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Art of Natural History course (online)
I teach at several schools (online, including the Rhode Island School of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Morbid Anatomy) and offer private lessons. Please contact me for next available spot in this course.
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course combines slide presentations of the highlights of various fields of biology from Ancient Greece through the late Renaissance and early Enlightenment. Participants have the option to complete a written or visual response to the prompts (based on in-class demonstrations in assorted wet and dry media like colored inks, colored pencils, graphite, and more). Below is a brief description of the topics covered:
Week One: Intro to Natural History: origins in botany; role of Ancient Greece and the Greco-Arabic translation movement; and the evolution of print-making techniques.
Week Two: Collectors, Cabinets of Curiosity, and Museums: spirituality and science; colonialism; sorting fact from fiction; origins of the modern museum; intro to the scientific revolution of the Renaissance
Week Three: Zoology: bestiaries; print revolution; public dissections and first hand observation; influence on painters of the Northern Renaissance
Week Four: Human Anatomy and Medicine; balancing the humors; the doctrine of signatures; public dissections and first hand observation; marriage of art and science; symbolism in anatomical atlases
Week Five: Ornithology: falconry, symbolism, and species identification
Week Six: Entomology: from the margins of illuminated manuscripts to dedicated field guides; role in fine art
Week Seven: Marine Life: maps and mythology; corals and aquariums; astonishing microscopic lifeforms
Week Eight: Geometry in Nature; pattern and design in the natural world
A few interesting articles:
https://daily.jstor.org/public-dissection-gruesome-spectacle/
on the contributions of Emperor Rudolph to science: here
On Petrus Plancius and his spice map: here
And some resources for exploring the art of natural history:
Linda Hall Library, scientist of the day
Embassy of the Free Mind (especially good for alchemy)