Music and Performing Arts

The late sixteenth to mid eighteenth century was an age of rapid intellectual, cultural and political change, a time of confessional conflict, scientific awakening and both republican government and absolutist monarchy. It was also an era rich in artistic achievement with some of its luminaries, Caravaggio, Bernini, Claude, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer establishing themselves among the foremost artists of the European tradition. This course will explore representative artists from the Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch schools, both revisiting glorious masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and architecture, and exploring lesser-known works that speak just as eloquently of their time. Your focus will shift from small panel paintings to huge fresco programmes; from intimate works to declamatory statements of power and prestige; from quiet spiritual meditations to rambunctious affirmations of earthly pleasures; from moral warnings of life's brevity to confident expressions of bourgeois sufficiency. In short, material as diverse and fascinating as the age itself.