HYBRID IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROGRAM

Rethinking Italian Renaissance Art - Part I: Old Masters, New Lenses

Kerr Houston, professor of art history, theory and criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art

Reception 10:30 - 11:00 am

Between 1300 and 1600, Italian artists produced some of the most celebrated works in the history of art. In recent decades, however, art historians have offered a range of compelling new ways of thinking about these old favorites. Drawing on feminist theory, reception theory, queer studies, and critical race theory, scholars have enriched our understanding of how Italian art was conceived and received in its time - and of what it means to us today. We will discuss examples by Giotto, Donatello, Pollaiuolo, Michelangelo, and lesser-known works.

Following an overview of the most influential early art historical approaches to the Italian Renaissance, the first lecture in the series will turn to the methodological ideas that have re-shaped the field over the past generation. We’ll consider the recent material turn, focusing on a provocative re-reading of Giotto’s canonical Scrovegni Chapel, frescoes by Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, and we’ll look at recent analyses of the associations of cast bronzes and woven carpets in a range of Renaissance contexts. We’ll also investigate the impact of queer theory in exploring several revisionist studies of gender and sexuality in Renaissance Italy including Adrian Randolph’s work on Donatello’s enigmatic David. In sum, this lecture will offer a detailed sense of how evolving scholarly interests and angles of analysis have shed new light on the work of some of the best-known artists of the Trecento and the Quattrocento.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)