We owe the Italian Renaissance picture more than the ideal human figure. Experiments in figuration, whether they involve contour or sfumato, cannot exist without ground, here understood in three senses of the word: first, the preparation of a given support (such as a gesso ground on panel); second, the plane on which figures stand; and third, the field in and against which figuration occurs.... Read more about Thursday Seminar “Point, Ground, Figure, Field”
From Tupinambá anthropophagi to ‘bloodthirsty Aztecs’ or ‘child-killing Incas’, American (human) sacrifices flooded the European imagination in the sixteenth century. In Europe, these images interacted with a heated debate about salvation, the Eucharist, and the role of sacrifice within Christianity.... Read more about Sacrifice and Conversion between Europe and the New World
Renaissance doctors, philosophers, theologians, poets, and musicians understood that all sensible experiences of time and space were linked, to a certain extent, to the cosmic order by a universal harmony, an astral-magic rhythm that influenced everything from the rotation of the planets down to the musicality of the pulse.... Read more about Thursday Seminar “Titian and the Skies of Tomorrow”