02290 - History of Modern Art (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

The course proposes to form for the students an adequate knowledge of the base of the principle facts and crucial questions of art overall Italian from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century. In particular the ability to recognize essential technical methods that would allow the student to understand the work of art from the point of view of the style and the form, the iconography, technique and to comprehend the connections to the historical, social and cultural timeframe in which they were produced. At the end of the course the student should be familiar with the characteristic themes and particularities along with the ambitions of the artists of these centuries. The student should also recognize and be able to comment on the works of the most representative artists and movements.

Course contents

This course is divided in two parts.

The general part aims to introduce the history of art, mainly Italian, from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It will start dealing with the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci and will end with Antonio Canova's and Jacques-Louis David's career. It will focus on artists, movements and essential topics, and at the same time will aim to provide the students with the tools for understanding and analysing the works of art, studying them in relation to their historical and cultural context, and in their style, iconography, and technique. Through the manual, attending students will complete the knowledge and skills acquired during classes.

Monographic course: the Ideal City.A recurrent theme in the history of mankind, the theme is particularly evident in the Renaissance, when the city resumed its central role as a fundamental place for human activity. From the Civitas Dei of Sant'Agostino, and therefore from a theological model, one arrives at the Ideal City of Giorgio Vasari the Younger, conceived according to the civil measure of human society, whose rules of 'bellezza' and 'ordine' are reflected in the balance and rationality of architecture and urban spaces.

Readings/Bibliography

I. Written exam

Attending students

I.a Class notes

I.b

Cricco Di Teodoro, Itinerario nell'arte, Bologna, Zanichelli, vol. 3, Dal Gotico internazionale al Manierismo, THIRD EDITION, YELLOW VERSION, 2011 (Units 17, 18, 19, 20); and vol. 4, Dal Barocco al Postimpressionismo, THIRD EDITION, YELLOW VERSION, 2012 (Units 21, 22, 23, 24).

Non-attending students :

Cricco Di Teodoro, Itinerario nell'arte, Bologna, Zanichelli, vol. 3, Dal Gotico internazionale al Manierismo, THIRD EDITION, YELLOW VERSION, 2011 (Units 17, 18, 19, 20); and vol. 4, Dal Barocco al Postimpressionismo, THIRD EDITION, YELLOW VERSION, 2012 (Units 21, 22, 23, 24).

II. Oral exam (only for students taking the 12 cfu exam)

Optional essays.

Attending students have to choose one book

Non-attending students have to choose two books from the following list:

Renaissance and XVIth century art

A. Pinelli, La bella maniera, Torino, Einaudi, 1993

J. Shearman, Funzione e illusione, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1983

A. Pinelli, La bellezza impura: arte e politica nell'Italia del Rinascimento, Bari, Laterza, 2004

R. Wittkower, Principi architettonici nell'età dell'Umanesimo (1962), Torino, Einaudi, 1994

M. Tafuri, Ricerca del Rinascimento, principi, città, architetti, Torino, Einaudi, 1992

G.C. Argan, B. Contardi, Michelangelo architetto, Milano 1990

F. Zeri, Pittura e Controriforma. L'Arte senza tempo di Scipione da Gaeta, Torino, Einaudi, 1957

Nell'età del Correggio e dei Carracci, cat. della mostra, Bologna 1986 (i saggi alle pagg. XV – XXXI, 3-20, 31-44, 213- 254, 355-367 e le schede delle opere di Correggio, di Parmigianino e dei Carracci)

P. Prodi, Arte e pietà nella Chiesa tridentina, Bologna, Il mulino, 2014

Methods

D. Arasse, Non si vede niente, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 (prefazione di Claudia Ceri Via)

F. Arcangeli, Corpo, azione, sentimento, fantasia. Lezioni 1967-1970, a cura di V. Pietrantonio, Bologna, Il mulino, 2015, vol. 1, pp. 7-41 e vol. 2, pp. 9-154

E. Panofsky, Il significato nelle arti visive (1955), Torino, Einaudi, 1996

S. Settis, Il futuro del classico, Torino, Einaudi, 2004 e, insieme, S. Settis, Continuità, distanza, conoscenza. Tre usi dell'antico, in Storia dell'arte italiana, Memoria dell'antico nell'arte italiana, tomo III, Dalla tradizione all'archeologia, Torino, Einaudi, 1986, pp. 375-486

E. Castelnuovo, Il significato del ritratto pittorico nella società in Storia d'Italia, Torino, Einaudi 1973, vol. 5/2, pp. 1033-1094 e, insieme, F. Zeri, La percezione visiva dell'Italia e degli italiani, Torino, Einaudi, 1976

S. Cavicchioli, Le metamorfosi di Psiche. L'iconografia della favola di Apuleio, Venezia, Marsilio, 2002

S. Verde, Cultura senza Capitale. Storia e tradimento di un'idea italiana (con un saggio di A. Emiliani), Venezia, Marsilio, 2014

XVIIth century art

R. Longhi, Caravaggio (1951), Milano, Martello (anche nelle ristampe Martello o Editori Riuniti)

F. Bologna, L’incredulità di Caravaggio e l’esperienza delle “cose naturali”, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, (1992), 2006

Roma 1630. Il trionfo del pennello, catalogo della mostra, Milano, Electa, 1994, saggi di G. Briganti, M. Fumaroli, O. Bonfait, S. Ebert-Schifferer, O. Bonfait (pp. 23-126) e, nel catalogo, schede dei dipinti alle pp. 128-181

P.Portoghesi, Roma barocca (1966), Bari, Laterza 1978 (vol.I)

T. Montanari, La libertà di Bernini, Torino, Einaudi, 2016

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

M.G. Bernardini, M.Fagiolo dell'Arco (a cura di), Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del Barocco, catalogo della mostra, Milano Skira 1999 (i saggi introduttivi e le schede di una sezione)

F. Haskell, Mecenati e pittori, Firenze, Sansoni 1985 (le pp.17-263 oppure le pp. 377-583)

E. Mâle, L'arte religiosa nel Seicento, ed. it. Milano Jaca Book, 1984

S. Cavicchioli,"L'Aquila e 'l Pardo". Rinaldo I e il mecenatismo di casa d'Este nel Seicento, Modena, Franco Cosimo Panini, 2015

S. Alpers, Arte del descrivere-Scienza e pittura nel Seicento olandese, Boringhieri, 1984: in particolare l'Introduzione e i capitoli 3, 4 e 6 

S. Schama, La cultura olandese nell'epoca d'oro, Milano, Mondadori, 1988

M. Fumaroli, La scuola del silenzio, Milano, Adelphi, 1995, cap. I: “Il Parnaso romano”, pp. 13-209

XVIII century art

J. Starobinski, La scoperta della libertà, Ginevra, Skira 1964

O. Rossi Pinelli, Le arti nel Settecento europeo, Torino, Einaudi, 2009

L. Barroero, Le Arti e i Lumi. Pittura e scultura da Piranesi a Canova, Torino, Einaudi, 2011

A. Ottani Cavina, I paesaggi della ragione, Torino, Einaudi, 1994

R. Rosenblum, Trasformazioni nell'arte. Iconografia e stile tra Neoclassicismo e Romanticismo, Roma, La Nuova Italia Scientifica 1984

G. Briganti, I pittori dell'immaginario (1989), Milano, Electa, 1996

III. Monographic part: the Ideal City (only for students taking the 12 cfu exam)

the bibliography will be provided during the course

Teaching methods

The course will consist of lectures (enriched by Power Point displays). On-site visits to monuments and museums, in Bologna or other towns (esp. Parma) will be held if compatibles with the course schedule. The possibility will be checked at the beginning of the classes.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of a written (1) and an oral exam (2):

Students taking a 6 cfu exam are required to take only the written exam (1).

1. Written exam (for students taking 12 and 6 cfu exams)

The test is meant to check the student's knowledge of the general part: the history of art from the late 15th to the early 19th century (main figures, movements, issues).

The written exam will involve the projection of 10 images of artworks. Each image will be screened for 5 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes

They are required to state author, title, date (at least approximate) of the art works and locations of fresco cycles and architectures, and to write a brief historical and stylistic comment.

The works are to be placed in their historical context and in the artist's own development (circumstances of commission, contents and aim of the artwork); students will then provide a competent stylistic analysis of the works.This may be a synthetic text.

All the pictures are published in the manual.

Evaluation of the written exam:

The written test will be marked as follows:

- Correct image recognition (artist, subject, date, place of storage, short critical reading of its iconographic aspects, historical context and stylistic characteristics): on a scale of 1 to 3 points;

- Incorrect identification or failure to identify the image: zero points.

The pass mark is 18/30.

The written test counts for a third of the final mark (10/30).

The written exam can be set whenever there is an oral exam session.

Students can access the oral exam only after a successful completion of the written one.

2. Oral exam (open to students taking a 12 cfu exam, when they have passed the written test)

Discussion of a) 1 or 2 texts chosen by the student among the optional essays, and b) the bibliography relating to the monographic part, that will be soon available.

FINAL EXAM REQUIREMENTS

In the written exam and during the interview the student must show the knowledge of main topics discussed in class and in the mandatory bibliography, as well as the mastering of the methods and critical tools. The identification of the works of art and their broader context are crucial requirements for the success of the exam.

For this reason is strongly recommended a careful study of the iconographical material both of the bibliography and distributed by the instructor, which can be also downloaded from the website: https://campus.unibo.it/

In particular:

1. It will be graded as excellent the performance of those students demonstrating to be able to thoroughly analyse the works of art and the texts, and to put them into an organic view of the topics discussed during the course. The proper use of the specific language during the examination will be also essential.

2. It will be graded as discrete the performance of those students with mostly mnemonic knowledge, no in-depth analysis capabilities and a correct, but not always appropriate, language of the recommended texts.

3. It will be graded as barely sufficient the performance of those students with approximate knowledge, superficial understanding, poor analytical capabilities and a not always appropriate language.

4. It will be graded as insufficient the performance of those students with learning gaps, inappropriate language, no orientation within the recommended bibliography.

Teaching tools

Lectures; powerpoint slides.

Office hours

See the website of Valeria Rubbi