While study abroad is on hold, Professor Rothfield takes us to Florence to explore how the David's aesthetic values have political implications.
About the Event
Michelangelo's David, the most recognizable statue in the world, can be viewed at the Accademia Gallery of Florence. It represents for most viewers a Renaissance aesthetic ideal of human perfection. But the David's aesthetic values have political implications, implications that we will try to tease out by comparing Michelangelo's statue to earlier versions of the Biblical hero by his Florentine predecessors Donatello and Verrocchio. In each case, the statue can be seen as participating symbolically in an ideological struggle over the city-state's republican soul.
Who's Speaking
Lawrence Rothfield
Associate Professor of the Department of English, Comparative Literature, the University of Chicago
Larry Rothfield is an associate professor in the Department of English, Department of Comparative Literature, and is a research affiliate in the Cultural Policy Center. His research focuses on the way in which literature, criticism, and other cultural activities are caught up within epistemic and political struggles.