ARTH 440: RS: Advanced Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art

ARTH 440-001: Creating Value: Making and Selling Art in Early Modern Europe
(Fall 2021)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM R

Art & Design Building L008

Section Information for Fall 2021

What makes a work of art “valuable”?  How does the cultural and social significance of a work relate to its price?  How did artists carve out niches in a growing art market by generating distinctive products?  This seminar examines concepts of value in the art of Early Modern Europe by addressing these questions.  We will examine the historical conditions that made possible for a wider spectrum of the population to purchase works of art.  We will then consider how individuals constructed social identities through artistic consumption in this period.  We will also investigate how artists such as Mantegna, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian negotiated the system of patronage in Renaissance Italy.  Working for prominent families in the communes and the noble courts, they created works that communicated specific artistic, cultural, and political values to a diverse audience.  This period saw the rise of a market for finished works of art in parts of Europe.  Focusing on Netherlandish artists such as the Brueghel family, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, we will explore how artists adopted different creative and marketing strategies in an increasingly complex market.  This course will also ask how the production of copies, spin-offs, and forgeries can, paradoxically, tell us about the changing value of originality in this period.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Studies a particular aspect of Renaissance or baroque art. Topics may be monographic, thematic, or concentrated on the art of a smaller time period or a particular area. Notes: May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term.
Specialized Designation: Research/Scholarship Intensive, Topic Varies, Writing Intensive in Major
Recommended Prerequisite: ENGH 302 and 6 credits in Art History at the 300 level, or permission of instructor.
Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18, Seminar
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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