11965 - History of Modern Art (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will possess a detailed knowledge of Italian and European art history from the early Cinquecento to the end of the Settecento. They will be familiar with the main issues and research lines of these centuries’ art, recognising and commenting on works by artists who best represent the various movements

Course contents

The objective of the course is to provide the student with adequate critical tools for the study and interpretation of works of art parting with a historical contextual approach.

The course is devoted to the study of magic and witchcraft in art from the Sixteenth to the Seventeenth century. At the beginning of the course, will be considered engravings with magical-witchcraft subjects, produced in Northern Europe, initially by anonymous draughtsmen, then by very important artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Hans Baldung Grien (1476-1545), but also by Italian artists such as Agostino Veneziano (ca. 1490-1540). It will be shown that the subjects treated by these artists have numerous references to classical Latin literature. It will then consider the sorceresses of literature, particularly Circe, Melissa, Medea and Armida and their representation by artists. As for the Seventeenth century, special attention will be payed to Angelo Caroselli and Salvator Rosa.

The course intends to examine a type of artistic production, which, due to the nature of the subjects depicted - sorceresses and witches were often represented lewdly and semi-nude -, demonstrate that the establishment's attempts, specially since the Council of Trent, to control artistic production not always was successful., Indeed, also through the treatise writers, the establishment sought to set aesthetic and iconographic and therefore absolute and coercive moral canons, but it experienced phenomena of dissidence and rebellion.

The first half hour of every lesson beginning the week will be devoted to the discussion of articles from the Sunday edition of Il Sole 24 Ore and Il Giornale dell'Arte, which all students are required to purchase, indeed on a voluntary basis, each student, is invited to present an article of these newspapers in the classroom. This is to provide an awareness that the study of the past makes sense only in function of attention to the art-historical and, in a broader sense, cultural, social and political events happening in the present.

This program is reserved exclusively for students who attend lessons, because notes taken in the classroom and educational material provided 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

M. Duni, “Le streghe e gli storici, 1986-2006: bilanci e prospettive”, in “Non lasciar vivere la malefica”. Le streghe nei trattati e nei processi (secoli XIV-XVII), edited by D. Corsi-M. Duni, Florence, Firenze University Press, 2008, pp. 1-18.

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, edited by M. G. Bernardini-M. Bussagli, Milan, Skira, 2015, pp. 170-176.

A. Anselmi, “Magia e stregoneria nel teatro di Nicolò Piperno, Filippo Acciajoli e Girolamo Fontana: la Noce di Benevento”, in Trame di meraviglia. Studi in onore di Silvia Carandini, edited by P. Bertolone- A. Corea-D. Gavrilovich, Rome, Universitalia, 2016, pp. 11-25.

Students who do not attend lessons

A. Pinelli, La Storia dell’Arte. Istruzioni per l’uso, Bari, Editori Laterza & Figli, 2009.

and one of the following two texts:

C. Ginzburg, Paura reverenza terrore. Cinque saggi di iconografia politica, Milan, Adelphi, 2015 (English edition, Fear, Reverence, Terror: Five Essays in Political Iconography, Seagull Books, 2016).

or

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

Teaching methods

Lessons with projections and analyses of images.

Assessment methods

EXAMS WILL BE ONLY IN ITALIAN.

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.

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

Teaching tools

projector

Office hours

See the website of Alessandra Anselmi