Early Modern Art History at the University of Chicago
"Early Modern" art history encompasses the European Renaissance and the Baroque, but the term itself also reflects vigorous debate within the field about how to understand the period of European art from around 1400 to around 1800. Is it a reaction against what came immediately before (the middle ages)? A revival of the deeper past (antiquity)? A harbinger of what was to come (modernity)? The Renaissance and Baroque forged and solidified a set of aesthetic ideals that would have enormous consequences in the centuries to come. The period was also a time of conflict over religion and over the proper status of images; of exploration, cross-cultural contact and colonial ambition; of rediscovery, inventiveness and ambiguity; of new ideas about the body, new media and genres, and new uses to which images and objects could be put, new ways they could be assembled. All this ferment - exploding into the pages of printed books, pamphlets, and images that reached larger audiences than ever before makes the field a challenging and exciting one to pursue.
Coursework
Because of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the field, classes often welcome students from other departments, such as English, Music, Divinity, Social Thought. Early modern art history students also frequently take classes in ancient, medieval, Islamic, African, Latin American, and modern art, and in other departments, including History, Music, English, and Romance Languages.
Language study
Language study is a crucial element of work in this area. Students will need at least one, generally two years of Latin (which can be taken while in residence) as well as German and Italian and/or French.
Courses offered in recent years
- High Renaissance Painting in Florence and Rome
- The Renaissance in Venice
- North Italian Painters: Lotto and Pordenone
- Giorgione: Connoisseurship and Meaning
- Roman Mannerism: Art and Historiography
- The Body in Renaissance Art
- The Devotional Body in Late Medieval/Renaissance Art
- Renaissance Neoplatonism
- Anachronism
- Early Modern Geographies of Art.
Other Opportunities
Students in early modern art history have had opportunities to collaborate with faculty on several exhibitions, which have also provided the possibility of a publication. Students are also encouraged to participate in Workshops sponsored by the Council on Advanced Study. These include Early Modern, Renaissance, and Western Mediterranean.