Utilizing the growing scholarly interest in Global Art History, this course seeks to place the visual and material cultures of early modern Florence within a broader geographic scope. While Italian city-states like Venice, Genoa, and Pisa have long been studied as Mediterranean centers by art historians, Florence has typically been left out of this dialogue. The central impetus behind this course is to continue to revise the boundaries of the Renaissance, by connecting it to distant spaces with which it had historical contact, from Alexandria to the Americas. To do so we will use tools and intellectual frameworks garnered from a variety of fields, such as Anthropology, Geography, the History of Science, and Post-Colonial studies. The core question we pursue will be: How did the art and material culture of medieval and early modern Florence address spaces beyond its walls and in turn use these broader geographies to reinforce local concepts of civic identity?
Registration restriction: Instructor consent required. Priority given to art history majors, then minors.
Department: History of Art
Location: Florence
Semesters: Fall, Spring
Credits: 3