OVERVIEW

The European Medieval Monumental Arts course is monographic; the specific theme to which the course is dedicated changes each year but the aim is always to critically investigate architecture, painting and sculpture in Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean between 1100 and 1400. Special attention is given to “dynamic” artistic phenomena of interrelation between artistic techniques and different geographical areas in terms of method and merit.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The objective of the course is to tackle and analyse themes dealing with medieval architecture, figurative arts and applied arts in a European perspective with specific attention to “dynamic” artistic phenomena of interrelation between different cultural areas.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The fundamental educational objectives of the teaching of Monumental Arts of the European Middle Ages are:

to guide students to face correctly and to understand a theme, a problem, a personality, an artistic phenomenon of medieval times in a historical and critical key;

to provide students with a wealth of specific knowledge in relation to a given topic and train them to use correct methodologies of approach, analysis, discussion, evaluation and historical contextualisation of medieval artistic documents;

to motivate students to study these documents, understood as certificates and monuments of civilization.

PREREQUISITES

General and specific knowledge and skills acquired in the course of Storia dell'Arte Medievale (History of Medieval Art).are required. Please, compare in detail the Teaching Form of the subject, within the Degree Course in Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

The ability to read and understand texts in English

TEACHING METHODS

The 9 cfu course is 54 hours long and is divided into lectures and study surveys. Lectures normally make use of powerpoint presentations.

The 6 cfu course is 36 hours long and is divided into lectures and study surveys. Although the themes are the same, the bibliographical material is reduced.

Images used will be made available to students in pdf format. These can be acquired by taking a usb drive with substantial memory to teaching staff during office hours.

At the end of the course, in the first few weeks of January 2020, a study trip will be organised, the programme of which is being drafted.

NB: The course is accompanied by an official educational seminar:
"Italian sculpture (XII-XIV century): reading and attribution exercises, case studies", Dr. Aurora Corio, (PhD student) (1 CFU)

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Works, patrons and contexts: art and architecture in Italy in the thirteenth century. Study cases

Program for students who use teaching for 9 cfu

 1.   Introduction to the course: methods, problems, reference texts
 2.  Fossanova, Casamari and Cistercian architecture
 3.  Opus francigenum and Gothic sculpture in Genoa: local demands, European perspective
 4. An 'European' building for a 'European' cardinal: Sant'Andrea di Vercelli
 5. The 'Porta di Capua' and the 'architecture of power' in the Southern Italy in the Age of Frederick II
 6.:The Assisi Basilica: relations between architecture, sculpture and painting
 7. Distinguished patrons in Liguria between the 13th and 14th centuries: the Fieschi family and the churches of San Salvatore di Cogorno and  Santa Maria in Via Lata
 8. Final considerations

Program for students who use teaching for 6 credits

 1.   Introduction to the course: methods, problems, reference texts
 2.  Fossanova, Casamari and Cistercian architecture
 3.  Opus francigenum and Gothic sculpture in Genoa: local demands, European perspective
 4. An 'European' building for a 'European' cardinal: Sant'Andrea di Vercelli
 5. The 'Porta di Capua' and the 'power architecture' in the Southern Italy in the Sge of Frederick II
 6.  Final considerations

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography  for 9 cfu

1. Introduction to the course: methods, problems, reference texts

E. Castelnuovo, Opus francigenum, in Idem, Arte delle città, arte delle corti tra XII e XIV secolo, Torino, Einaudi, 2009 (ed.or. 1983), pp. 3-22; 

M.C. Schurr, L’Opus francigenum de Wimpfen im Tal: transfert technologique ou artistique ?, in Les transferts artistiques dans l’Europe gothique, a cura di J. Dubois, J.-M. Guillouët, B. van den Bossche,  Paris, Picard, 2014, p. 45-55 (il testo sarà tradotto dal docente in aula)

2. Fossanova, Casamari and Cistercian architecture

M. Righetti Tosti-Croce, Cistercensi, in Enciclopedia dell' Arte Medievale (1993), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/cistercensi_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Medievale%29/

3. Opus francigenum and gothic sculpture in Genoa: local demands, European perspective

C. Di Fabio, La Cattedrale di Genova fra 1200 e1230: esiti romanici, cantiere gotico, progetto architettonico e obiettivi di comunicazione, in La Cattedrale di San Lorenzo a Genova, Mirabilia Italiae, 18, a cura di A.R. Calderoni Masetti e G. Wolf, Modena 2012, pp. 59-73;

C. Di Fabio, Gothique italien: recherches sur la forme et la structure des portails de la cathédrale de Gênes et de Sant’Andrea de Verceil, in Mise en œuvre des portails gothiques. Architecture et sculpture, actes du colloque (Amiens, le 19 janvier 2009), a cura di I. Kasarska, Paris 2011, pp. 111-128;

C. Di Fabio, San Lorenzo di Genova e Sant'Andrea di Vercelli, due cantieri contemporanei. Problemi, sintonie, divergenze, in Sant’Andrea di Vercelli e il Gotico europeo agli inizi del Duecento, a cura di S. Lomartire, Vercelli in c.d.s. (sarà fornito il dattiloscritto)

4. An 'European' building for an 'European' cardinal: Sant'Andrea di Vercelli
La Magna Charta: Guala Bicchieri e il suo lascito. L'Europa a Vercelli nel Duecento, catalogo della mostra a cura di S. Lomartire, Vercelli 2019, pp. 31-32, 67-92, 103-11;

M. Schilling, Victorine Liturgy and its Architectural Setting at the Church of Sant'Andrea in Vercelli, in “Gesta”, 42 (2003), pp. 115-130

5. The Porta di Capua and the 'architecture of power ' in the southern Italy in the age of Frederick II

M. d’Onofrio, Capua, Porta di, in Federiciana (2005) http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/porta-di-capua_(Federiciana)/

6. The Assisi Basilica: relations between architecture, sculpture and painting

W. Schlenkluhn, San Francesco in Assisi. Ecclesia specialis: la visione di Papa Gregorio IX di un rinnovamento della Chiesa, Assisi, Edizioni Biblioteca Francescana, 1994

A. Tomei, Assisi, in Enciclopedia dell’Arte Medievale (1991) http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/assisi_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Medievale%29/

7. Distinguished patrons in Liguria between the 13th and 14th centuries: the Fieschi family and the churches of San Salvatore di Cogorno and  Santa Maria in Via Lata

G. Ameri, C. Di Fabio, Luca Fieschi cardinale collezionista mecenate (1300-1336), Cinisello Balsamo 2011, pp. 8-24, 112-137;

C. Di Fabio, Potere, reliquie e spazi sacri a Genova fra Due e Trecento: i Fieschi, il presbiterio della cattedrale e l’altare del Battista, in Arte e letteratura a Genova fra XIII e XV secolo. Temi e intersezioni, a cura di G. Ameri, Genova 2017, pp. 82-114;

C. Di Fabio, Echi giottesco-padovani a Genova: gli Evangelisti di Santa Maria in Via Lata, in Mélanges en l’honneur de Fabienne Joubert, Roma 2019, cds (saranno fornite le bozze)

8. Final considerations

The bibliography for 6 credits is the one indicated above at the corresponding points 1/5 of the 9 cfu program:

1. Introduzione al corso: metodi, problemi, testi di riferimento

2. Fossanova, Casamari e l'architettura cistercense

3. Opus francigenum e scultura gotica a Genova: esigenze locali, prospettiva europea

4. Un cantiere 'europeo' per un cardinale 'europeo': Sant'Andrea di Vercelli

5. La Porta di Capua e l' 'architettura di potenza' nel Meridione federiciano

Preliminary READINGS, recommended but NOT OBLIGATORY:

O. von Simson, La cattedrale gotica e il concetto medievale di ordine, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1988

R. Bechmann, Le radici delle cattedrali. L’architettura gotica, espressione delle condizioni dell’ambiente, Casale Monferrato, Marietti, 1984

C. Tosco, L’architettura medievale in Italia 600-1200, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016

A. Monciatti, L’arte nel Duecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2013

D. Kimpel, I cantieri, in Arti e storia del Medioevo. I, Tempi Spazi Istituzioni, a cura di E. Castelnuovo e G. Sergi, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, pp. 171-197

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CLARIO DI FABIO (President)

GIANLUCA AMERI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lesson start: Monday, September 16th

Class Schedule: Mondays and Tuesdays, from 11am to 1pm

Class schedule

MONUMENTAL ARTS OF THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is oral.

The student is invited first to present and discuss a topic, a problem, a work of art of his choice (within the programme); the Commission will then invite him to recognise, identify and place chronologically one or more works of art (among those available on manuals and texts in adoption) and/or to treat a theme, a problem, a concept, a phenomenon, an artifact or a typology of artifacts, an artist, a field, always within the programme.

Each student will come to the exam with his/her own manuals and other textbooks, as well as images in USB flash drive)

ASSESSMENT METHODS

he exam is oral and includes the use of textbook images and those used in class, made available to students.

Evaluation concerns knowledge and skills.

The following will occur:

the ability to respond in compliance with and consistency with the proposed question;

the possession of specific language skills;

the specific knowledge of the topics covered;

the ability to read and decode images;

the ability to refer them to an artist and / or an era and to argue judgment;

the ability to correlate artistic products and historical-cultural phenomena, in the broadest sense of the term.

Based on the degree of achievement of this knowledge and skills, grades above the threshold of sufficiency will be assigned.


Regarding the attribution of the votes:

1. To achieve excellence (grades ranging from 28 to 30 with lode), the candidate must reveal, with excellent expressive skills: marked ability to recognize and classify the proposed artefacts; ability to discuss them, also with interdisciplinary links; availability and aptitude for analysis, in-depth and organic vision of the problems and topics covered by the course

2. an acceptable but predominantly mnemonic knowledge, a superficial analysis and a correct but not always appropriate language will lead to a satisfactory evaluation (good marks from 25 to 27 inclusive) and votes (from 23 to 24);

3. a sometimes incomplete knowledge, a superficial understanding, an intermittent ability to chronologically and historically discuss and place the proposed artistic documents and simplistic or approximate forms of expression may be considered sufficient (18-22);

4. obvious and extensive gaps in the preparation, inappropriate language, lack of reference points regarding the historical-formal location of the works and the topics presented in class will be evaluated negatively.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students are urged to register on AulaWeb as soon as possible. This is the only channel that enables teaching staff to immediately and directly contact all registered students for all eventualities, both teaching and practical (announcements, absence, emergencies, etc.).

Students must bring all the necessary material to the exam (texts, images on a usb drive).

Students and final year students are informed that when office hours coincide with exams, office hours are cancelled.