ART 338 Love and Ecstasy in Renaissance Art
Love, lust, and desire spiritual, secular, and physical were among the dominant themes in Renaissance art and literature. In this course, we will examine the ways in which artists, poets, theologians, and philosophers struggled to define, and to represent, the complexities of love in all its facets. We will analyze the thematics of desire in male and female portraiture and mythological paintings, the erotics of mysticism in altarpieces, the role of love and friendship in Neoplatonic philosophy, and the taboos of sex in early modern printmaking. Artists to be studied include: Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo, Bronzino, Michelangelo, Titian, Correggio, and Lorenzo Lotto.