Welcome to the Renaissance

As part of a Ball State University Honors College colloquium entitled "The European Renaissance in the Modern World", students were asked to explore an aspect of the Renaissance. Here, we explore 1500s fashion through historical figures, portraiture, and film and television to understand how history is accurately portrayed in media. It adapts the premise of TLC’s show, but instead of critiquing modern fashion, it begins to classify the media’s portrayal of Renaissance fashion as vintage or vogue, accurate or purely entertaining.

Left: Bronzino, Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1530), The Met Gallery, New York