Renaissance Cities

1 October - 5 November

This six-week evening course takes a different European city each week and considers its contribution to the idea of the Renaissance in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Beginning with Florence, Bruges and Cologne we discuss the interrelationship of patrons and painters in these prosperous cities and look at how some of the social, scientific, literary and political contexts influenced the artistic production of the period. Participants will be encouraged to explore the stylistic differences between North and South and also to think about the influences that artists had on each other, through the transmission of styles and trade routes in Europe.

Moving on, we will consider developments in Venice, a city of splendid processions and display, examining the local and external influences on the particular style and production there. Influence from the East forms part of this session, as Venice, poised on the east coast of Italy, traded with Constantinople, Alexandria and beyond. The two final weeks take us to Rome and Antwerp, emerging powerhouses of the sixteenth century. Rome was dominated by the Papal court and full of wealth, splendour and competing artists, and Antwerp was a bustling mercantile metropolis of the North. Taken together, these six cities provide a way of exploring the geography of the Renaissance as well as its artists, styles and subjects.