What made Renaissance culture tick: who were the pivotal personalities (writers and politicians as well as artists); which are the most typical and which the least typical works produced in Italy and elsewhere throughout Europe? How did viewers think about the art of their time, and in particular how did they respond to the new mass medium of printed images? How connected is our present artistic culture to that of five hundred years ago? When did the Renaissance acquire its fame? Students consider connections between the English and the Italian Renaissances, comparing, for instance, Michelangelo and Shakespeare. Readings include sixteenth-century historical and literary sources as well as art historical essays. Writing intensive.