Learn about the inspirational work of the leading European painters from approximately 1400 to 1800, and explore the issues expressed through the art of painting. Included in this broad time frame are the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Goya.

Painters during this period were concerned with ideas such as the pursuit of beauty, the pleasures and pains associated with love, the demonstration of power and status, or the relationship of men and women to the divinity and to nature. In paintings from this period, we find traces of the emergence of the modern mind set, and perspective on issues such as the respective roles of women and men in the world.

This course focuses on images of paintings by the artists listed in the course syllabus. The discussions that will take place in the “course forum” will allow us to touch upon a broader range of issues.