Art History 236 - The Global Renaissance

The traditionalist view of the Renaissance treats Europe as if it were an isolated hotbed of cultural innovation. This course will reconsider the period as one of intensifying cross-pollination, when European artists were deeply affected by contact with the Near and Far East, Africa, and the Americas. Specific topics will include representations of distant lands and peoples; the collecting of exotic materials; cartography and expanding world horizons; Venice and the Ottoman world; and the reception of classical architecture in Latin America. We will consider many facets of Renaissance visual culture--from paintings and buildings to maps, prints, and illustrated books--that framed these global crosscurrents.