90621 - History of Drawing (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, which focuses in particular on the modern era (from the 15th to the end of 18th century), students will have acquired the necessary skills and methodologies to learn about drawing and engraving activities mainly developed within the Italian context and its European connections. The course will focus on the techniques and stylistic peculiarities of artists belonging to various geographical contexts and their reciprocal influences, as well as the history and notoriety of collections in this specific field.

Course contents

The course will present significant works for the study of techniques and styles, experimented by artists in the modern age, giving ample space to the analysis of innovations and solutions coined. It will deal with works of invention and translation, the dissemination and role of the popular press, as well as the formation of some important collections of graphics.

At the end of the course, students will have acquired the skills and methodologies necessary to know, analyse and relate drawings, prints and engravings of the modern age (from the 15th to the 18th centuries). Subject of study, in relation to graphic production, will be:

- techniques and stylistic languages belonging to specific artistic and geographical contexts;

- the connections and interactions between artists and schools, in Italy and Europe;

- the elaboration of particular iconographies and the rendering of cultural, social and religious ideas and motivations;

- the critical fortune and the collecting of the works under examination.

First part: stylistic techniques and languages; connections and interactions in the graphic production of the modern age.

Second part: 1) Raphael's invention, dissidence and post-Vatican Loggias culture; 2) "nature, emotion, theatre"; 3) propaganda, otherness, satire; 4) landscape, idea of ancient and 'beautiful'. We will study how graphics have become the medium and interpreter of expressive statements as well as of social and cultural phenomena, therefore from the rendering of 'affections', to religious polemics, and the experience of the trip to Italy.

Readings/Bibliography

1) first part. Two of the following texts. If an entire volume is indicated, please, select a chapter within the volume.

1.1.
in Il Disegno. Forme, tecniche, significati, Torino 1991: G.C. Sciolla, “Schizzi, macchie e pensieri”. Il disegno negli scritti d’arte dal Rinascimento al Romanticismo, pp. 11–89; S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Forme, funzioni, tipologie, pp. 93–183; A.M. Petrioli Tofani, I materiali e le tecniche, pp. 187–251; or in Il Disegno. I grandi collezionisti (essays by G. Fusconi, A. Petrioli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, G. Carlo Sciolla), a chapter chosen between: Principi, artisti e letterati collezionisti di disegni nell'Italia del Rinascimento; or Antiquari, ''virtuosi'' e dilettanti collezionisti di disegni nell'Europa barocca, Torino 1992.
Le tecniche del disegno rinascimentale: dai materiali allo stile, ed. by M. Faietti, L. Melli, A. Nova, Firenze 2008;
Figure, memorie, spazio: disegni da fra' Angelico a Leonardo, ed. by H. Chapman e M. Faietti, Firenze; Milano 2011.

1.2.
E. Borea, Stampa figurativa e pubblico dalle origini all’affermazione nel Cinquecento, in Storia dell’arte italiana, tomo 1. Materiali e problemi. vol. 2. L'artista e il pubblico, ed. by G. Previtali, Torino 1979, pp. 317–413;
or E. Borea, in Lo specchio dell’arte italiana. Stampe in cinque secoli, vol. I, chapter III: A Roma al tempo di Raffaello, pp. 41–62; chapter V: Marcantonio e i suoi dopo la morte di Raffaello, pp. 69–75; VII: L’avvio ufficiale del mercato delle stampe a Roma, pp. 85–91; XXVII: Gli argomenti di Giovan Pietro Bellori, pp. 305–318; XXXIII: Roma primo Settecento. La restaurazione dell’ordine, pp. 399–411;
or Prints in translation, 1450-1750, image, materiality, space, ed. by S. Karr Schmidt & E. H. Wouk, London; New York 2017.

With regard to the terminology and specificities of some techniques, you are encouraged to consult:
A. M. Hind, Storia dell'incisione, Torino 1998 (also available in English version) or S. Massari, F. Negri Arnoldi, Arte e scienza dell'incisione (parte prima e parte seconda), Roma 1987; F. Negri Arnoldi, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Il disegno nella storia dell'arte italiana, Roma 2003; G. Mariani (edited by), Le tecniche d’incisione a rilievo. La xilografia (Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Lineamenti di storia delle tecniche), Roma 2001; Le tecniche calcografiche d’incisione diretta. Bulino puntasecca maniera nera, Roma 2003; Le tecniche calcografiche d’incisione indiretta. Acquaforte, acquatinta, lavis, ceramolle, Roma 2005; C. Maltese (edited by), Le tecniche artistiche, Milano 2009, pp. 241–341.

2) The second part includes four possible paths. The student will choose one of the four paths and, within that, will opt for a text or a volume. Once a volume has been chosen, please focus on catalog entries concerning drawings, prints and engravings, in exhibition catalogues and monographs, or on a particular chapter.

2.1. Raphael's invention, dissidence and post-Vatican Loggias culture

Raphael invenit: stampe da Raffaello nelle collezioni dell'Istituto nazionale per la grafica, ed. by G. Bernini Pezzini, S. Massari and S. Prosperi Valenti Rodino, Roma 1985; or Raphael: cartoons and tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, ed. by M. Evans, London 2010; or Roma e lo stile classico di Raffaello, 1515-1527, Milano 1999.
Norma e capriccio: spagnoli in Italia agli esordi della maniera moderna, a cura di T. Mozzati, A. Natali
Firenze / Milano 2013, oppure una parte da Spagna e Italia in dialogo nell’Europa del Cinquecento, ed. by M. Faietti, Firenze / Milano 2018, o da L. Boubli, Le dessin en Espagne à la Renaissance: pour une interprétation de la trace, Turnhout 2015.
P. Leone de Castris, Polidoro da Caravaggio: l'opera completa, Napoli 2001 o D. Cordellier, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Milano 2007.
Perino del Vaga tra Raffaello e Michelangelo, Milano 2001.
Correggio e Parmigianino: arte a Parma nel Cinquecento, exhibition catalogue, ed. by D. Ekserdjian, Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana editoriale, 2016; or Raffaello, Parmigianino, Barocci: metafore dello sguardo, exhibition catalogue, ed. by M. Faietti, Roma 2015; or Disegni del Rinascimento in Valpadana, exhibition catalogue (Uffizi, GDSU), a cura di G. Agosti, Firenze 2001.

2.2. "nature, emotion, theatre"

Annibale Carracci, exhibition catalogue, ed. by D. Benati and E. Riccòmini, Milano 2006 or The drawings of Annibale Carracci, edited by D. Benati, Washington / London 2000;
or C. Loisel, Ludovico, Agostino, Annibale Carracci, Paris 2004 or C. Loisel, Ludovico Carracci, Milano 2004;
or Guercino: la scuola, la maniera: i disegni agli Uffizi, edited by N. Turner, Firenze 2008; or La fabrique des saintes images. Rome-Paris 1580 - 1660, exhibition catalogue (Louvre, du 2 avril au 29 juin 2015), sous la dir. de Louis Frank et Philippe Malgouyres, Paris 2015 (with essays by Catherine Loisel).

2.3. propaganda, otherness, satire

Enfer ou paradis: aux sources de la caricature, XVIe – XVIIIe siècles, edited by F. Elsig, Geneva 2013;
or a chapter from: S. Leitch, Mapping ethnography in early modern Germany: new worlds in print culture, New York 2010;
or a chapter from: A. G. Stewart, Before Bruegel: Sebald Beham and the origins of peasant festival imagery, Aldershot 2008;
or a chapter from: The Other Hogarth: aesthetics of difference, edited by B. Fort & A. Rosenthal, Princeton 2001.

2.4. landscape, idea of ancient and 'beautiful'

Amico Aspertini, 1474–1552: artista bizzarro nell'età di Dürer e Raffaello, ed. by A. Emiliani and D. Scaglietti Kelescian, Milano 2008;
or A. J. DiFuria, Maarten van Heemskerck’s Rome: antiquity, memory, and the cult of ruins, Leiden ; Boston 2019;
or Claude Lorrain: the enchanted landscape, edited by M. Sonnabend & J. Whiteley, Oxford 2011;
or Poussin and nature: arcadian visions, edited by P. Rosenberg & K. Christiansen, New York; New Haven 2008.

Non-attending students
Students who do not attend the lessons must prepare, in addition to the first part (1.1 and 1.2.), two texts belonging to the second part. These may belong either to the same or to two different paths. Always focus in particular on the pages dedicated to drawings, prints and engravings, or a chapter within the chosen volumes.

Teaching methods

The course consists of frontal lessons, with critical analysis and projection of images, and a seminar part of in-depth study. The course may include the live study of some significant works.

Assessment methods

The learning test will consist of an oral exam in which the Candidate will have to undergo a critical discussion based on the notes of the lessons and the texts in the program. The students who have attended the seminar part can also take the exam concerning the second part of the program through a written exercise that consists in the preparation of 2/3 catalog entries or a micro-essay. Students who opt for seminar+ written exercise can take the oral exam on the first part (1.1. and 1.2.) and then directly discuss their catalog entries or micro-essay, which must be delivered at least one week before the exam.

The Candidate will be able to pass the exam in an excellent way if she or he demonstrates to master the technical lexicon, as well as to argue stylistic issues with conscious language properties, establishing links and reflections, in order to highlight a deep knowledge of the topics dealt with during the lessons and present in the texts indicated. The Candidate must place the graphic production within the artistic path of its author, in the geographical and historical context. During the oral exam, recognition and analysis of the works will also be required. The Candidate must demonstrate that she/he is capable of orienting with agility in the graphic production of the modern age by creating comparisons and connections, and highlighting consonances and interactions between the works, in the light of the themes dealt with in the second part (2.1., or 2.2., or 2.3. or 2.4.).

As indicated above, the optional preparation of a written paper (to be agreed with the teacher and to be discussed during the oral exam), concerning the cases discussed during the seminar part, is a possibility reserved only for attending students and valid as assessment of the second part.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentations, handouts and additional or alternative texts (in particular for the preparation of the catalog entries and micro-essay).

Office hours

See the website of Maria Vittoria Spissu