Specialized courses offered periodically on specific aspects of the art of the early modern world. Courses are normally research-led topics on an area of current academic concern.
May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.

Satisfies "the Early Modern World" core course requirement for Art History majors

The course focuses on the social agency of women in artistic professions and patronage in the early modern period (c. 1500-1750), taking advantage of an abundance of new scholarship of the Italian context. Through case studies of individual artists and patrons, the course will examine how women negotiated their professional presence, especially in the homosocial spaces of academies that were increasingly important for instruction and theorization. Some of the artists and patrons under study include Isabella d’Este, Sofinisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, and Queen Christina of Sweden.

In the first weeks, the course establishes a framework for understanding how women produced and commissioned art in early modern Europe, considering the spaces and methods of art production, while also examining questions of privilege as a consequence of economic status. Individual case studies will then be explored in depth, focusing upon artists for whom there is a considerable amount of biographical information and body of works, while also introducing several artists who have been the subjects of very recent research. The activities and collections of prominent women as patrons will also be examined. Students will have the opportunity to conduct research on works by women artists displayed in Rome and other Italian collections.

·       Historical understanding of how gender identity affected the creation and collection of art

·       Acquisition of methods for analyzing issues of identity in visual representation

·       Familiarity with fundamental scholarship and new research on early modern women artists

·       Skills in undertaking research from primary sources, including direct observation of works of art and architecture.

·       An understanding of the challenges of engaging research on early modern women artists and patrons and knowledge of the methods for beginning research on little-known artists

·       Ability to communicate historical issues that involve the analysis of gender through papers and class presentations

NOTE: A full syllabus with list of readings and writing assignments will be posted to the course Moodle page for registered students.

Week 1 (Jan 15-17):

Course Introduction:

Art making and collecting as gendered practices

Histories of art and the erasure of the presence of women

Week 2 (Jan 22 – 24):

Convents and a Women’s Sphere of Art Production

Week 3 (Jan 29 – 31):

Modes of training: the father’s studio, the bottega and the academy

Week 4 (Feb 5 – 7 – 9):

Materials, media, and the invention of a “feminine” sphere

Week 5 (Feb 12 – 14):

Women as Patrons

Week 6 (Feb 19 – 21):

Review for Midterm Exam and Midterm Exam

SPRING BREAK FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 1

Week 7 (March 4 – 6):

Sofonisba Anguissola and Plautilla Nelli

Week 8 (March 11 – 13):

Lavinia Fontana, Fede Galizia and Giovanna Garzoni

Week 9 (March 18 – 20):

Artemisia Gentileschi

Week 10 (March 25 – 27):

Elisabetta Sirani and her studio

Week 11 (April 1; HOLIDAY Apr 3):

Plautilla Bricci, the first known woman in European architectural practice

Week 12 (Apr 8 – 10):

Printmakers: Diana Mantuana, Veronica Fontana, Laura Piranesi, and others

Week 13 (Apr 15 – 17)

Rosalba Carriera

Angelika Kaufmann and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in Italy 

Week 14 (Apr 22 – 24):

Research Presentations

Review for Final Examination