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 presence. Attendance, although not compulsory, is strongly recommended. Students who attend the lectures are considered to be attending.
The lecturer, at the specific request of each student received by e-mail, allows distance learning of the lectures via the Teams platform 

Teams access code: smcp42g

Lectures normally employ powerpoints.

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

At the end of the lectures (in the second week of January), the course makes a study trip to places and monuments covered in the lectures. 

For the academic year 2023/2024, the initiative remains valid, but its actual feasibility will depend on the guidelines issued at departmental level, within the framework of the University's general guidelines on this subject.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

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

Telling with images:
Narrative structures and strategies in Italian sculpture and painting between 1260 and 1330

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Raccontare con le immagini:

strutture e strategie narrative nella scultura e nella pittura italiana fra 1260 e 1330

Bibliografia obbligatoria

M. Angheben, Le stratégies de la narration dans la peinture médiévale. La représentation de l’Ancien Testament au XII siècle, in Les stratégies de la narration dans la peinture médiévale, La representation de l’Ancien Testament au IV-XII- siècles, a cura di M. Angheben,Turnhout 2020, pp. 9-24

S. Brodbeck, A.O. Polpré, I. Rapti, Les enjeux narratifs de l’image médiévale. Bilan historiographique et approches actuelles, in Histoires chrétiennes en images : espace, temps et structure de la narration. Byzance et Moyen Âge occidental, a cura di S. Brodbeck, A.-O. Poilpré, I. Rapti, Paris 2021, pp. 1-21

The two French texts indicated above will be provided by the professor in class and can be easily translated into Italian using Deepl.com, a free resource available on the web).

S. Romano, La basilica di San Francesco ad Assisi. Pittori, botteghe, strategie narrative, Roma 2001, pp. 1-13, 15-38, 141-159, 179-198

S. Romano, Il nuovo racconto. Assisi e la svolta della pittura narrativa, in L’arte medievale nel contesto. 300-1300, a cura di P. Piva, Milano 2006, pp. 535-548

S. Romano, Il Maestro di Isacco, Assisi, la nuova narrazione, in Ead., La O di Giotto, Milano 2008, pp. 20-126

C. Di Fabio, Nicola Pisano in San Martino di Lucca, in San Martino di Lucca. Storie della Cattedrale, a cura di P. Bertoncini Sabatini, Lucca 2020, pp. 93-125.

- Recommended but not mandatory

R. Brilliant, Visual Narratives: Storytelling in Etruscan and Roman Art. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1984

Precise indications on the use of the bibliography will be provided by the lecturer during the first lesson.

- In order to favour a better acquisition of the contents of the programme, it is strongly recommended to review, at the beginning of the master course, the chapters on painting and sculpture in Italy between the 13th and early 14th centuries of the Medieval Art History textbooks used for the examination of the former three-year course of study

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CLARIO DI FABIO (President)

GIANLUCA AMERI (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

LESSONS WILL START ON MONDAY, 25th SEPTEMBER 2023

SCHEDULE:

MONDAY         9-11

WEDNESDAY 17-19

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)

In order to meet the needs and timing of study, there is an

OPTIONAL INTERMEDIATE TEST RESERVED FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS ONLY.

It will take place at an intermediate point in the course (the precise date will be communicated in advance, probably after the tenth lesson).

The test will cover the topics of the introductory part of the course, which are theoretical in nature. The professor will provide extensive and detailed notes on Teams and/or AulaWeb.

THE TEST WILL BE WRITTEN AND A POSITIVE RESULT WILL ALLOW STUDENTS TO CAPITALISE ON A PARTIAL GRADE ON A PART OF THE PROGRAMME THAT WILL NO LONGER BE TESTED IN THE ORAL EXAMINATION

IMPORTANT: PLEASE, NOTE: Students are reminded of the coming into force of the following rule: from the moment one has taken the examination of one module from among the two that constitute the teaching Medieval Art Topics/Modern Art Topics/Contemporary Art Topics, the examination of the second module (the one useful for recording the final career grade) must take place, necessarily, no later than the next THREE sessions of exams.

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.