A History of Art and Civilization: The Renaissance and Baroque Periods

PREFACE

The Pursuit of Beauty
Creating a Picture of the Past
Understanding the Nature of Art
Discovering Our Long Lost Selves
Making a Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Past

CHAPTER 1: THE NEW WORLD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND LATE MEDIEVAL ART
Historical Overview
The Early Renaissance
Historical Overview
The Philosophy of Humanism
Petrarch, First Renaissance Man
Petrarch’s Love Poetry
Late Medieval Painting and Sculpture and the “Proto-Renaissance”
Historical Overview
The Training of Artists
The Gothic International Style
Late Medieval Sculpture
The Revolution of Giotto, First Renaissance Painter
The Florentine Renaissance
Historical Overview
The Rising Status of the Artist
The Artistic Innovations of the Renaissance
Masaccio
Ghiberti’s Doors
Brunelleschi’s Dome
The Sculpture of Donatello
The Medici Era
Historical Overview
The Paintings of Paolo Uccello and Fra Angelico
Lorenzo the Magnificent
The Humanism of Pico della Mirandola
The Paintings of Botticelli
Savonarola
Think about It

CHAPTER 2: THE HIGH AND LATE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
The High Renaissance
Historical Overview
The Notorious Niccolo Machiavelli
Machiavelli’s The Prince
The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo’s Paintings
The Magnificent Michelangelo
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo’s Later Works
Raphael
Castiglione’s Courtier
The Venetian Renaissance
Historical Overview
Venetian Architecture and Painting
The Paintings of Giorgione and Titian
Mannerism
Historical Overview
Mannerist Painting
The Sculpture of Cellini
Women’s Voices: Renaissance Women Painters
Think about It

CHAPTER 3: THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION AND THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH
The Protestant Reformation
Historical Overview
The “Heresies” of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus
The Invention of Printing with Moveable Type
Erasmus
Martin Luther, The Great Dissenter
The Peasant’s Revolt
The Reformation in Switzerland and the Anabaptists
Calvinism
The Renaissance and Reformation in France
Historical Overview
The Renaissance of Francis I
The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1598
Montaigne
The Reformation in England
Historical Overview
The Reign of Henry VIII
The Fate of Henry’s Wives
The Art of the Low Countries and Germany
Historical Overview
The Style of Northern Art
The Art of Jan Van Eyck and Robert Campin
Albrecht Dürer
The Isenheim Altarpiece of Matthias Grünewald
The Landscapes of Albrecht Altdorfer
The Portraits of Hans Holbein
The Netherlandish Painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel
The Camera Obscura
Think about It

CHAPTER 4: THE ELIZABETHAN AGE AND RENAISSANCE MUSIC
The Elizabethan Age
Historical Overview
Portraits from the Past: Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”
Mary Queen of Scots
The Spanish Armada
Uncovering the Past: The Salvage of the Tudor Warship, the Mary Rose
Elizabethan Art, Literature, and Drama
Historical Overview
Elizabethan Theater
Edmund Spenser’s Fairie Queene
Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus
The Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare
Historical Overview
The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays
Puzzles from the Past: The “Shakespeare Controversy”
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
The Plays
The Comedies
The History Plays
The Tragedies
The Tragedy of Hamlet
Renaissance Music
Historical Overview
Renaissance Secular Music
Renaissance Composers
Elizabethan Music
Think about It

CHAPTER 5: THE AGE OF EXPLORATION AND CONQUEST AND THE PRE-COLUMBIAN AND AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS
The Age of Exploration
Historical Overview
Christopher Columbus’ Journey of Discovery
The Legacy of Columbus
The Pre-Columbian Civilizations and the Spanish Conquest
Historical Overview
The Maya
The Aztecs
The Conquest of Cortez
The Moche and Nazca
The Inca
Pizarro’s Conquest of the Incas
Uncovering the Past: The Lost City of Macchu Picchu
The Slave Trade and African Civilization
Historical Overview
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
African Civilizations
African Art
African Sculpture
The Search for a Northwest Passage
The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke
Think about It

CHAPTER 6: THE COUNTER-REFORMATION, THE CULTURE OF JAPAN, AND THE BAROQUE PERIOD IN ITALY AND SPAIN
The Counter-Reformation
Historical Overview
The Jesuits
The Inquisition
The Age of Missionaries
The Native Americans of La Florida
East Meets West: The Religion, Art, and Culture of Japan
Historical Overview
Japanese Painting and Literature
Samurai Japan
The Jesuits in Japan and China
Baroque Art and Architecture in Italy
Historical Overview
Bernini, the “Michelangelo of the Baroque”
St. Peter’s Basilica
The Architecture of Borromini
The Naturalism of Caravaggio
Women’s Voices: Artemisia Gentileschi
The Carracci
The Baroque in Spain
The Spanish Inquisition: Historical Overview
The Decline of Spanish Power
Toledo and the El Escorial
Cervantes’ Don Quixote
Women’s Voices: Sor Juana de la Cruz
Spanish Painting: Historical Overview
The Mystical Paintings of El Greco
The Art of Velazquez
Think about It

CHAPTER 7: THE BAROQUE IN NORTHERN EUROPE
The Baroque in Flanders and the Netherlands
Historical Overview
The Rise of Dutch Capitalism
Dutch Painting
Peter Paul Rubens, the “Titian of the Baroque”
The Art of Portraiture
The Portraits of Frans Hals and Anthony van Dyck
Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt’s Art
Vermeer
The Baroque in England
Historical Overview: The English Civil War
The Radical John Milton
Paradise Lost
The Metaphysical Poets
Historical Overview
The Life of John Donne
The Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry
The English Settlement of North America
Historical Overview
Puzzles from the Past: Death at Jamestown
The Rise of Tobacco
The Arrival of the Pilgrims
The Puritans’ “Errand into the Wilderness”
The Salem Witch Trials
The Baroque in France
Historical Overview
Nicholas Poussin, the “Raphael of the Baroque”
The Paintings of Claude Lorrain
Georges de la Tour
Think about It

CHAPTER 8: THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM AND BAROQUE MUSIC
The Age of Absolutism
Historical Overview
The Ideology of Absolutism
Portraits from the Past: The Sun King, Louis XIV
The Magnificence of Versailles Palace
Daily Life at Versailles
The Comedies of Moliere
The End of Absolutism in England
Historical Overview
Thomas Hobbes, the English Machiavelli
The Theories of John Locke
The Glorious Revolution
The Formation of a Constitutional Monarchy
English Architecture
The Age of Absolutism in the East
Historical Overview
The Ottoman Empire
The Mughal Empire and the Taj Mahal
The English in India
Baroque Music
Historical Overview
The Concerto
Antonio Vivaldi, the “Red Priest”
The Birth of Opera
The Oratorio, Cantata, Sonata, and Fugue
The Flamboyant George Frederick Handel
Johann Sebastian Bach
Think about It

INDEX