Cooper Union

Renaissance Art in Northern Europe: 1350-1550

This course will provide a detailed introduction to sculpture, painting, and architecture in Bohemia, France, Germany, and the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) between 1350 and 1550. Art and architecture will be analyzed in relation to devotional practices, political policies, and social life. Students will be able to relate the individual works to patronage conditions and to pertinent social, religious, political, and philosophical movements through major artists, such as the Limbourg Brothers, Claus Sluter, Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Baldung the Grien. The cross-cultural exchange that occurred between Italy and lands north of the Alps during the Renaissance will be examined. Artworks reflecting globalization introduced via the commencement of the Portuguese slave trade in the 1480s, as well as trade between northern Europe and the Far East will also be analyzed in this course.

2 credits.

Course Code: HTA 315

Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.
“My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”
From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.
Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.