A College for Christian Scientists
Leonardo da Vinci wrote so that his words had to be read in a mirror; his Mona Lisa and Last Supper captured the subtleties of the finest art. He designed aqueducts and studied human anatomy. He also built models of parachutes and helicopters as well as devastating war machines. In many ways he embodies the spirit of the Renaissance, a period of time in Italy and in northern Europe from 1400 to 1600 characterized by an awakened human spirit and thirst for the truth about man and his universe. This FYE program investigates the art, architecture, music, astronomy, and mathematics of the Renaissance with particular focus on Leonardo, his contemporaries, and his successors.
*Note: This FYE program conflicts with a course needed for the music major which starts fall of freshman year. Choose another FYE program if interested in the music major.
Art History 132: Dr. Margaret D’Evelyn
Whether we are studying the art and architecture of Venice, Rome, Florence, northern Europe, or the courts, we consider the works of Leonardo and his impact as a painter, sculptor, architect, and thinker. In particular we examine Leonardo’s drawings as the closest records we have of his storehouses of ideas, sometimes expressed as inventions, sometimes as first ideas or finished works of art. We continually ask ourselves what motives or habits of mind made this ceaseless inventiveness possible.
Math 111: Dr. Steve Hinthorne
This course is a survey of the history and development of mathematics and astronomy from the ancient Greeks through the late Renaissance period. In the spirit of Leonardo, it is designed to provide many new and interesting applications of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry skills. Topics include: inductive and deductive reasoning and logic; how people write numbers, old and new; elementary number theory; the mathematics of music; geometry and perspective in art; how to use probability and statistics; and modeling the earth and sky.
