Printmaking is both a tool and artistic practice that brings images to the pubic through illustrated books, newspapers, and through the production of artistic prints. The invention of the Gutenberg press helped transform Italy during the Renaissance period and during the 15th century prints were mass produced and created for the middle and lower class providing access to reproductions of artworks produced by artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Titan.

Students in this course will be explore the development and the influence of the Renaissance period in Florence had upon both the art of printmaking and the formation of the new career of printmaker during the late fifteenth century and throughout the sixteenth century in Italy. Students will also be exposed to historical prints and drawings that explore the context of related paintings, sculpture, and architecture, describing a period when printmaking opened up new ways to make a living and transformed the mechanisms of Renaissance visual culture.Students will study works Giovanni Pietro da Birago, Cornelis Cort, Mantegna, Durer, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, among others from the Renaissance period.

Additionally, students will also read scholarship that surrounds the development of the Renaissance period, its relationship to printmaking, along with the history of printmaking.