European Art of the High Renaissance: Raphael to Dürer

Explore a remarkable period in European art and architecture. Expert lecturers will bring to life Renaissance art and artists of the sixteenth century, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Dürer and Bruegel.

On this history of art course discover how this period, from its beginnings in Italy, came to affect the whole of Europe, with innovations in Renaissance painting, sculpture and architecture. Vasari, the first modern art historian, recorded the activities of his contemporaries and contributed to their long-term celebrity. Although an admirer of the High Renaissance, he was working in the new and more elaborate court style, known as Mannerism. It was this style that was later taken up in the courts of northern Europe, although the results were very different from those in Italy. The most important new development was printing, and illustrated books and prints by Dürer and his contemporaries made images familiar to a wide audience, as well as providing sources for design and ornament. Printed books and pamphlets would play a central role in spreading new religious ideas during the Reformation period.