This course is an introduction to the discipline of art history through the study of ways in which the human body was socially constructed and construed in the arts and architecture of Renaissance and baroque Italy. At once sacred and sinful, the body fascinated and threatened, attracted and repulsed; it was an inexhaustible source of secrets, inviting inquiry by artists and anatomists alike. By considering a wide range of visual sources--such as depictions of saintly martyrdoms, images of reclining nudes, anatomical treatises, erotic drawings, portraits, and buildings designed according to anthropomorphic principles--we will engage a variety of issues related to the body in the early modern period while learning about the objectives and methods of art historical analysis. |