This course is an introduction to Renaissance Art in Tuscany, by exploring in depth the historical, political and cultural evolution of Siena and Florence between the 14th and the early 16th centuries. This overview will be not confined to works of art but will include social and patronage issues - i.e. the role of the guilds, the differences in private, civic and church patronage - that affected  the style, form and content of the Italian rich artistic output, which reached a peak often nostalgically referred to by later generations as the “golden age”. Attention will be focused on the way art evolved in the most important artistic centres of Tuscany and will also be placed on the ways that cities diversities during this period created a range of distinct styles and "schools".

The course analyzes the historical and social background of the beginning of the early Renaissance during the XIV century (i.e. Giotto, Simone Martini and Lorenzetti brothers) and the impact of the Black Plague on art and patronage.  It then focuses on the early XV century art in Florence and Siena (investigating Brunelleschi’s, Donatello’s and Masaccio’s achievements), and deals with the Medici’s and Pius II Piccolomini’s age at the middle of the XV century (i.e. Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio and Francesco di Giorgio Martini). Lastly it analyzes the beginning of the ‘golden Age’ of Renaissance during the papacies of Pius III Piccolomini and Leo X Medici, specifically focusing on Leonardo da Vinci, Bernardino Pinturicchio, Raffaello Sanzio, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sodoma and Beccafumi.

As the Renaissance works are often still in their original physical settings, during field-studies to museums and churches in Florence and Siena, students will have a unique opportunity to experience the works as their original viewers did and as their creators intended.