new spiritual and rational vision of the world. We will examine the historical, economic and cultural conditions that spawned and stimulated the new art forms that spread from Florence throughout Italy and Europe. The major authors of the three arts ˗ architecture, sculpture and painting ˗ who will become the first models for the development of the entire period (Brunelleschi and Alberti, Ghiberti and Donatello, Beato Angelico, Masaccio and Ghirlandaio) will be studied along with artists such as Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raffaello, Cellini, Vasari. Lectures will be supplemented by historical, scientific and literary readings and will follow a chronological order, focusing on specific issues such as Platonism and Aristotelianism, the art of portraiture, sculpture, dynamism and expressionism, spirituality and eroticism.

Required Text: La rivoluzione rinascimentale. Antologia di testi, con brani critici, a cura di Gino Tellini, Firenze, 2017 (materiale di lavoro che sarà distribuito in PDF a tutti gli iscritti al corso).
Additional reading materials will be provided by the instructor.