Artists, Princes, and Popes

The course opens with a discussion of artists working in Italy in the latter years of the fifteenth century. It then evolves into a study of Italian art produced during the early decades of the sixteenth century – the period otherwise known as the High and Late Renaissance. The artists around whom the course revolves include Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphaello Sanzio, Perugino, and Donato Bramante, along with numerous others of note. Where appropriate, not only the artist’s formal concerns, but the influence of his patron on the outcome of the work, will be discussed and analyzed. In other words, the Pope or prince or ruling monarch who initiated and funded certain of the artist’s works will come to life and not remain just a name.

Group Leader: ELLEN L LONGSWORTH
Venue: Online
Meets on: Tuesday 1 PM - 3 PM
Starting: Apr 8
Sessions: 6
Class Size: 25
Teaching Style:
Weekly Preparation: Optional
Dr. Ellen L. Longsworth, Professor Emerita, served as Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of the Visual and Performing Arts at Merrimack College, MA. She received her doctorate from Boston University, her master’s from The University of Chicago, and her BA from Mount Holyoke College. She specializes in Italian Renaissance sculpture, specifically funerary and Northern Italian (Lombard) works, including life-sized polychrome terracotta sculpture groups and North Italy’s sacrimonti images; sculptures expressive of the Tridentine reform of San Carlo Borromeo located in the Milanese church of Santo Sepolcro; related sculptures in Milan Cathedral; and the early sculptures of Michelangelo. Her recent articles include: “Michelangelo and the Eye of the Beholder: the Early Bologna Sculptures,” Artibus et Historiae, Vienna-Cracow, 46 (XXIII) 2002: 77-82; and “Stylistic and Iconographic Consideration: The Lamentation in the Church of Santo Sepolcro, Milan,” Artibus et Historiae, Vienna-Cracow, 59 (XXX) 2009: 91-114.