The Power of Art: University of Cambridge

My name is Rebecca, and I'm in the three week Art History Summer School at the University of Cambridge.

Art History Summer School, July 8th-28th, 2007. The academic programme:

• Plenary course J01: The Power of Art
• Evening lectures
• Optional Practical Sessions
• Specialist-led excurstions to Cambridge and London Galleries
• Three special subjects; mine are:

1. The Creation of a Perfect Venice: the art of Bellini, Titian and Veronese. Norman Coady. As her political power decline, Venice sought to maintain her influence through the idea that she was the perfect state. We examine the role of artists in the creation of this myth, taking account of the subject matter they painted, but also of the intrinsic power of their art.
2. Power and Patronage in the Baroque: Caravaggio, La Tour, Rubens, and Rembrandt, Christopher Wright. Almost all great Baroque painters--Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour, Rubens and Rembrandt-enjoyed the patronage of the power centres of their times, but did not always produce their best work for their most prestigious patrons. This course seeks to contrast the way artistic genius is warped or improved by association with power.
3. Art and Emotion, Nicolas Friend. When do works of art particularly intend to move us? What qualities or ingredients do they need to succeed? Are those qualities different now from those needed when the work was made? We pursue an approach, through the history of art and art criticism from the wrenching German renaissance of Grunewald to the apparently controlling classicism of Poussin and David, through to the Romantic painters Delacroix and Turner and the writings of Ruskin and Pater.

I have chosen to write essay evaluations for all three special subject courses, each must be from 2,000-3,000 words, and I will receive 9 credits for my work.