ARTH389K

This course addresses the transformation of images and ideas in the visual arts from one social and historic context to another. In most cases, these transformations of core narratives, images, symbols, and meanings reflect significant shifts in belief systems and cultural values in a given society. One of the most remarkable of those transformations in the visual arts of the west involved the revival of the interest in the Greco-Roman mythology in the early modern era (15th- 17th centuries). In this course, we explore how those classical myths were appropriated for new uses - or given new meanings by visual artists working in various European countries, from Italy and France, to Spain and Holland.