History of Art 260.001 European Painting & Sculpture of the 17th Century

This course explores the vital, many-faceted visual culture of seventeenth-century Europe with particular focus on the pictorial and plastic arts. Lectures will consider the extraordinary achievements of such well-known figures as Caravaggio, the Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Bernini, Velázquez, Poussin, Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, as well as a range of other visually interesting but less familiar works by their contemporaries. We will be looking not only at painting and sculpture, but also at drawings, prints, maps, and book illustrations, in order to glimpse the many ways in which the visual arts came to be used and valued in the seventeenth century. Lectures and weekly readings are designed to situate art within discussions of scientific inquiry, religious practices, politics, cultural encounter, social and economic life. Requirements include informed participation in discussion sections, a midterm quiz, a final examination, and a short paper. (Brusati)