AHT2135 · Renaissance art and architecture

Overview

This unit explores the history and theory of Renaissance art and architecture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. You will be introduced to the work of artists and architects such as Giotto, Donatello, Alberti, van Eyck, Botticelli, Palissy, Michelangelo, Titian, Dürer, and Bronzino. Key topics in the visual and material culture of this pivotal period will be covered, including: the rise of the artist, the temporality of the work of art, humanism and the expansion of art theory, the emergence of new subjects and mediums of art from the grotesque to the automaton, aural and sensual histories of architecture, the contested reception of Mannerism, and the impact of non-European art on the Renaissance. Throughout the unit, you will develop a critical understanding of the cultural, theoretical, and historical contexts that shaped Renaissance art and architecture.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

100% in-semester assessment

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Identify the distinctive characteristics of Renaissance art and architecture;
2. Discuss the multiple historical, cultural, and social contexts of Renaissance art and architecture;
3. Describe key aesthetic, philosophical and historiographical concepts in Renaissance visual and material culture;
4. Conduct informed analyses of works of Renaissance art;
5. Critically engage with the historical and contemporary literature of Renaissance art and architecture.

Workload

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours plus 9 hours of independent study.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.