Dr. John Paoletti

Renaissance art is made to communicate ideas – social, political, religious, historical – to the viewer.  Of course, that raises issues of who is talking to whom and how should that address be structured.  That means that the intended viewer played (and still plays) a critical role in our appreciation of art from this period.  This talk will explore the various forms of address (in both directions) that make the viewer an active participant in the individual narratives presented rather than a passive viewer of what we now call “art”, a term that simply meant “craft” (arte) for the period under discussion.