ARTH 3440 Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Their World (VISST 3443)
C. Lazzaro
T/R 10:10 am – 11:25 am
This course examines Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael as a thinker as well as an artist, through their own writings together with their painting, sculpture, and architecture. Leonardo was extraordinary in the range of his studies of the nascent disciplines of anatomy, natural science, physics, mechanics, and engineering, all of which he brought to his paintings. Michelangelo invented grandiose projects for ambitious patrons and created a novel visual language with parallels to his poetry, and in his later years, profoundly spiritual images. Raphael, the consummate court artist, antiquarian, and archaeologist, produced a new classical style. All three studied the human body, represented the female nude, reinvented portraiture, shared the gender concerns of their time, and influenced the proliferation of erotic art. We consider recent attributions and discoveries, see some of their impact, and in one or two sessions in the Johnson museum, see related prints and works influenced by the three.
