Browse Items (202 total)

Known as the “Father of Humanism,” Francisco Petrarch (1304-1374) was one of the most influential facilitators in the revitalization of classical antiquity prior to the Renaissance, thus sparking an interest that—as the exhibit will show—endured…

Written in 1302, Pietro de Crescenzi’s famous “Ruralia Commodia” offers a unique perspective on rural peasant life in the early modern era. This particular illustration depicting two peasant men mowing hay was included in the book’s first publication…

The philosophy of the Enlightenment is nothing if not versatile. This can be readily observed in the contemporary world, with every side of any political fight claiming that “rights” and “reason” lend support to their arguments. This modern…

If the Florence Cathedral is symbolic of the religious architecture of the early Renaissance, then the facade of the Palazzo Pitti, also built by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, is its secular counterpart. Initially commissioned by a banker and…

The Palace of Versailles began its life in 1624 as the hunting lodge of Louis XIII, which he later made into a chateau, moving also to vastly expand the lands of the estate. His successor, Louis XIV, had little interest in the chateau until the early…

The interest in botany and accurate renderings of plant life permeated all of Europe, not just in England. In France, Jean Fusée Aublet boasts a collection of almost 400 copperplate engravings showing the Histoire des Plantes de la Guiane françoise…

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), one of the most prominent architects of early Renaissance, designed Ospedale degli Innocenti. The "Hospital of the Innocents" was built in mind for infants who had been abandoned by their parents and is one of the…

Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) is a clandestine Catholic church located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The building itself had been an ordinary canal house since the 14th century. However, its interior was converted to a secret…

As the Spanish colonial endeavour to the New World began, so did the spread of Spanish culture, power, and influence on these new lands. As the Spaniards arrived at the Caribbean, their main objectives included carrying the Spanish flag into new…

This painting by Han Holbein the Younger is titled "Noli me Tangere" and is an example of art from the Protestant Reformation period. The period was characterized by a change in art in both Catholic and Protestant regions, though the change in…

Neoclassical architecture, which looked not to the Renaissance for its inspiration as the preceding baroque and rococo styles had, but instead to the classical world, was Enlightenment philosophy realized as marble and glass. Like their counterparts…

In 1766, King Charles III implemented a policy banning long capes and broad-brimmed hats, despite the populace’s growing resentment towards rising prices (Brading, 536). Charles hoped the change in wardrobe would modernize the appearance of his…