Mimesis in the Art and Thought of the Renaissance
Faculty:
In this course, we explore the visual arts and intellectual culture in Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany from the 14th to the 16th centuries. How did the world become vividly visible and representable? How did the arts gain unprecedented cultural significance? How did artists invent new ways of depicting gods, nature, and individuals? How did painters debate and compete with poets, musicians, and sculptors? Reflections on mimesis – understood as the complex process of studying and representing reality – in philosophy and artistic theory help us to discuss these questions. We engage with Renaissance paintings, sculptures, and graphic works alongside contemporary texts – treatises, dialogues, biographies, poems, and Inquisition trial transcripts – that form the central course readings. This allows us to examine how images and texts respond to and illuminate each other. Finally, we share our opinions about which values, ideas, and achievements of the Renaissance remain relevant in the present.
Guidelines for the Statement of Purpose:
Craft a reflective statement of purpose explaining your interest in the Smolny Beyond Borders online course. The file should be saved with your name and course title as the filename and uploaded accordingly. Your statement’s clarity and substance will significantly influence our selection. Convey your motivations and aspirations for this course succinctly but thoroughly. Kindly write your statement in the course’s Language of Instruction. Please, do not use any AI tools to write or translate the text.