ARTH 311 - (D,CA) Medieval and Renaissance Women

3 cr.

This topics course explores various ways of looking at Italian medieval and Renaissance women in text and image. Primary texts by Hildegard von Bingen, Giovanni Boccaccio, Christine de Pisan, Leonbattista Alberti and Baldassare Castiglione will be studied for the light they shed on the notion and nature of woman. Great emphasis will be placed on in-class analysis of images, and a field trip to the Italian Renaissance collection of the Metropolitan Museum, NYC, will enable students to apply skills of visual analysis.