Revisiting The Renaissance: The Key Ingredients of a Cultural Transformation, 1400-1600, Part 1: Lost and Recovered: Ancient Texts, from Plato and Aristotle to Seneca and Lucretius
Aneta Georgievska-Shine, professor of art history, University of Maryland

 What were some of the crucial factors that shaped the visual arts of the Renaissance? Though we may think that the answers to this old question are well known, they are neither simple nor as clear as one might anticipate. The growth of wealth among merchants and other commoners was certainly one important social development that had consequences for the culture. Another was the rediscovery of the classical world – both in a literary and a visual sense. Yet another was the gradual introduction of secular subjects and themes… or was this a consequence of the other two trends? In this series of five lectures, we look at these and other aspects of social and cultural changes that led to an unprecedented flourishing in the visual arts of the Renaissance. While we will focus on Italy, we will also compare the visual culture of its artistic centers to developments in other parts of Europe.

Part 1:  Lost and Recovered: Ancient Texts, from Plato and Aristotle to Seneca and Lucretius

Part 2:  A Noble Art: How Painting Gradually Won its Place Among the Liberal Arts

Part 3:  Painting as a Form of Knowledge, Science and Philosophy

Part 4:  From the Sacred to the Secular: The Role of Patrons

Part 5:  The Creation of an Ideal and its Aftermath: Classicism and Counter-Classicism

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