In the brochure this class got sort of
short-listed, in the sense that it just
says "Renaissance to Revolution" and kind
of dropped the subtitle. But the "history
through art" is really kind of the
critical part of it. And I guess what I
want to say about this is that this
course, this art history course, is
really about that kind of intersection
between history and art and in many ways
about the function that art has played
in historical situations. And so there
are these three -- I would call them
configurations -- of the relationship
between history and art. The first of
them is instances where art reflected or
even celebrated historical developments.
And I'm taking in in this course i'm
taking historical cultural movements and
using them is as kind of case studies
for how these relationships work. So for
art that reflects, celebrates history the
two periods we're doing is the Italian
Renaissance and art of the Enlightenment.
And in both of these instances these were
cultural movements that really had a
philosophical origin, and what you get
with the artists, the painters
in both of these movements is
manifestation of those philosophies and
those attitudes -- the kind of new
outlooks that were presented in the
Renaissance and the Enlightenment in their
paintings, in their artwork. And the second
main configuration you see with art is
instances where artists resist
historical developments, where they... a
form of protest, often. So our two
instances of this would be with the
Counter-Reformation: the Baroque art where
Catholic artists were reacting, were
protesting, against the kind of new
Protestant austerity and the
castigation of great religious art. And
and instead of
modifying, toning down their art, their
response was to create the most
exuberant, the most splendiferous art
ever. Kind of over-the-top: if you think
of Rubens for instance. And then in
another instance of this this protest,
this resistance: the fact that in the 19th
century in response to the Industrial
Revolution where artists -- and there are
two ways in which you see --
one, art of nature where it's
ironic that in the time of
industrialization, that is the Golden Age
of landscape painting. And so that's if...
And what this course is kind of about
is how these the connections between the
these manifestations and historical
moments. And the other instance of this
this resistance was in, you
you see... Oh excuse me, I got ahead of
myself. Got a little worked up. The third
configuration that want to talk about is
instances where what you have is artists
who are actually undertaking to make
history, to create history, to use their
art to effect historical change. And the
first instance of this that we'll be
looking at is in the time of the
Reformation, when there are
artists, people like Lucas Chranach or
Albrecht Dürer who are using woodcuts...
woodcuts that allow them to have the
first art that was directed to ordinary
people as opposed to the elite and the
the aristocratic level of society,
and seeking to really kind of
influence the way in which people
thought. It's said about the
Reformation that the key element was the
print revolution, and actually the thing
is that -- seeing as most Europeans were
illiterate  -- where this really played a
part was in terms of these woodcuts
because ordinary people could see these
and see the contrast between the
Protestant piety and the worldliness
that had developed in the Catholic
church. And then we're going to wrap
things up in going back to the 19th
century in which where you get artists
who are really kind of advancing what you
would call the nationalist agenda where
you have these artists  from
different countries glorifying their
country's history and helping to develop
a sense of national identity and
national pride. An instance of this that
[unclear]
we're all familiar with: Washington
Crossing the Delaware. It's not exactly
what it would have looked like but the
artist conveyed a sense of the spirit of
the American Revolution and the American
spirit. So on the syllabus... I should say
on the website in the syllabus... it shows
that there is required reading. That
actually was a vestige from a time in
which this course was done in an
academic setting.
it's only recommended reading. So in
two weeks we're going to be here again
with -- as Michael said -- with this
great wonderful large screen in this
great setting and we're going to be busy
making history through art. I hope you
can join. Thank you.
