Step 1: Watch this lecture introducing this week’s material (7 mins.):
Step 2: Watch this video about Michelangelo and Raphael and some of their works (15 mins.):
Step 3: Read the first few pages of Chapter 15 of the textbook (pp. 501-516) and spend some good time looking at the art in these pages.
Step 4: Respond to these questions:
Question 1: Why did Renaissance-era popes commission so much non-religious art?
Question 2: Which work from this section by Michelangelo or Raphael (seen in the textbook and/or the video) is your favorite? Why?
Section 2: Machiavelli and Music
Step 1: Watch this video on Machiavelli and his legacy (5 mins.):
Step 2: Read the next few pages of Chapter 15 of the textbook (pp. 516-519) and the Machiavelli excerpts on pp. 538-539.
Step 3: Respond to the following questions:
Question 1: Summarize the main lessons you picked up from Chapters 15-18 of The Prince.
Question 2: Do you agree or disagree with Machiavelli’s ideas on how leaders should act? Use an example of another leader or thinker from this semester to support your answer.
Section 3: Venice
Step 1: Go to Venice. It’s incredible. If you don’t have time this week, watch this video showing off the city and its architecture (4 mins.):
Step 2: Read the Venice sections of Chapter 15 of the textbook (pp. 520-527 and pp. 531-535).
Step 3: Listen to this example of a polyphonic madrigal by Adrian Willaerts (5 mins.):
Step 4: Respond to the following questions:
Question 1: How did Venice’s geography influence its art and architecture in the Renaissance?
Question 2: What did polyphonic music like this (consisting of multiple sounds in seeming opposition to each other) bring to the table that wasn’t there before?
Section 4: Renaissance Women
Step 1: Read the remaining pages of Chapter 15 of the textbook (pp. 527-531).
Step 2: Respond to the following questions:
Question 1: Compare and contrast Laura Cereta’s and Lucretia Marinella’s approaches to feminism. Cite lines from their works to support your answer.
Section 5: Analyzing Masterpieces
Step 1: Watch this video showing a historical analysis of Raphael’s School of Athens (5 mins.):
Step 2: Watch this video showing a visual/formal analysis of Bellini’s Madonna of the Meadow (10 mins.):
Step 3: Read the “visual/formal analysis questions” in the Week 12 folder of Course Content.
Step 4: Study Our Lady of the Phonepoles (by Michael Sokolis) in the Week 12 folder of Course Content. (image courtesy of the Orange County Register)
Step 5: Respond to the following questions:
Question 1: Combine the historical and formal/visual analytic techniques you have learned to analyze Our Lady of the Phonepoles, a recent (2007) painting from Southern California, in a short essay of at least 250 words. What do you get out of this painting?
Question 2: What’s a work of art from the last 20 years (of any medium – book, TV, film, music, etc.) that you think will survive the test of time and be hailed as a masterpiece in the future? Why?
Section 6: Submit Assignment
Step 1: Once you have answered the questions in sections 1-5, submit this assignment by Sunday.