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

Classes are held in person. Attendance, although not compulsory, is recommended. The lecturer, at the specific request of a student (by e-mail), may allow him/her to follow classes remotely via “Teams” platform.

Lectures normally use powerpoint presentations.

The powerpoints will be made available to the students in pdf format.

At the end of the lectures (in the second week of January), the course has for years undertaken a study trip to places and monuments considered in the lectures. 
For the 2022/2023 academic year, the initiative remains valid (the programme is still to be defined), but its actual feasibility will depend on the guidelines issued at ministerial level and on UNIGE's requirements for this type of initiative.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

NB: The program below is for both attending and non-attending students

In the academic year 2022/2023, the teaching programme is divided into two parts, which are coherent and connected to each other and closely linked to the lecturer's current research activity. The main themes:

01. Dante: "vision", visual heritage, visual experiences

      Dante as "artist"

      Dante and ancient and contemporary artists

      Dante and contemporary sculpture and sculptors

02. Dante and the monument to Margaret of Brabant by Giovanni Pisano

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Precisions on the use of the bibliography will be given in the first lesson

A) A BIOGRAPHY OF DANTE SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING:

Alessandro Barbero, Dante, Laterza, Bari, 2020

Marco Berisso, Per patria il mondo. Suille tracce del sommo poeta, La Repubblica(/GEDI, Torino 2021

Guglielmo Gorni, Dante. Storia di un visionario, Laterza, Bari, 2008

Giorgio Inglese, Vita di Dante. Una biografia possibile, Carocci, Roma, 2018

Marco Santagata, Dante. Il romanzo della sua vita, Mondadori, Milano, 2012

B) THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:

Laura Pasquini, "Pigliare occhi, per aver la mente". Dante, la Commedia e le arti figurative, Carocci, Roma 2020

Clario Di Fabio, Gianluca Ameri, Francesca Girelli, Giovanni Pisano, Art e Dossier, Giunti, Firenze, 2020

C) THE FOLLOWING ESSAYS WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE LECTURER IN PDF FORMAT DURING THE FIRST LECTURE:

1) Clario Di Fabio, Facie ad faciem. Approfondimenti su Giovanni Pisano e il mausoleo di Margherita imperatrice, in “Arte medievale”, s. IV, I, 2010-2011 (ma 2011), pp. 143-188

2) La Giustizia di Giovanni Pisano. I cinquant’anni di un’acquisizione, a cura di G. Zanelli, Genova 2017 (saggi di Clario Di fabio e Gianluca Ameri)

3) Il prezzo, il valore e il riconoscimento sociale del lavoro dello scultore: Giovanni Pisano e altri casi nella Toscana del primo Trecento, in Medioevo: arte e storia, I convegni di Parma, 10, atti (Parma, 18-22 settembre 2007), a cura di A.C. Quintavalle, Milano 2008, pp. 609-620

The drafts of the following essay will be provided in pdf format by the lecturer during the last lecture of the course

4) Clario Di Fabio, Dante e la scultura nuova, in Dante & Smiling Walls, a cura di R. Arquès, S. Maddalo, L. Pasquini, Turnhout , attualmente in corso di stampa

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CLARIO DI FABIO (President)

GIANLUCA AMERI (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

LESSONS WILL START ON WEDNESDAY, 28th SEPTEMBER 2022

SCHEDULE:

MONDAY         8.30 - 10.00 am  Aula 2, via Balbi 2

WEDNESDAY  4.30 - 6.00 pm   Aula 2, via Balbi 2

LAST LESSON: WEDNESDAY, 30TH NOVEMBER 2022

Class schedule

MONUMENTAL ARTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN EUROPE

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.