Art History 525
Proseminar: Italian Renaissance and Baroque Collections

The inspiration for this class was the arrival of the exhibition "Natura Morta: Still-Life Painting and the Medici Collections" from 25 August through 31 October 2007. In addition, Memorial Library's Special Collections has a simultaneous exhibition, "Under the Medicean Stars: Medici Patronage of Science and Natural History, 1537-1737," guest curated by Meghan Doherty, Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art.

The opportunity to examine the configuration of two collections, the visiting one of still life painting and the other, a UW rare scientific books exhibit, both brought about by a single, if extended family of patrons was too good to pass by. Hence this pro-seminar. We shall look at the continuity of interests found in Medici support of both the sciences and the fine arts throughout their residence in Florence between the 15th and the 18th centuries. Many names stand out including patrons, artists, writers, scientists and philosophers but all shared the excitement of discovery and the production of scientific and artistic expression.

In addition to the Medici family collections we also shall examine a range of others including papal collections of antiquities, northern Italian court paintings, Venetian civic and private commissions, and the promotion of the arts those sometimes without funding but with great ingenuity in producing collections nonetheless.