08808 - STORIA DELLE ARTI APPLICATE

Learning outcomes

The course gives the basic knowledge of the decorative and applied arts in Italy in the modern and contemporary age. At the end of the course student should be able to identify the technical and stylistic features of the objects examined.

Course contents

Personalia. Feminine ornament from Gonzaga princesses to Christian Dior mannequins

The course aims to offer an overview of fundamental steps in the history of applied arts from the Early Modern Era to contemporary trends. By choosing the theme of female ornamental object as leitmotif, it will be possible to learn the role that the decorative arts have played in the development of the italian and european different artistic languages. The multidisciplinary approach intends to explore thematic areas such as fashion, craftsmanship, design, everyday objects, and manufacturing, for example jewelery, inlay, majolica and porcelain, precious stones and interior furniture. It will be reached a critical understanding of the historical and stylistic development of the typologies of appearance, to define the role that art objects had in the evolution of different tastes. The program will provide the historical and cultural methodologies to read the main contexts in which the decorative arts from the 15th to the 20th century have developed; it also allows a mapping of the most important collections of international decorative art museums.

The following topics will be addressed:

1. Artifex: the unity of the arts in Fifteenth-century Florence;

2. The jewels of the Gonzaga princesses between the 15th and 16th centuries;

3. The Farnese luxury objects from Rome to Parma;

4. Decorative arts at the Medici court between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;

5. Maria Mancini's litter (1663): baroque furnishings in seventeenth-century Rome;

6. Maria Amalia of Habsburg Lorraine and ceramics in the Grand Tour age;

7. From Joséphine De Beauharnais to Carolina Murat: the empire style of the Napoleonic female universe;

8. The woman style during the Belle Époque between France and Italy;

9. Luxury objects: Liberty jewels by Tiffany and Bvlgari;

10. From Futurism to Cocò Chanel, the liberation of the body in the 20th century;

11. The design between the two Wars, Bauhaus and Silhouette Decò;

12. The modern family: the birth of Made in Italy and Dior haute couture.

Readings/Bibliography

 

Attending:

Imagines and slides of the course.

And:

Liana Castelfranchi, Cinzia Piglione, Anna Menichella, Prolusioni in "Dizionario delle arti minori", a cura di C. Piglione, Francesca Tasso. Milano, Jaka Book 2020, pp. 79-114.

A. Rodolfo, C. Volpi (a cura di), Vestire i palazzi: stoffe, tessuti e parati negli arredi e nell'arte del Barocco, Edizioni Musei Vaticani 2014, pp. 17-29; 91-110.

Not attending:

L.Castelfranchi, C. Piglione, A. Menichella, Prolusioni in "Dizionario delle arti minori", a cura di Cinzia Piglione, Francesca Tasso. Milano, Jaka Book 2020, pp. 79-114.

A. Capitanio, “L'avorio, le gemme e simili care cose ...”: il rispecchiamento tra le arti nel Quattrocento toscano, in Storia delle arti in Toscana,3, Il Quattrocento, a cura di G. Dalli Regoli e R. P. Ciardi, Firenze 2002, pp. 247-262;

A. Staderini, Il confronto con le novità rinascimentali: pittori di cassoni nella Firenze di metà Quattrocento, in Virtù d’amore. Pittura nuziale nel Quattrocento fiorentino, a cura di C. Paolini, D. Parenti; L. Sebregondi, Firenze 2010, pp.115-125;

P. Venturelli, L’ornamento prezioso delle Dame di casa Gonzaga. Ritratti e oreficeria”, in “Critica d’Arte”, 16, 2002, pp. 57-62.

Francesco Salviati (1510-1563) o la Bella Maniera, catalogo della mostra, Accademia di Francia a Roma – Villa Medici, Musee du Louvre, gennaio – Marzo 1998, Milano 1998, l'Introduzione "Il mondo dell'ornamento" e schede 95, 96, 100.

Pregio e bellezza. Cammei e intagli dei Medici, catalogo della mostra a cura di Riccardo Gennaioli, Firenze, Museo degli Argenti di Palazzo Pitti, marzo-giugno 2010, Livorno 2010, pp. 42-47 e schede 72, 78, 83, 92

A. Rodolfo, C. Volpi (a cura di), Vestire i palazzi: stoffe, tessuti e parati negli arredi e nell'arte del Barocco, Edizioni Musei Vaticani 2014, pp. 17-29; 91-110.

A. Biancalana, La storia della manifattura Ginori: 1737 – 1791; il periodo di Carlo Ginori e quello di suo figlio Lorenzo, in Quando la manifattura diventa arte: le porcellane e le maioliche di Doccia, a cura di A. Biancalana, Pisa, pp. 9-30.

G. Belli, Arredo, oggettistica, moda: l’avventura della Ricostruzione futurista dell’universo, in E. Crispolti (a cura di), Futurismo 1909-1944. Arte, architettura, spettacolo, grafica, letteratura, Mazzotta, Milano 2001, pp. 147-161.

G. D'Amato, Moda e design. Stili e accessori del Novecento, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2007, cap. 5 "Gli anni Cinquanta", da pp. 117- 148.

Teaching methods

The course will be composed by lectures and power point presentations.

Attendance is strongly recommended.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of an oral test. The discussion of the course topics will be based on the recommended texts and articles and lecture notes.

In particular:

1. Those students who show developed analytical skills of selected readings and their correct contextualization within a complete vision of the issues discussed during lectures will be given a mark of excellence. Mastering of field-specific language and good expression during the examination will also be required (A =28-30 con lode).

2. Those students who show mnemonic knowledge of the subject and a superficial analysis of selected readings, as well as a correct but not always appropriate mastering of the field-specific language will be given a satisfactory mark (B = 25-27 and C = 23-24).

3. Those students who will show vague knowledge and superficial understanding of selected readings, limited analytical skills and a not always appropriate expression will be given a ‘pass’ mark roughly (D = 18-22).

4. Those students who show gaps in their knowledge and lack of familiarity with selected readings will not be given a ‘pass’ mark (E).

Teaching tools

Lectures with digital slides.

Office hours

See the website of Giulia Iseppi