Lux Et Veritas Academy Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 What are your best sources for the Italian Renaissance? Thanks in Advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon H in IL Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I keep coffee-table art books that I found at library sales. If you're reading a biography of one of the great artists, you really want to be able to point out details of his work. Why is Donatello's David so different from Michelangelo's? What do those differences show about them and their time? Can you take a trip to a local museum and do some sketching? There's nothing that demonstrates how wonderful a great artist is than trying to copy his work. Petrarch was really one of those pivotal characters in Italian history. I would see if I could find a biography of him. Maybe discuss the competition among the small city-states of the Italian penninsula and how that was a driving force behind their push to fund new architecture and art. How the arrival of Greek manuscripts from the recently fallen Constantinople (1453) stimulated a renewal of interest in the study of Greek, and the rallying cry of the renaissance "Ad Fontes!" (back to the fountain, i.e., Greek and Latin sources of culture). A wonderful book on the topic is Brunelleschi's Dome about the competition to create great architecture and how that desire drove technological innovation. Budding engineers might love this book as well as historians. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayle in Guatemala Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines The Art Book Diane Stanley's biographies of Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci Lives of the Artists Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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