Detailed Information

Memory And Mortality In Renaissance And Baroque Art

This evening lecture module examines death as a theme in European art during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.     

There will be three broad areas of study:

1)Death & Belief: covering portrayals of the Last Judgement, Danse Macabre, Vanitas, and other eschatological themes that illustrate responses to death and the afterlife in an age of religious reform. Artists covered include Giotto, Rogier van der Weyden, Michelangelo, Holbein, Bruegel, Rubens and Bernini.

2)Personalities & Effigies: individualistic responses to the nature of mortality with reference to the development of tomb monuments, effigies and memorial portraiture. Typical themes include Michelangelo's tomb designs, John Donne's monument at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and royal funerary effigies in France and England. We shall also look at how artists such as Titian responded to their own sense of professional identity in the context of ageing and mortality.

3)Decay & Dissection: artworks that reflect an increasingly rational and scientific understanding of the body as a vehicle for existence, particularly in the post-Reformation period. We shall look at the anatomical studies of Leonardo da Vinci, the portrayal of disease in Venetian renaissance painting, and Rembrandt's 'Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp'.

The course might possibly include a field trip to the National Gallery of Ireland

Dates Venue/Location Fee €
30 Jan 2018 to 13 Mar 2018 Belfield

120.00



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10 Mondays

18:00-20:00

 

Jan 22, 29

(No class bank holiday Feb 05) Feb 12, 19, 26

Mar 04, (No class Mar 11 & 18) 25

(No Class bank holiday Apr) Apr 08, 15, 22

  • Judgement, Heaven & Hell in Renaissance Painting
  • Devotional Art as a Comfort to the Dying
  • The Danse Macabre in Paintings and Prints
  • The Royal Tombs of Renaissance France
  • Memorials to the Artist in Renaissance Italy 
  • The Royal Funeral Effigies of Westminster Abbey
  • Tomb Design in Reformation England
  • English Images of Mourning
  • Art & Anatomy in 17thc Europe

The following is a selection of recommended texts for those interested in reading further around the course content. We advise that you do not buy books in advance of the course as your tutor will discuss the list and suggest the most relevant reading for particular interests.

 

Townsend, C., 'Death and Art: Europe 1200-1530', London, 2009.   

Aries, P., 'The Hour of Our Death', trans. Weaver, H., New York, 1981.  

Binski, P., 'Medieval Death – Ritual and Representation', London, 1996.  

Boase, T.S.R., 'Death in the Middle Ages: Mortality, Judgement and Remembrance', 1972.  

Cottrell, P. & Marx, W. (eds.), 'Death Burial and the Afterlife', Dublin 2014

Gittings, C., & Jupp, P.C., 'Death in England – An Illustrated History', Manchester, 1999.  

Llewellyn, N., 'The Art of Death – Visual Culture in The English Death Ritual c. 1500-1800', London, 1991. 

At the end of this course, a student should be able to:

  • demonstrate an appreciation and knowledge of the key artists and outline key images discussed on the module.
  • discuss, analyse and evaluate the form and function of death as a theme in early modern Europe.
  • relate portrayals of death to the social and historical context of the period.

The course will be lecture-led, with powerpoint images, and structured thematically with some opportunity for class discussion/questions. Handouts will be provided as a means of reinforcing material covered in class.

Dr Philip Cottrell is Head of School at UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy. He specialises in Venetian renaissance painting, but has also published on the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and the funeral monument of John Donne in St Paul’s Cathedral. He recently completed an ambitious database project at the National Portrait Gallery, London, that showcases the sketchbooks of its first director Sir George Scharf.