Details

ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE
Saints, Sinners and Servants: Lives of Renaissance Women

Course Description:

The lives of Renaissance women were defined by certain roles: wife, mother, nun, courtesan, or servant. In this three-class course, we’ll examine how women fit into (or circumvented) societal expectations by looking at depictions of women in painting, sculpture, and archival documents. Saints, whose stories were told in books and displayed in paintings, served as models of behavior for both wives and nuns. On the other end of the spectrum were sinners: courtesans and prostitutes who were judged for illicit behavior yet frequented by men across social classes. Servants maintained homes, convents, and brothels in the cities, and their networks crossed classes and borders throughout Renaissance Italy.

Instructor:

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.

Course Objectives:

• To understand the role of saints’ lives in secular and religious women’s lives
• To consider how courtesans and prostitutes worked in Renaissance society
• To investigate the role of servants in building networks
• To examine differences among upper and lower class women’s lives
• To use paintings, sculpture and archival documents to learn more about the life of women in the Renaissance

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with syllabus, videos of recordings, reading list, podcasts, discussion forum, and more.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Readings to be provided to students in PDF format prior to the beginning of course.

Complete syllabus will be provided upon registration.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR THE DURATION OF THE COURSE

Schedule

LECTURE 1 -SAINTS

-Thursday, January 20

The Virgin Mary and other saints served as examples for women as wives, mothers, and in religious life. Religious images adorned the walls of homes and convents, and stories of saints’ lives were told as inspiration. This class will examine how married women, mothers, and nuns were encouraged to live like saints, and how some women adopted saintly strategies to enhance their lives.

LECTURE 2 -SINNERS

-Thursday, January 27

Though reviled in public sermons, sex workers were an integral part of Renaissance life. Courtesans were celebrated among the upper classes for their literary and musical talents in addition to their beauty and sexual availability. Regular prostitutes were less respected, yet brothels legally operated in certain cities. Through examination of sumptuary laws, poetry paintings, and prints, we’ll discover how courtesans and prostitutes contributed to Renaissance urban culture.

LECTURE 3 – SERVANTS

-Thursday, February 3

Servants and enslaved women kept Renaissance homes and convents running. While many of their stories have been lost, evidence of their lives appears in court documents, convent chronicles and diaries. We’ll investigate how the lives of lower class women were entwined with that of the upper classes throughout Renaissance cities.

Instructor

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Assistant Director for Teaching and Learning at Syracuse University London, where she has taught art history and history classes on Italian Art in London and the UK; Women and Art: London and UK; and Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the architectural patronage of the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.