The Literature of Italian Renaissance Art will survey the major
literary works on art by Italian artists during the Renaissance
period. While it is common knowledge that Italian painters, sculptors,
and architects produced some of the greatest masterpieces in their
fields during this period, it is less known that they also wrote some
of the most influential works on the history of art, on discussions of
the definition of artistic creativity, and on artistic biographies.
Works to be examined include:  Cellini’s My Life; Vasari’s
Lives of the Artists; Cennini’s The Craftsman’s
Handbook; Alberti’s On Painting; Michelangelo’s poetry; Da
Vinci’s notebooks; and Carlo Ridolfi’s Life of Titian.
Discussions of the literary or historical works in class will be
combined with analyses of a number of the works of art mentioned in
the texts.