3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Beginning in the present, the course will examine how popular constructions of “Da Vinci” are used to legitimate contemporary obsessions with art, genius, and technological innovation. We will examine how, since the 1500s, the biography and “character” of Leonardo has been produced, often in the absence of historical evidence, and the cultural and political interests that these productions serve. The primary focus of the course will be a revisionist approach to the writings and imagery of Leonardo, to be considered with regard to questions of artistic selfhood in the Renaissance, and of the artisan as author figure.