This course reframes Florence not as an isolated cradle of a European Renaissance, but as a city shaped by global exchanges across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Islamic world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Organized around oceans and maritime routes, it traces how objects, images, and materials traveled across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific worlds and entered Florentine visual culture.
Students follow these global networks beginning with Florence and the Arno River, examining luxury goods, maps, scientific instruments, textiles, porcelain, and artworks shaped by new commodities like coffee, sugar, and chocolate. The course situates Florence within the global Baroque, highlighting the rise of Amsterdam and London and Florence’s adaptations, including the development of Livorno.
Weekly site visits to Florentine museums and collections allow students to study global objects firsthand. Through close looking and material analysis, the course positions Florence as a dynamic hub of artistic exchange whose global connections remain visible today.
This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.
Department: History of Art
Location: Florence
Semesters: Fall, Spring
Credits: 3