Spend the Summer in Florence
June 9 - August 1, 2008
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15th and 16th Century Florence: Rethinking the Renaissance
Instructor: Liliana Leopardi
Credits: 3 Units
The 15th and 16th centuries in Florence were a time of great contradictions: they began with the rise of the powerful merchant family of the Medici and ended with the burning at the stake of the Dominican friar Savonarola. In this course students will explore the complexities, innovations, and magnificence of two centuries of history through its visual production: architecture, painting, sculpture, costume, ornaments, etc. The principal goal is to challenge the established understanding of Renaissance Florence as a cohesive and homogenous phenomenon and search for and construct our notion of Florence’s aesthetic language and identity.
Beyond the assigned textbooks, our visual guide will be the city of Florence. Lectures will be complemented by twice weekly visits to the city’s monuments. Students will be asked to support their visual learning with readings of original sources including Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo, Benvenuto Cellini (a bibliography will be available prior to departure for Italy). Students will be encouraged to construct their own trajectory of study and inquiry, and will be encouraged to explore those issues that best reflect their interests and inclinations.
Students taking this course must also register for Drawing Then and Now: An Extension.
Drawing Then and Now: An Extension
Instructor: Regan Wheat
Credits: 6 Units
During the Renaissance, the Italian term disegno came to mean the act of bodying forth the creative idea using line...
This course is designed to investigate the principle elements of drawing and to extend the body of the form beyond that of line on a page. Students will explore drawing’s relationship to objects, installation, time-based mediums, and documentation. Classical drawing will serve as the foundation for more experimental and extended ways of conceiving of and making drawings. Through a series of structured exercises, students will learn to locate themselves within an art historical context and to use this rich history as a field from which to draw inspiration for contemporary works. Students will carry out research for project-based work in the museums, churches, piazzas & markets of Florence. Drawing on site and in the studio will be supported by slide lectures and readings. Students will end the course with a knowledge of the conceptual and theoretical discourse surrounding drawing as well as an extended practical vocabulary for “bodying forththe creative idea.”
This course is open to students with previous drawing experience or permission of the instructor.
Students taking this course must also register for Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Florence: Rethinking the Renaissance.
Introduction to Architectural Design: Intersections of Art and Architecture in Florence
Instructor: Igor Marjanovic Credits: 3 Units
This studio-based course explores the interaction of 2D and 3D design in the context of Florentine art and architecture. Through a site-specific architectural project, the course focuses on creative processes shared across different design disciplines and humanities. The project is initiated with an in-depth study of a specific historic building, which is then transformed through a series of textual, visual and material translations. New architectural proposals are generated through imaginative design processes that emphasize spatial experimentation, craft, and critical thinking. The work is assessed through a series of critical dialogues, illuminating the broader discourse about the role of history in architectural design. Readings and in-class discussions are used to develop a shared vocabulary for discussing art and architecture. Course requirements include studio work, presentations, critiques and field trips.
Open to all students:
This course is open to students interested in a major or minor in architecture (pending successful portfolio review at the end of the course), as well as all other students interested in architecture and the built environment. There are no prerequisites for this course.
