90603 - Contexts and Meanings of Medieval Art (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of Medieval Art from the 5th to the 15th century. Students will also improve the skills and methodologies necessary to read specific art cases at a geographic, historical and cultural level. The course will focus on the artists (architects, painters, sculptors, miniaturists, etc.) who, working in specific geographical contexts, give rise to the regional figurative traditions and their reciprocal influences.

Course contents

THE LITURGICAL SPACE: MALE AND FEMALE CHOIRS

The Exam Hystory of Art B is composed of two courses: History of the illuminations (prof. Lollini) and Contexts and Meanings of Medieval Art (prof. Massaccesi). Modern Art B is an integrated examination of 12 CFU (6 CFU+6 CFU) for which the verification and evaluation of the preparation follow the procedures laid down for an integrated examination, i.e. they must be taken in the same examination session and the students must therefore register simultaneously for both examinations.

The course intends to investigate the arts through themes able to read in a transversal and synchronic way the spatial contexts of the works of art in their context (VI-XV century). For this reason the course is divided into two parts.

The first part (I) will focus on the study of spaces and their furnishings: form and function of works of art (paintings, frescoes, illuminated books) in relation to the liturgy, architecture, accesses and pilgrimage routes.

The second part (II) will focus on the spatial and decorative restitution of some medieval Bolognese monuments: San Vittore, the cathedral of San Pietro, San Giacomo Maggiore, San Petronio and the difference between the male and female areas.

Readings/Bibliography

Students who will attend classes: they will have to study, in addition to the personal notes of the lessons one of the following texts.

Fabio Massaccesi, San Petronio. Un antipapa, un mercante, gli artisti, Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2020;

Nonnen: Starke Frauen im Mittelalter, exhibition catalogue (Landesmuseum of Zurich), Zurich 2020;

Imago Splendida. Capolavori di scultura lignea a Bologna da Romanico al Duecento, catalogo della mostra, edited by Massimo Medica, Luca Mor, Milan 2019;

Hanna Christine Jacobs, Raumerzählung. Narration und räumliche Disposition hagiographischer Bilderzyklen des Tre und Quattrocento, Berlin 2019;

Giovanni Giura, San Francesco di Asciano. Opere, Fonti e contesti per la storia della Toscana francrescana, Florence 2018;

Emanuele Zappasodi, Sorores reclusae. Spazi di clausura e immagini dipinte in Umbria fra XIII e XIV secolo, Florence 2018;

Arturo Calzona, Il cantiere medievale della cattedrale di Cremona, Milan 2009;

Arredi liturgici e architettura, a cura di Carlo Quintavalle, Milan 2007;

Monika Schmelzer, Der Mittelalterliche Lettern, Petrsberg 2004;

Anabel Thomas, Art and Piety in the Female Religious Communities of Renaissance Italy. Iconography, Space, and the Religious Woman’s Perspective, Cambridge University press, 2003;

L’arte medievale nel contesto 300-1300. Funzioni, Iconografia, Tecniche, edited by Paolo Piva, Milan 2006.

And two of the following articles or essays:

Federico Marazzi, Le città dei monaci. Storia degli spazi che avvicinano a Dio, Milan 2015; Paolo Piva, Lo spazio liturgico: architettura, arredo, iconografia, in L’arte medievale nel contesto. 300-1300. Funzioni, Iconografia, Tecniche, edited by Paolo Piava, Milan 2006, pp. 141-180; Bruno Boerner, Cattedrali gotiche e portali scolpiti. Le connessioni contestuali del culto delle reliquie, in Arte medievale. Le vie dello spazio liturgico, edited by Paolo Piva, Milan 2012, pp. 219-247; La Place du Choeur. Architecture et liturgie du Moyen Âge aux Temps Modernes, sour la direction de Sabine Frommel, Laurent Lecomnte, Paris 2012, pp. 25-86; Giuseppa Zanichelli, Codici e arredo liturgico nel Medioevo, in Arredi liturgici e architettura, edited by Carlo Arturo Quintavalle, Milan 2007, pp. 86-98. Clario di Fabio, In petra e in ligno. Pluralità di competenze e osmosi di stile nei cantieri francesi del primo Duecento: il crocifisso detto Saint-Savre della cattedrale di Amiens, in Medioevo: le officine, edited by Caro Arturo Quintavalle, Milano 2010, pp. 312-328; Fabio Massaccesi, Il corridore della chiesa agostiniana di San Giacomo Maggiore a Bologna: prime ipotesi ricostruttive, in Zeitschritft für Kunstgeschischte, 2014, pp. 1-26; Donal Cooper, Recovering the lost rood screens of medieval and Renaissance Italy, in The Art and Science of the Church Screen in medieval Europe. Making, menanig, Preserving, edited by Spike Bueklow, Richard Marks, Lucy Wrapson, New York 2017, pp. 220-245; Fabio Massaccesi, Per Ravenna trecentesca. Nuove proposte per l’assetto architettonico di Santa Maria in Porto Fuori, in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2019, pp. 3-31.

Other alternative bibliographic material will be provided in class.

Consultation of the two books is strongly recommended: F. Keith, S. J. Pecklers, Atlante storico della liturgia, Milano 2017; Il Mondo dei pellegrinaggi, a cura di Paolo Caucci von Saucken, Milano 2018.

Students who will not attend classes:

dovranno studiare i seguenti libri e articoli: Arredi liturgici e architettura, edited by Carlo Arturo Quintavalle, Milano 2007; Fabio Massaccesi, San Petronio. Un antipapa, un mercante, gli artisti, Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2020; Fabio Massaccesi, Il corridore della chiesa agostiniana di San Giacomo Maggiore a Bologna: prime ipotesi ricostruttive, in Zeitschritft für Kunstgeschischte, 2014, pp. 1-26; Fabio Massaccesi, Per Ravenna trecentesca. Nuove proposte per l’assetto architettonico di Santa Maria in Porto Fuori, in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2019, pp. 3-31.

Uno dei due libri può essere sostituito da uno dei seguenti: L’arte medievale nel contesto. 300-1300. Funzioni, iconografia, Tecniche, edited by P. Piva, Milano 2006; Arte medievale. Le vie dello spazio liturgico, edited by Paolo Piva, Milano 2012; Imago Splendida. Capolavori di scultura lignea a Bologna da Romanico al Duecento, exhibition catalogue, edited by Massimo Medica, Luca Mor, Milan 2019; Emanuele Zappasodi, Sorores reclusae. Spazi di clausura e immagini dipinte in Umbria fra XIII e XIV secolo, Florence 2018; Giovanni Giura, San Francesco di Asciano. Opere, Fonti e contesti per la storia della Toscana francrescana, Firenze 2018; Nonnen: Starke Frauen im Mittelalter, exhibition catalogur (Landesmuseum of Zurich), Zurich 2020.

Consultation of the two books is strongly recommended: F. Keith, S. J. Pecklers, Atlante storico della liturgia, Milano 2017; Il Mondo dei pellegrinaggi, a cura di Paolo Caucci von Saucken, Milano 2018.

Teaching methods

Due to the restrictions imposed by the current health emergency, this teaching activity will be carried out in the following manner:

Traditional method: the teacher will always be present personally in the indicated classroom during this teaching activity. The students will alternate their presence, according to a schedule of shifts being defined (more detailed information regarding the shifts and about the modalities to get access to the classroom lessons will be provided soon). It will always be possible to connect remotely and to follow live lessons via the online platform TEAMS.

Assessment methods

Oral examination, with three questions on points I and II of the program. For students who will have attended classes, questions will be based on specific topics about issues and bibliography discussed during lessons (I), and on stylistic identification, and both formal and iconographic analysis of materials studied in classes (II). For students who will have not attended classes, the exam will be based on questions connected with subjects and topics included in the above mentioned texts.

Teaching tools

Powerpoints and Omeka

Office hours

See the website of Fabio Massaccesi