Baroque Rome and Italy

Students are responsible for all entry fees.

This course investigates the major developments in Italian painting, sculpture and architecture during the seventeenth century with a particular focus on the role of art patrons as catalysts for change. A range of patrons will be considered, from popes, cardinals, religious orders, and foreign kings, to scholars, nuns, widows, and a disinherited virgin queen. The range of motives that led these patrons to spend fortunes on art, their criteria for selecting artists to carry out their commissions, and the personal perspectives they brought to bear upon their direction of artistic endeavors are the primary issues that will be faced. More than half the class meetings will be on-site visits to examine relevant artworks in Rome.