This introduction to the arts and architecture of seventeenth-century
Italy addresses one of the core paradoxes of the period: that startling
innovation and creativity were not inconsistent with serving the purposes
of patrons and ideologies that at first appear rigid and authoritarian.
Supported by popes, cardinals, new religious orders, and private
collectors, artists and architects such as Caravaggio, Artemisia
Gentileschi, Pietro da Cortona, Gianlorenzo Bernini, and Francesco
Borromini depicted saintly bodies in moments of divine rapture, opened up
painted ceilings to elaborate illusionistic visions, and subjected the
classical language of architecture to unprecedented levels of movement.
Through lectures and discussions of key primary and secondary sources, we
will explore the emotive and ideological power of Baroque art, considering
the multitude of ways in which it shaped the visual, political, and
religious worlds of its day. |