da Vinci and the Renaissance 2020 Dashboard

Leader

Dino Franco Felluga

Description

Leonardo drawingsDa Vinci and the Renaissance is a fully cross-disciplinary study-abroad program that explores the transition from the medieval period to the Renaissance across multiple subjects (art, architecture, engineering, science and more), laying out how much of what we take for granted today about technology or about the human subject were implemented in this rich period, especially in Italy.  Our focus will be that most famous “Renaissance man,” Leonardo da Vinci.  The course’s interdisciplinary approach asks students to think about the constructed nature of the things we take for granted as “natural” (e.g., time, space, human subjectivity, meaning, sight, knowledge, and law), thus opening our eyes to the significance of cultural differences. We will also consider the many ways that we are now seeing a cultural, ontological, and epistemological shift that is as far-reaching as the one between the medieval period and the Renaissance

The 3 credits will be split between 8 weeks of instruction at Purdue (1 credit) and our study-abroad program to Venice and Florence (2 credits). In Italy, we will see a number of things that we will have discussed before getting on a plane together. We will also think about the nature of confronting a different culture and of being a tourist in a foreign land.

Galleries, Timelines, and Maps

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Individual Entries

Place

Krakow, Poland

Posted by Chyna Ferguson on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 20:06

Polish instrument maker and concert pianist Sławomir Zubrzycki debuted his fully-functional viola organista, created based off of Leonardo’s drawings, at the 5th International Royal Krakow Piano Festival. This festival is the first cultural event dedicated to piano music to take place in Krakow, and the goal of the event is to attract elite pianists and encourage them to perform at this festival. Krakow is known to be the cultural capital of Poland, and houses the Academy of Music in Krakow, one of the oldest music higher education academies in Europe.

Zubrzycki, Sławomir. “Biography.” Viola Organista, 2015, www.violaorganista.com/en/slawomir_zubrzycki/biography/.

Chronology Entry

Da Vinci's Viola Organista

Posted by Chyna Ferguson on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 19:51
Place

Nuremburg

Posted by Jacob Halpern on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 18:45

Copernicus initially published On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies in Nuremburg in 1543, after one of his supporters released an outline of his work to the public in 1541. 

Chronology Entry

Poggio Bracciolini's Collection of Classical Manuscripts

Posted by Kanti Bharat on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 17:08
Place

The Vatican Library

Posted by Marina Mehling on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 16:53

The Vatican library still holds the first edition of Trattato Della Pittura (A Treastie on Painting), which is a published collection of Leonardo Da Vinci's notes on the science of painting. The contents of Trattato Della Pittura  were originally written between 1469-1519, organized in the early 1500s, translated into a manuscript in the early 1600s, and was finally published in 1651 by Raffaelo du Fresne. The nature of Leonardo da Vinci's notes made it difficult to organize his work for publication. His former student, Francesco Melzi, sorted da Vinci's notes and worked on copying them from the reverse mirror-image style da Vinci wrote in. After Melzi's death, his son, Orazio took da Vinci's notes into his possession but did not work on publishing them. Instead, Orazio distributed many of da Vinci's journals, some of which have not been found since (“Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana”).

Raffaelo du Fresne obtained ...

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Chronology Entry

Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres

Posted by Jacob Halpern on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 16:24
Chronology Entry

Trattato Della Pittura is first published

Posted by Marina Mehling on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 15:27
Place

Milan Italy and Pavia Medical School

Posted by Jackson Pechin on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 00:11

While in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci came up with his idea and began plotting the Treatise on Anatomy. In Milan Leonardo met the anatomist Marcantonio della Torre, a proffessor at the Pavia Medical school. One of the most important discoveries of Leonardo in Milan was Leonardo's advancements in embryology. On a cadaver Leonardo was able to expose a human fetus which allowed him to make many discoveries. He correctly identified the position of the fetus and discovered a variety of things about the placenta. Leonardo was unable to finish his treaty on anatomy, as in 1511 Marcantonio della Torre died of the plague. 

Works cited

Norman, Jeremy. “Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings.” Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings : History of Information, Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc, 2020, Retreived from www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=2254.

Gilson, Hilary. "Leonardo da Vinci's...

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Place

Royal Collection at Windsor Castle

Posted by Jackson Pechin on Monday, February 3, 2020 - 00:09

The Royal Collection at Windsor Castle holds around 550 pieces of Leonardo's work. The Castle itself is owned by the British Monarchy and is currently occupied by the Queen of England. It was originally created by William the Conqueror. Peices of Leonardo's Treatise on Anatomy, including the depiction of the Fetus in the Uterus are held here. After the death of Leonardo, the works of the Treatise on Anatomy were lost until they were discovered in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in the 18th century.

Works cited

“The Exhibition.” Royal Collection Trust, Retrieved from www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-dra....

Norman, Jeremy. “Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings.” Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings : History of Information, Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc, 2020, Retrieved from...

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Chronology Entry

Leonardo's depiction of the Human Fetus

Posted by Jackson Pechin on Sunday, February 2, 2020 - 23:49

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