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; 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