Lusa-Hispanic Painting from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Eras

The main goal of this course is to analyze art. Focusing on aesthetics, we will learn to appreciate the differences between Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque painting. Regarding formal elements we will work on the use of lines, colors, proportions, and perspective. Artistic appreciation will be complemented with readings on historical and theoretical issues regarding the intersection between imperial power and religion, race, and ethnicity (Casta painting), mythology, the use of the body as a metaphor, still lifes, and Vanitas painting. The course will also include a chapter on art by ‘forgotten’ women, as well as a chapter on architecture, including Brazilian colonial monuments. Students will compare artistic manifestations from Portugal, Spain and the New World, and will be able to trace connections with contemporary art. Among artists included: El Greco, Clara Peeters, Velázquez, Josefa de Óbidos, Goya, Illescas and The Quito School of Art, Villalpando, Correa, and Cabrera (México), Aleijadinho, Zapata, Master of Calamarca and many anonymous painters from the Cusco School (Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia).