11207 - Musical Iconography

Learning outcomes

The course provides the basic theoretical and methodological assumptions of the discipline and introduces the study of music-iconographic representations as sources for the history of music and its representations from antiquity to our day. At the end of the course, the student possesses the critical skills necessary to contextualize the main iconographic themes attested in Western artistic production and is able to independently set up a research, identifying figures and musical contents referable both to the performance practices and to the ideal and symbolic sphere.

Course contents

The course will be organized in two parts:

1. Introduction to Music Iconography: History, Methods, Perspectives

The first part of the course will be devoted to a short presentation of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the discipline and its recent developments, with particular reference to the main international research currently underway.

2. The image of the music book in the iconography of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

The second part of the course, organized in a seminar form, will lead students to the recognition and interpretation of the main iconographic and musical themes attested in the artistic production of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, with particular attention to the depictions of music books painted in the most diverse iconographic themes : from the portrait to the ‘concert’, to the still-life and the Vanitas. Through the analysis of some exemplary cases, the iconographic fortune of the music book will be related on one hand to the circulation of repertoire and musical sources through Europe, as well as to the peculiar meanings assigned to the musical texts within the peculiar milieux that produced the images.

The course includes iconographic-music cataloging exercises and guided tours of museums and exhibitions.

Within the cycle dedicated to ‘The Images of Music. Themes and Symbols of Musical Iconography’, seminars and conferences will be held with the participation of specialists active in major international research centers, in collaboration with the IMS International Musicological Society Study Group on Musical Iconography.

 The course will take place in the second semester, starting on Tuesday, eJanuary 30th, 2018

Hours: Tuesday, 16-19; Thursday, 10-13.

Readings/Bibliography

T. SEEBASS, article Iconography, in The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London, Mac Millan, 2001, pp.54-71;

- N. GUIDOBALDI, Prospettive dell'Iconografia musicale all'inizio del terzo millennio, in Prospettive di iconografia musicale, Milano, Mimesis, 2007, pp. 7-37;

 

- U. ROZZO, Iconologia del libro nelle edizioni del XV e XVI secolo, Udine, Forum, 2016;

- N. GUIDOBALDI, Percorsi musicali nel Fondo Natura morta della Fondazione Federico Zeri, ne La Natura morta di Federico Zeri, a cura di Andrea Bacchi, Francesca Mambelli, Elisabetta Sambo, Fondazione Federico Zeri, 2015, pp. 247-261

PANOFSKY, Iconografia e iconologia. Introduzione alla storia dell'arte del Rinascimento, ne Il significato delle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi, 1962, pp.30-57

Further references will be distributed during the readings.

Teaching methods

Readings and seminars.

The course will also include cataloging exercises and guided tours within the "Vedere i suoni" project.

For interested students, you will also be able to participate in the supplementary activities envisaged within the Laboratory of Iconography (2 CFU) which will be activated in the aa. 2017-18.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral interview aimed at assessing the critical and methodological skills and knowledge acquired by the student, who will be invited to confront the texts, the themes and the methodological issues faced during the course and during the seminars.

Attending students will be required to elaborate an individual job, to be agreed with the teacher and presented in seminar form during the last lessons of the course.

Non attending students are required to read the texts listed in the bibliography and are invited to contact the teacher to agree an alternative work program for the examination.

The assessment of the exam will take into account, in particular, the student's ability to use readings, sources, and exam bibliography to illustrate contents and issues, and to establish links between them .

The examinator will therefore assess the mastery of the content and the ability to synthesize and analyze the concepts, and the ability to express themselves in a language appropriated to the subject matter.

The student’s achievement of an organic vision of the themes dealt with in the lesson together with their critical use, good expressive mastery and specific language will be evaluated with excellence marks; formative gaps and / or inappropriate language, will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency.

Teaching tools

PC, video projector, CD player.

Reproductions of texts and musical images  will be distributed during the course and made available on line at the end of the lessons.

Office hours

See the website of Nicoletta Guidobaldi