Topic 1: In his book titled Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Florence, art historian Michael Baxandall writes: “The client paid for the work, then as now, but he allotted his funds in a fifteenth- century way and this could affect the character of the painting. (…) Money is very important in the history of art.” (1). Using two artworks made between 15th and 16th centuries as your case studies, explore Baxandall’s claim and analyze the extent to which private art commissions fueled the development of Renaissance art.
Topic 2: The ideas of Counter Reformation, which were first formulated during the Council of Trent (1545-1563), had a major influence on the stylistic and thematic development of European art during the subsequent decades. Analyze the impact of Counter Reformation on 17th-century European art using two examples of works discussed in class. Please make sure to support your analysis using at least two secondary sources.
