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During the Renaissance period, countless outstanding architects, sculptors and artists emerged; however, “all of the most famous and most prolific Renaissance artists were male” (Wiesner-hanks, 158). Properzia de’ Rossi (1490-1530) is the only female…

First published in Nuremberg in 1477, this woodcut portrait of Marco Polo describes the famous Venetian merchant as a “Great Traveller” and a discoverer of the “Great Wonders of the World”. Polo’s extensive travels to Asia in the late 13th century…

Spanish history has long been intertwined with the Catholic faith. Spain is famous for spreading and defending the religion wholeheartedly, and its Catholic tendencies are etched into its cultural identity. The devotion of King Philip II (reign…

Sofonisba Anguissola was a prominent court painter for Phillip II of Spain, crafting several notable portraits in her time. Her parents encouraged her to receive a humanist education in the arts and sciences and be tutored in painting by prominent…

Printed in Westminster in 1497, this papal indulgence was issued for the pilgrim shrine of St. James, Compostela in Spain. Throughout the late medieval age, indulgences such as this would have been paid through the Church as part of a process of…

The Uffizi complex, while not as ornate or grandiose as many other hallmark examples of Renaissance architecture, encompasses many of the more subtle and social aspects of Renaissance art. It was commissioned by Cosimo de Medici to accommodate the…

Despite being born in Crete, Doménikos Theotokópoulos is perhaps the most recognizable Spanish painter from the 16th century. Known as El Greco, the artist moved from Venetian Greece to Venice itself to study sometime between the ages of 19 and 25,…

Juan Luis Vives was a Spanish humanist who wrote about reforming the church and deepening spiritual life. One of his most prominent works was “Three Books on the Soul and Life,” a collection of writings about the soul and its relationship to the…

The Marekerk in Leiden is an exceptionally interesting study in how values can impact design when it comes to functional buildings, like churches. This is one of several Lutheran churches built in this style in the Netherlands, where Protestantism…

The image selected is an engraving of two scenes from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs. The book was originally printed via woodcut, a method of printmaking in which blocks of wood were engraved to depict a certain scene, covered with ink, and then…

This image is of the Sorbonne, a famous building constructed in 1257 as part of the University of Paris. The university was founded in the latter half of the 12th century, one of the first such institutions to be established in Europe (“University of…

Before beginning the discussion of education in Early Modern Europe, Medieval education should be examined. There was institutionalized education before the development of universities, but it took a very different form. In medieval Europe, the power…