11462 - Archaeology and History of Greek Art (1)

Learning outcomes

Aim of the Course is offering a basic knowledge of the Greek culture in its historical and artistic development. The First millennium B.C. will be presented divided in the traditional phases of the Greek culture (i.e.Proto-G, Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic) will be analysed in its historical and geographical features. This background will enable students, during their preparation for the exam, to have the right context where they should put the specific knowledge of town planning, monumental structures and productions of the art and the handicraft of the Greek world, including the western Greek colonies.

Course contents

I.  Outlines of Greek Archaeology and Art History. Introduction to Greek culture: the historical and geographical background. Protogeometric and Geometric period: early structures and building materials; experimentation of the plastic representation of human and animal figures. Shapes of Greek vases and their function; the production of the Dipylon. Orientalizing period: progress in architecture; the dedalic sculpture. Protoattic and Corinthian pottery. Archaic period: corinthian and attic pottery; architecture and architectural sculpture; sculpture in the round; black-figured and red-figured  attic pottery; subjects represented, with particular reference to the mythological themes; polis and urban structure. Classical period: primacy of Athens: pottery, architecture and  sculpture; the development of the agorà. The IVth Century: new cities, town planning, domestic architecture; main sculptors; wall painting and mosaics: Vergina and Pella. Hellenistic period: political, social and economical changes as innovative factors in particular in Greek architecture and sculpture. Guided visit to the Archaeological Museum of Bologna: collections and Gipsoteca (casts of Greek sculptures)

II. Annual topic: The concept of “epoch”. Absolute and relative cronology. Literary sources in archaeology. The Greek city: planned and unplanned cities; constitutive elements of the Greek cities: agorà, acropolis, sanctuaries, living quarters, city walls, the places of community culture. Panhellenic sanctuaries and Thesauroi. Necropolis: types of tombs and tomb markers. Architecture: techniques and building materials, architectural types. Historical topography: the case of Athens. Sculpture: originals, copies, replicas. Portraits: definition and state of research, different types of portraits. Painting tecniques, function and content of paintings. Mosaic: techniques, styles, themes, setting. Pottery: shaping, painting, firing.

We strongly recommend to participate to the first lesson (October 10th, 2011), during which we will give instructions about the course and the exam. 

Students who take an exam for  6 CFU have to follow only the part I

Readings/Bibliography

I.    G.Bejor-M.Castoldi-C.Lambrugo, Arte greca, Mondadori Università, Milano 2008 

II.    T. Hölsher, L'Archeologia Classica. Un'introduzione, L'Erma di Bretschneider, Roma 2010:  the following chapters or parts of :chapters: ch.4.1-2 ; ch.5; ch.6.1 ; ch.7; ch.11-14 (pages concerning the Greek world); ch.15.1; ch.16.2-5; ch.17.1-2; ch.20-22, 24 (pages concerning the Greek world).

Students for 6 CFU have to read only the text indicated for the part I .

Teaching methods

Teaching method consists of head-on lessons, seminars and visits to the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna and to the Cast Gallery of the Museum, whose purpose is giving a direct approach to the ancient items and to the plaster casts of the main Greek sculptures.

Assessment methods

Final test consists of an oral examination in italian

Teaching tools

During the lessons visual aids will be widely used, especially projections from computer. All students will have the chance to supplement the lectures of the course with practice in laboratory among the didactic proposals of the Department of Archaeology.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Maria Brizzolara