B5227 - Iconography and Iconology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, through the critical analysis of figurative works, students will acquire methodological rigour and a high level of knowledge that will enable them to classify historical-artistic products and to acquire the analytical methodologies necessary to propose an articulate interpretation, critically inserted in the historical phase in which the figurative objects are located and aimed at grasping the cultural significance and bringing out the data that determined this precise thematic, iconographic and stylistic choice with a profound understanding of the relevance of such data for historical research. The reasoned exemples will enable students to analyse and classify artistic artefacts, to use iconographic sources as a necessary element for a thorough understanding of early modern culture, to evaluate the relations and connections between historical studies and art criticism and to work (also in groups) in interdisciplinary contexts, enhancing the specific contribution of the historical sciences. They will also be able to update their knowledge and research methods through opportunities for comparison and learning according to their abilities and inclinations, through the tools developed by the scientific community, using multimedia resources and autonomously consulting historiographical texts in languages other than Italian.

Course contents

After having analyzed, in the first part of the course, a pictorial cycle, realized in Bologna in the second half of Sixteenth century, the cycle of Medea and Giasone, painted by Carracci in 1583, which has as main figure one of the most famous magicians of the ancient world, in the second part of the course will be paid attention to paintings with subjects related to magic and witchcraft. The papal city, as the historiography as progressively put at focus, presented a culture environment full of nuances. The tridentine decrees, even if applied with zeal, indeed, never arrived to stifle decidedly subversive currents of thought, as is the case of the erudite libertinism. During the course, we will see as paintings representing magic and witchcraft have literary origins dating back to classical antiquity, but at the same time also to contemporary heterodox cultural currents, as the libertinism erudite. The artists about whom we will pay attention are, particularly Angelo Carosello, Salvator Rosa and Giovan Battista Castiglione, il Grechetto, but we will pay attention also to other artists, who have connections with "Baroque slums". The iconographic and iconological analysis of paintings will be linked to the cultural context of Baroque Rome, where magical beliefs and practices permeated all strata of society. Therefore, we will see that even the papal city, like what happened a century before in North Europe, became sensitive to heterodox subjects, which occupied a space less isolated as could be thought. Following an interdisciplinary percours we will also take into account also the Adone of Giambattista Marino and the magician Falsirena. The paradox of Falsirena, as put in evidence by italianists, such as Giorgio Barberi Squarotti, is that she's beautiful and powerful, flights on a ram, like a witch, but her activities don't make are able to reach her purpose, the aim of seducing Adone, rather, her task turns into a real flop. Therefore, she becomes grotesque, almost comical. Falsirena is, indeed, the magician, who, doesn't reach her aim, she is weak and becomes victim of her desire, instead of fullness of pleasure she encounters torment and despair.

Falsirena in her changeability and complexity is a magician fully baroque, even because her magic becomes an oxymoron: is very powerful and ineffective.

The failure of magic operations is the immediate and fundamental novelty introduced by Marino and we will see that this novelty funds reflex also in painting.

One of the purposes of the course is, indeed, to present a different and much more articulated image, respect to that monolithic presented, even today, in scholar books but also in specialistic literature, that identifies baroque Rome tout court with the triumphant Church, who, instead, had within itself attesting currents that the establishment never succeeded completely to impose her vision of thought and power.

Students will be asked to participate in the course on a voluntary basis by creating a PowerPoint presentation relevant to the topics covered, which will be graded 1-3 points and will be added to the exam grade.

This program is reserved exclusively for students who attend lessons because notes taken in the classroom and educational material provided case-by-case by the professor will constitute, beyond the bibliography provided below, a fundamental part of the course that will be evaluated during the final exam. Students who do not plan to attend lessons should refer to the dedicated bibliography below.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography for students who attend lessons

A. Anselmi, Dipinti a soggetto magico stregonesco nella Roma barocca: tra “crisi della presenza” e letteratura latina, in Il Barocco a Roma: la meraviglia delle arti, a cura di M. G. Bernardini-M. Bussagli, Milano, Skira, 2015, pp. 170-176.

D. Frascarelli, L’arte del dissenso. Pittura e libertinismi nell’Italia del Seicento, Torino, Giulio Einaudi editore, 2016.

Like text of reference is recommended S. Settis-T. Montanari, Arte. Una storia naturale e civile, 5 voll., Milano, Mondadori, 2019, vol. III.

Bibliography for students who do not attend lessons

T. De Nile, Fantasmagorie, streghe, demoni e tentazioni nell'arte fiamminga e olandese del Seicento, Roma, Officina libraria, 2023.

La Casa di Ulisse. Pellegrino Tibaldi nell’Accademia delle Scienze, a cura di W. Tega, Bologna, Edizioni Pendragon, 2021.

Like test of reference is recomended S. Settis-T. Montanari, Arte. Una storia naturale e civile, 5 voll., Milano, Mondadori, 2019, vol. III.

Teaching methods

Explanations with projections and image analysis. Research in databases under the guidance of the professor.

 

Assessment methods

EXAMS WILL BE ONLY IN ITALIAN.

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Students who follow the course can choose, only for the first two convocations, between a written proof (24 questions at multiple choice and three open questions) or an oral proof. Since third convocation the exam will be only oral. Students who do not follow the course have to pass an oral examination, they do not have the possibility to partecipate to the written proof partially based on the content of the course.

Grades are assigned in relation to a total of thirty points, with a laude for outstanding performance. The minimum passing grade is 18/30. Examinations will serve to verify the student’s level of preparation and critical skills in relation to the classroom lessons and assigned readings.

The exam consists of a written proof (only for the first two convocations, in December and January) or an oral proof finalized to value critics and methodological skills matured by the student.

Students following the course have to do an individual work that the student has to present, in seminar form, during the last lessons: to any student will be assigned a source (documentary, iconographic, literary, historiography) to be analyzed with the metodologica tools given at lesson.

In the evaluation of the proof it will take into account, particularly, the student's capacity to orient himself with sources and bibliography given for the exam, so as to be able to acquire the useful knowledge, which allows him to illustrate themes and problems and to be able to connect them.

Therefore, it will be valued: Knowledge of contents. Ability in synthesizing and analyzing themes and concepts. Ability to exprime himself adequately and with a language appropriate to the subject matter.

The achievement by the student of an organic vision of themes treated at lesson jointly to their critical utilization, a good mastery of expression and specific language will be valued with a vote of excellence.

A mnemonic knowledge of the subject of study, with an ability of synthesis and analysis expressed in a correct language, but not always appropriate, will lead to a discrete evaluation.

Training gaps and/or inappropriateness - even in a contest of minimal knowledge of exam material - will lead to a vote which will not be superior to sufficient.

Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation with bibliography given during the course will lead to a negative evaluation.

Students enrolled in the course as part of an Integrated Course (I.C.) must pass the examination of both parts on the same day (the final grade will be the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts).

Exams convocations will be six: the first one in January, then in February, March, June, July and September. The precise day will be comunicate as soon as classrooms will be assigned.

 

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Projector and personal computer. Didactic materials, like power point presented during the class, will be put in virtual resources.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandra Anselmi