This course examines the art and architecture of Italy from about 1300 to 1550, a period marked by revolutionary technical innovations, intellectual concepts and practices, and attitudes toward the making and nature of art – changes that spurred early modern intellectuals and historians to characterize the period’s cultural developments as a ‘Renaissance’ (French for ‘rebirth’). While focusing on Renaissance art in different regions of Italy, we will also study its global connections across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The course covers a range of artistic production including frescoes, portraits, and sculpture.