A pair of sometimes-overlooked Renaissance artists will be the focus of the next Love of Learning lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland on Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. John Madden, who teaches History and Western Civilization in the Laurel Charter High School in Viroqua, will lead a visual journey through the art of Pre-Renaissance Florence, focusing on the stories and works of painters and architects Giotto di Bondone and Fillipo Brunelleschi, whose lives and works bookend the Pre-Renaissance period.
“Our understanding of the Renaissance period traditionally starts with Leonardo [Da Vinci], Michelangelo, and Rafael, but their achievements stand on the shoulders of Giotto and Brunelleschi,” said Madden, who will trace the two artists' early innovations in shifting what we expect visual art to be. Before Giotto di Bondone, Madden explains, little art attempted to capture what the world really looked like to the artist – or to the viewer. “Giotto was an early pioneer of representing three-dimensional spaces in two dimensions, with a linear perspective of lines and shadows.”
The lecture will feature substantial slides of both artists' works, and Madden also plans to discuss each man’s revolutionary architectural achievements, some of which are still standing today.
“Giotto’s Bell Tower and the Brunelleschi Dome are two of the hallmarks of Florence, and both are still viewed and visited today.”
The Love of Learning lectures all start at 7 p.m. in the Pippin Conference Center on the UW-Platteville Richland campus, and are free and open to all.