29533 - Iconography and Iconology (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Visual Arts (cod. 9071)

    Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Visual Arts (cod. 0977)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will develop the necessary skills to analyze and interpret artworks, sacred and profane, and to orient themselves among the main sources and literature by images from which art took inspiration for centuries. Students will also learn Aby Warburg’s approach in the study of images.

Course contents

This course will be held in the first semester, and divided into two modules of 30 hours of lessons each, corresponding to 6 credits.

  • LM students in Visual Arts (enrolled in 2018-2019 academic year) shall refer to both modules (12 credits exam)
  • LM students in Visual Arts (enrolled in 2019-2020 academic year) shall refer only to the first module (6 credits exam),
  • LM students in Italian Studies, European Literary Cultures, Language Sciences shall refer only to the first module (6 credits exam).

First module (6 cfu)

The module is a part of the Exam Modern Art A, composed of two courses: Iconography and Iconology (prof. Cavicchioli) and Painting in the Early Modern Period (prof. Benati). Modern Art A is an integrated exam of 12 CFU (6 CFU+6 CFU), and the verification and evaluation of the preparation follow the procedures laid down for integrated exams, i.e. they must be taken in the same session and students must therefore register simultaneously for both exams.

The course aims to introduce Iconography and Iconology and the figure of Aby Warburg (1866-1929), whose researches were essential to develop a new method of intepretation of images and art works. This method investigates their meaning and function, and the role they play in cultural history. Students will be also provided with the tools for understanding sacred and prophane images.

More specifically, this course will deal with:

  • development of Christian iconography in the late ancient world;
  • art devoted to the Virgin Mary and its biblical and theological sources;
  • reception of classical themes in Early modern and Modern European art.

Second module (6 cfu)

This part of the course will address the following themes with a specific focus on methodology and the relationship between texts and images:

  • reception of classical books in Renaissance art: Ovid and Apuleius;
  • emblems, devices and related literature in the XVIth century;
  • astrology and Fortune in the interior decoration.

The monographic part will deal with the reception of Virgilian Aeneid in the sixteenth-century Bolognese interior decoration, considered within the Emilian cultural context.

 

N.B.

As this course will deal with a broad and complex subject, students are required to have a basic knowledge of art history, especially of the Middle Age to the XVIIIth century.

Readings/Bibliography

For the final exam, attending and non-attending Students enrolled in the 6 CFU exam are required to prepare all the texts listed in Section One.

For the final exam attending and non-attending students enrolled in the 12 CFU exam (first and second modules 12 CFU) are required to prepare all the texts listed in Section One and Section Two.

For the final exam, Non-attending students (both enrolled in the 6 cfu exam and in the 12 cfu exam) are required to prepare all the texts listed in Section Three.

Section One

-Class notes (only for attending students)

-A. Warburg, La rinascita del paganesimo antico: contributi alla storia della cultura, scritti raccolti da G. Bing, Firenze, Sansoni, 1966 [or later editions] or in the edition entitled La rinascita del paganesimo antico e altri scritti. 1889-1914, ed. by M. Ghelardi, Torino, Aragno, 2004

- E. Panofsky, Studi di iconologia. I temi umanistici nell’arte del Rinascimento (New York, 1939), Torino, Einaudi, 2009 (or former editions)

Section Two

-Class notes (only for attending students)

- E. Gombrich, Immagini simboliche. Studi sull’arte nel Rinascimento (London, 1972), Milano, Leonardo Arte, 2002 (or previous editions by Einaudi)

- I. Lavin, Bologna è una grande intrecciatura di eresie. Il “Nettuno” dei Giambologna al crocevia, in Il luogo e il ruolo della città di Bologna tra Europa continentale e mediterranea, ed. by G. Perini, Bologna, Nuova Alfa, 1992, pp. 7-44.

- R. Tuttle, Piazza Maggiore. Studi su Bologna nel Cinquecento, Venezia, Marsilio, 2001, pp. 121-201 (essays n. VIII, IX, with related images)

- E. Langmuir, “Arma virumque cano…”. Nicolò dell’Abate’s Aeneid gabinetto for Scandiano, in “Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes”, 33, 1976, pp. 151-170

- D. Cuoghi, Una nuova “ricostruzione” del Camerino dell’Eneide, in Nicolò dell’Abate alla corte dei Boiardo. Il Paradiso ritrovato, ed. by A. Mazza, M. Mussini, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2009, pp. 121-129

Section Three

- R. Wittkower, Allegoria e migrazione dei simboli, (London, 1977), Torino, Einaudi, 1987

- S. Cavicchioli, L’odissea di Enea. I fregi virgiliani dei Carracci e degli allievi in palazzo Fava a Bologna, in Ritratto e biografia. Arte e cultura dal Rinascimento al Barocco, a cura di R. Guerrini, M. Sanfilippo, P. Torriti, La Spezia, Agorà Edizioni, 2004, pp. 43-73

N.B. The photocopy of the article is available at the desk of "Supino" Library of the Department of the Arts.

- S. Cavicchioli, Le historiae affrescate dai Carracci in Palazzo Fava a Bologna, “seconda Roma” (1583-1593), in Frises peintes. Les décors des palais et villas au Cinquecento, atti del convegno, a cura di A. Fenech Kroke, A. Lemoine, Paris/Roma (collection d'histoire de l'art, 16), 2016, pp. 233-255

N.B. The book is available in the "Supino" Library of the Department of the Arts.

Teaching methods

Lectures with multimedia instruments; on-site inspections and guided visits.

Assessment methods

Attending students will take two partial examinations: a written part (open question test) to verify the knowledge of the topics discussed in the course and of Aby Warburg's book;, and an oral interview on texts. For the preparation of the written part, the powerpoints of the lectures will be available by a distribution list.

Non-attending students will take a single oral interview on all the parts of the syllabus.

The written part and the interview are aimed to evaluate the critical and methodological capabilities matured by the students, who will be invited to discuss the images and cultural contents dealt with during the course. Students will be particularly evaluated in their capabilities to autonomously and critically deal with the course contents and the bibliography.

It will be assessed as excellent the performance of those students achieving an organic vision of the course contents, the use of a proper specific language, the critical reflection as well as the familiarity with the topics discussed.

It will be assessed as discrete the performance of those students showing mostly mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, not articulated synthesis and analysis capabilities, a correct but not always appropriate language, as well as a scholastic study of the topics of the course. It will be assessed as barely sufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, lack of knowledge of the course texts and recommended bibliography. It will be assessed as insufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, no orientation before the pictures and within the recommended bibliography and inability to analyse the discipline.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentations provided by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Sonia Cavicchioli