ART 485-01, Senior Seminar, Spring 2000

Abstract

This course will introduce students to advanced critical methods of art history through an extensive examination of the Renaissance sculptor, Donatello. Donatello is one of the most famous and important Renaissance artists, and is also one of the most difficult figures of the period for the art historian to analyze. Students will be introduced to the biography of the artist, the sculptures associated with him, his influence on followers, and his impact on the history of art. Students will fully engage themselves with an extensive bibliography, intensive critical debates, and critical issues of iconography, connoisseurship, patronage, and the contextualization of Donatello’s works. A crucial aspect of the course is to learn how art historians select objects and subjects for research, how they investigate works of art, and how they employ different methodologies in the course of critical analysis.