The Great Courses

Lecture 16: In his later career, Botticelli produced works such as the disquieting Calumny of Apelles, possibly painted as a defense of the Puritanical preacher Savonarola, whose execution in 1498 initiated Botticelli's metaphysical phase culminating in the haunting Mystic Nativity.

Lecture 15: The first of two lectures on Sandro Botticelli pays particular attention to the Birth of Venus and Primavera (Spring). The latter is one of the most discussed paintings in Renaissance art.

Lecture 14: This lecture looks at four important sculptors and their contrasting contributions to Renaissance art: Antonio Pisanello, Francesco di Giorgio, Antonio Rossellino, and Andrea del Verrocchio.

Lecture 13: This lecture considers two artists of the male nude. Antonio del Pollaiuolo's figures are violently dramatic. Luca Signorelli used more static, contemplative poses, but he also created astonishingly physical nudes in Resurrection of the Dead and The Damned Consigned to Hell.

Lecture 12: Benozzo Gozzoli and Domenico Ghirlandaio incorporated the civic life of Florence into their narrative paintings, while continuing the Renaissance exploration of pictorial space, both in landscape and in architectural settings.

Lecture 11: This lecture covers Piero's great fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross, depicting the story of Jesus' cross from its origin in the tree of knowledge to its disappearance and rediscovery by Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

Lecture 10: The first of two lectures on Piero della Francesca explores works painted between about 1445 and 1470, including his Baptism of Christ and the famous Resurrection, and later paintings such as the Madonna and Child with Saints and the unfinished Nativity.

Lecture 9: Continuing the career of Donatello, Professor Kloss covers Donatello's move to Padua to work on a bronze equestrian statue, Gattamelata. Among his other Paduan works is a wooden sculpture, Saint John the Baptist. On returning to Florence, he made the even more expressive Saint Mary Magdalene.

Lecture 8: This lecture looks at paintings by three contrasting artists in Florence. Paolo Uccello was devoted to foreshortening and perspective. Andrea del Castagno found ways to make figures look like painted sculptures. And Domenico Veneziano introduced a tonal delicacy and pastel palette from his native Venice.

Lecture 7: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi were the most important painters in Florence after the death of Masaccio. Fra Angelico was able to switch between a late medieval style and a more realistic Renaissance manner. Fra Filippo Lippi's paintings combine charm and inward quietness.

Lecture 6: This lecture looks at Masaccio's principal frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel, with special attention to their melding of style and narrative content. Masaccio undertook the project with Masolino.

Lecture 5: The first of two lectures on Masaccio examines his Pisa Altarpiece. Also studied is his monumental fresco The Trinity, with attention to his introduction of one-point perspective.

Lecture 4: The most influential visual artist in Italy in the 15th century was Donatello. This lecture traces his work until he moved to Padua in 1443. Also covered is Luca della Robbia, whose superb choir gallery for the Florence Cathedral is in direct competition with Donatello's choir gallery for the same church.

Lecture 3: Architecture is central to understanding the birth of the Renaissance, and it was in Florence that the first great buildings of the Renaissance were constructed. This lecture looks at the buildings of Filippo Brunelleschi and the famous bronze doors of Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Lecture 2: Around 1400, a European-wide style known as International Gothic flourished in Italy. Artists including Lorenzo Monaco and Gentile da Fabriano retained this style. Others, such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, developed a new style that we call Renaissance.

36 Lectures, 30 minutes/lecture Taught by William Kloss, M.A. Professor, Independent Art Historian Professor William Kloss is an independent art historian and scholar who lectures and writes about a wide range of European and American art. He was educated at Oberlin College, where he earned a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Art History. He continued his postgraduate work on a teaching fellowship at the University of Michigan and was then awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for two years of study in Rome. As Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, he taught 17th- and 18th-century European art and 19th-century French art. No era of artistic achievement is as renowned as the Renaissance, and no country holds a higher place in that period than Italy. The supreme works created in Florence, Rome, Venice, and other Italian cities by such masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian have never equaled and have established a canon of beauty that pervades Western culture to this day. To view these works is to enter a world that is incomparably rich, filled with emotion and drama that is palpable, though sometimes mysterious to our modern sensibility. To study these works with an expert is to penetrate that mystery and gain a new appreciation for how these masterpieces were created and what they meant to the artists and people of the time. Professor William Kloss is your guide through this visual feast in an artist-centered survey that explores hundreds of paintings and sculptures by scores of artists. These lectures cover art history at the times of the Early Renaissance and the High Renaissance, which extended from about 1400 to about 1520. Italy is the first and principal location of the Renaissance, and it was in Florence that it took its deepest root. The word renaissance means rebirth, and it is the name given to the transition from medieval to modern times in Europe, when the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture sparked a creative revolution in the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. Humanism, a philosophical, literary, and artistic ideal, went hand in hand with this rebirth. It emphasized the dignity and potential of humanity and inspired secular studies, as well as the creation of art that reflected the forms and ideas of the Classical era. Renaissance society—and art—was permeated with religion. In the arts, this new approach encompassed powerful new techniques for representing the human figure and the visible world, and also new attitudes about the roles of artists in society. From a modest rank as craftsman, the artist gradually rose to a status comparable to poets and philosophers. The first 25 lectures examine the artists of Central Italy, where Florence is located, then the focus shifts to Northern Italy. You cover the works of more than 40 artists. The visual content of this course puts it in a class with heavily illustrated art books. Some 500 images of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, maps, buildings, and architectural details are featured. Many works are explored in considerable depth, with searching commentary by Professor Kloss that is both enlightening and personal. In the final two lectures, Professor Kloss looks at the Renaissance as a whole and surveys the political, social, and religious events of the early 16th century that brought profound change to Italy and the rest of Europe. He then examines how art inevitably changed as a result. Altogether, the Renaissance lasted about 120 years, and the period of the High Renaissance a little over 40 years. No later Western art can be discussed without reference to this era—especially as it matured and flourished in the cities of Italy. Lecture 1: This lecture examines the features of late medieval culture in Italy that paved the way for the Renaissance. In painting, Giotto di Bondone evolved a proto-Renaissance style in contrast to the prevailing late-Gothic style.

Lecture 36: In this final lecture, we look back over the course and ask: What makes the emperors of Rome so compelling a subject? We start by surveying the ancient sources’ portrayal of the emperors and examining critically the traditional categorizations of “good” and “bad” emperors. We subject those traits to analysis and discover them to be largely a matter of spin: The same behaviors can be found in accounts of both good and bad emperors, and only prejudicial presentation separates the two. We therefore embark on our own diagnoses of what made bad emperors bad and, in so doing, uncover some fundamental truths about power, legitimacy, and empire in Rome. Essential Reading: Baldwin, The Roman Emperors. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World. Supplementary Reading: Drake, Problematics of Military Power. Roller, Constructing Autocracy.

Lecture 35: This second lecture on Constantine examines his conversion to Christianity, his impact on the church, his administrative and military reforms, and the founding of Constantinople in 324. This last act established the basis for the Byzantine Empire, which existed in various guises down to 1453 and had significant ramifications for European and Asian history. Of even greater historical importance is Constantine’s relationship with the heretofore reviled cult of Christianity. The matter of the emperor’s personal conversion, although interesting, is secondary to the more important patronal relationship the emperor established with the early church. Under Constantine, Christianity changed from an outsider’s religion to a state-sponsored religion, a transition that had seismic repercussions for subsequent history. By the time of Constantine’s death in May 337, Christianity was not quite the official religion of the Roman state, but it was well on its way there. We end with a survey of Constantine’s inadequate provisions for the succession. Essential Reading: Eusebius, Life of Constantine. Zosimus, New History, book 2. MacMullen, Constantine. Supplementary Reading: DIR, “Constantine.” Lenski, Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, especially chapters 4–10, 14–16. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine, pp. 22–87.

Lecture 34: Constantine was an emperor of both the old and new molds. He embraced the despotic model of imperial rule introduced by Diocletian, but he rejected the Tetrarchy in favor of sole command. He is one of the most complex and difficult emperors to understand, despite some excellent sources (notably, Eusebius). In this lecture, we survey Constantine’s difficult and protracted rise to sole rulership. Despite being passed over by Diocletian’s tetrarchic system, the young Constantine accepted his army’s imperial acclamation on 25 July 306. From then until 324, he was engaged in extending his power to become sole emperor of the entire realm. The complex events of these years occupy our attention for this lecture. Throughout, Constantine’s singleness of intent and purpose shines through. Essential Reading: Eusebius, Life of Constantine. Zosimus, New History, book 2. MacMullen, Constantine. Supplementary Reading: DIR, “Constantine.” Lenski, Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, especially chapters 1–3. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine, pp. 2–21.

Lecture 33: The Roman Empire in 268 appeared to be on its last legs, battered from without, divided within. The Roman era seemed to be over. But within a few years a series of militarily aggressive and highly competent general-emperors had turned the situation around. They forged a modified Roman emperorship, far more despotic and oppressive than the Augustan Principate, but one that carried Roman history forward two more centuries. In particular we look at Aurelian, who restored the integrity of the empire and solidified the authority of the emperor; and Diocletian, whose Tetrarchy promised to secure the frontiers and resolve the succession problem that had plagued Rome’s emperor’s for so long. Essential Reading: HA, Claudius, Aurelian, Diocletian. Zosimus, New History, book 1.41–73. Watson, Aurelian and the Third Century, pp. 39–208. Williams, Diocletian and the Roman Recovery. Supplementary Reading: DIR, “Claudius II,” “Aurelian,” “Diocletian.” Stoneman, Palmyra and Its Empire. MacMullen, Roman Government’s Response to Crisis.

Lecture 32: Rome’s army became deeply involved in politics in the 3rd century, and this factor was a major contributor to the chaos of the period. With the murder (by his own troops) of Severus Alexander in 235, the Severan Dynasty collapsed and the succession was again thrown into doubt. Generals began fighting for dominance, but no clear winner emerged quickly, and civil wars raged almost continuously for the better part of 50 years. With the frontiers stripped of troops to fight these internal conflicts, external enemies took advantage to raid and plunder the empire. Franks, Vandals, and Goths poured across the Rhine Danube frontier and wreaked mayhem from Spain to Asia Minor. In the east, a newly resurgent Persia sacked the empire’s third major city, Antioch in Syria. Eventually, the empire began to fragment, as secessionist states east and west sought to ensure their own regional security. In this lecture, we examine several of the emperors of this ill-documented era. Essential Reading: HA, various lives between Maximinus and Gallienus. Zosimus, New History, book 1.1–40. Brauer, The Age of the Soldier-Emperors. Watson, Aurelian and the Third Century, pp. 1–39. Supplementary Reading: DIR, “Maximinus Thrax,” “Decius,” “Valerian,” “Gallienus.” Southern, Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, especially pp. 64–108. MacMullen, Roman Government’s Response to Crisis.

Lecture 31: Given that the basis of the emperors’ power lay with the swords of the imperial army, no relationship was more important to the rulers of Rome than that with their troops. Emperors from Augustus on employed various measures to monopolize army loyalties, from oaths of allegiance to direct monetary payments (or promises thereof) for continued adherence to the current regime. These measures are surveyed in detail, as are the dispositions of the troops in the empire and the different classes of soldier that comprised the imperial army. All enjoyed some sort of direct relationship with the emperor, from the citizen legionary to the foreign auxiliary. Some emperors took the extra effort to lead the troops personally on campaign. Others ignored the armies to their ultimate cost. For their part, the professional troops of the imperial period displayed a growing awareness of their political power from A.D. 69 onward, an awareness that, in the 3rd century, almost led to the collapse of the empire. Essential Reading: Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army, especially pp. 1–203. Supplementary Reading: Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army. Webster, The Roman Imperial Army.

Lecture 30: The relationship of the emperor to the common people (plebs or populus), particularly the inhabitants of Rome, is reflected in the chapters of Augustus’s Res Gestae. Here, the role of the emperor as the primary benefactor and patron of the masses is made clear. This relationship was cultivated by subsequent emperors well into the high empire, when Rome began to be eclipsed as the emperor’s primary place of residence. The modalities of the patronal relationship between emperor and people are examined in this lecture, from the provision of grain, games, and other commoda (“comforts”) to the mechanisms of communication between emperor and populus. We must not forget that, absent such peripatetic rulers as Hadrian, the vast majority of the empire’s inhabitants would not have seen or communicated with their ruler. Most interacted less with the emperor than with the idea of the emperor, especially as manifested in the so-called imperial cult. Essential Reading: Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Price, Rituals and Power. Veyne, Bread and Circuses, especially pp. 292–482. Supplementary Reading: Donahue, The Roman Community at Table. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Garnsey, Food and Society. Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators.

Lecture 29: The running of the provinces, as surveyed in the last lecture, was among the most important tasks of the imperial elite and one of the prominent ways in which members of the elite served the emperor. In this lecture, we look at the groups who constituted the elite, focusing on the senators and the equestrians. We will see how the traditional role of the Senate changed from the republic to the Principate, what strategies senators used for adapting to their new role under an autocrat, and how the imperial Senate conducted its business. We will also survey the equestrian class, whose members enjoyed a greatly enhanced public profile and more prestigious careers under the Principate. The Roman elite was obsessed with the struggle for rank, and the emperor determined the winners in that struggle by the offices he dispensed. Essential Reading: Juvenal, Satire 4. Pliny, Epistles, especially book 10. Tacitus, Agricola. Supplementary Reading: Hopkins, Death and Renewal, especially pp. 120–200. Talbert, Senate of Imperial Rome.

Lecture 28: We next consider the question of the emperor’s position in relation to the wider empire. How could an empire as vast and diverse as Rome’s survive the mismanagement of the likes of Caligula, Nero, Commodus, or Elagabalus? The secret lay in the unique, decentralized administrative structures the Romans employed in running their realm. Imperial administration comprised a hierarchy of authority levels, each capable of functioning independently of the other. From municipal authorities at the ground level, to representatives of the emperor’s power at the provincial level, to the emperor himself at the top, the empire was largely able to run itself. The degree of the emperor’s involvement in administrative affairs was mostly a personal choice. If the ruler chose to devote himself to private proclivities or vent his paranoia on the ruling classes, it mattered little to the rest of the empire. Civil wars were destabilizing, of course, but largely localized in their impact. The emperor, then, was little more than a figurehead, a man few Romans ever saw in the flesh and fewer dealt with directly. Essential Reading: Aelius Aristides, Oration 26 (“To Rome”). Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18–20; The Jewish War, book 2. Pliny, Epistles, book 10. Supplementary Reading: Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty. Garnsey and Saller, The Roman Empire, especially pp. 5–40. Millar, The Roman Empire and Its Neighbors, especially pp. 1–103.