Florentine Design vs. Venetian Color: A Renaissance Rivalry

About the Class

In Renaissance Italy, artists and critics debated a fundamental question: What mattered more in painting: drawing and design, or color and light?

The debate came vividly to life at Agostino Chigi’s villa in Rome, where patrons commissioned two artists to paint competing frescoes in the same space. Sebastiano del Piombo, trained in the Venetian tradition that prioritized color and light, painted his emotionally resonant Polyphemus on the left panel. Raphael, a master of Florentine design, answered with his sculptural and harmonious Galatea on the right.

In this 10-session online course, we’ll follow the rivalry between disegno (drawing and design) and colore (color) from 15th-century Florence and Venice through the later Renaissance. Along the way, we’ll examine works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others, including paintings in the Barnes collection.

Instead of choosing a side, we’ll consider how artists used line, color, light, and composition in different ways, and how this centuries-old debate continues to shape the way we look at art today.

The class is online-only. More about online classes.

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Barnes classes will:

• Sharpen your observational and critical thinking skills.
• Improve your ability to communicate about art.
• Deepen your appreciation for cultures and histories outside your own.

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What Our Students Say

“The instructor was not only knowledgeable but so accessible, and such an inviting presence. She provided great reading to supplement the course.” —Mary Cassatt: Art, Identity, and Independence with Larissa Bailiff

“Pierre brings the art alive with her inside stories and images and how she interacts with the students. She is always able to answer and follow up with more information at the next class.” —Exhibiting Modernism: From the Salon to the Avant-Garde with Caterina Pierre

“Alison Boyd was engaging and effective during the online instruction, and she offered well-selected background materials for further reading.” —Aaron Douglas from Harlem to Philly with Alison Boyd