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Buy 2 or more classes at the same time and save 25% off the total.

Four Davids, Four Great Sculptures – Purchase At Door

$50.00

Instructor: Lynn Ostling
Thursdays, January 9, 16, and 23, 3:00 – 5:00 PM, East Rec
3-week session. Cost. $50

Course Description:
The rediscovery of the beauty of the human form is a hallmark of Italian Renaissance art. In this series, presented by retired Art History professor Lynn M. Ostling, our exploration of this topic is built around four significant works of sculpture, all featuring the same individual: the Old Testament figure of David. These pieces serve as a springboard for discussion of the work of sculptors Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Bernini, and the role these artists played in the development of Renaissance and Baroque representations of the human body.

Course Web Description:
The art of the Italian Renaissance, beginning around 1400, is memorable for many innovations including a rediscovery of the beauty of the human form. In this series, presented by retired Art History professor Lynn M. Ostling, our exploration of this topic is built around four significant works of sculpture, all featuring the same individual: the Old Testament figure of David. These pieces serve as a springboard for discussion of Renaissance and Baroque representations of the human body.

The three-session series begins with the fifteenth-century artists Donatello and Verrocchio, both of whom created life-sized bronze sculptures of David. We explore the art of Donatello in the first half of the 1400s, and contrast it with Verrocchio’s work in the later part of the century. Our second session focuses on the greatest sculptor of the 1500s, Michelangelo. From his colossal marble David, created when he was still in his 20s, to his poignant last pieces at the age of 89, Michelangelo redefined our understanding of the human form. The third session takes us into the 1600s, when the youthful Bernini reinterpreting the story of David in an entirely new way. We will find that Bernini’s vigorous creativity, as well as his tremendous output as a sculptor and architect, virtually reshaped the city of Rome in the Baroque era.

Week One: The Bronze Davids

Introduction to early Renaissance art

  • innovative ideas in the early Renaissance: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi
  • the rediscovery of contrapposto: Masaccio’s paintings
  • the story of David and Goliath from the Old Testament
  • symbolic significance in Florence of David as the scrappy underdog
  • the Medici family in Florence; Verrocchio’s portrait of Lorenzo

Overview of Donatello’s work

  • early work: St. Mark, St. George
  • the bronze David in depth
  • later work: Zuccone, Gattamelata, Magdalene

Verrocchio’s new approach

  • comparison of Verrocchio’s David with Donatello’s
  • other works by Verrocchio: Colleoni, St. Thomas
  • Renaissance bronze-casting techniques
  • Leonardo da Vinci as Verrocchio’s apprentice; the Baptism

Week Two:  Michelangelo’s Colossus

Early work by Michelangelo

  • Madonna of the Stairs
  • the freestanding Bacchus
  • the Rome Pieta

The marble David

  • a new approach: before the combat with Goliath
  • the David in depth
  • lasting influence of the David

Later work of Michelangelo

  • the tomb of Julius II: Moses, captives, prisoners
  • paintings in the Sistine Chapel
  • sculptures for the Medici tombs
  • influence of classical sculpture, especially the Laocoon
  • late Pietas: Florentine, Rondanini

Week Three:  Bernini’s Rome

Early work by Bernini

  • Lawrence, the Saved and the Damned
  • characteristic features of Baroque art
  • the patronage and portrait of Scipione Borghese
  • Borghese Gallery: Pluto and Persephone, Apollo and Daphne

Bernini’s David

  • a new approach: the figure in action
  • Bernini’s David in depth
  • comparison with the earlier Davids

The drama of Bernini’s sculpture

  • the Ecstasy of St. Teresa
  • portrait busts: Costanza, Thomas Baker, Louis XIV
  • Daniel and Habbakuk; the bozzetti

Rome reshaped by Bernini

  • the fountains: Triton, Four Rivers, the elephant
  • approaching St. Peter’s: angels on the bridge, the Piazza and colonnade within St. Peter’s: Constantine, the baldacchino, the Chair of St. Peter

Instructor Biography:
Lynn Ostling is a retired professor of Art History who taught at Sonoma State and Santa Rosa Junior College for over 30 years. Ms. Ostling graduated with honors from Stanford University, and completed her graduate work at UC Berkeley, specializing in Classical Greek and Renaissance studies. Over the years, Ms. Ostling has made many presentations on the lecture circuit and on television. She is also a published author on a variety of topics in the field of Art History.