OVERVIEW

The course aims to offer bachelor students a detailed overview, in a rigorous chronological path, of the sources and artistic historiography relating to the figurative arts between the Thirteenth and Eighteenth centuries.

Texts relating to artistic techniques, artist biographies, public and private collecting, and the birth of the first museums as well as art academies will be taken into consideration.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to propose a careful relationship between the work of artists and the artistic treatises developed over the centuries under consideration (13th-18th century), in order to in order to highlight the cultural context in which these texts were created.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide students with the tools to learn, read and interpret the discussions on works of art, the work of artists and the value of artistic making developed during the indicated chronological period (13th-18th century).

At the end of the course, students must be able to establish with certainty the evolution of these issues in the chronological and historiographical context and to master as much as possible the technical vocabulary used in the world of the arts.

PREREQUISITES

It would be advisable for students to know the main artists and the most significant works of art, particularly in Italy, of the period under consideration (13th-18th century).

TEACHING METHODS

Classes are held in presence. 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 and to view class recordings

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Program for students taking the course:

1. Classification of the subject, reference bibliographic works and course objectives; the age of Giotto and Dante: the artist's praise;
2. il Libro dell'arte by Cennino Cennini and the success of technical treatises;
3. Leon Battista Alberti:  De pictura and De statua;
4. the artistic treatises of the Fifteenth century: the Commentarii by Ghiberti;  the Vita of Filippo Brunelleschi and Le Vite di XIV uomini singhulari in Firenze by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti; and the De viris illustribus by Bartolomeo Facio;
5. the artistic treatises of the Fifteenth century: Antonio Filarete and Giovanni Santi;
6. Jacopo de’ Barbari, De la ecelentia de pitura; Pomponio Gaurico, De sculptura,  Florence 1504 and Francesco Lancellotti, Tractato di pictura, Rome 1509;
7. the Prevasarian artistic treatises in Lombardy, Venice and Rome: Paolo Giovio and the Leonardi Vincii, Michaelis Angeli and Raphaelis Urbinatis Vitae; the Musaei Ioviani Descriptio; Paolo Pino, Dialogo di pittura (1548);
8. the Prevasarian artistic treatises in Florence: the Libro by Antonio Billi, the Vite by Giovanni Battista Gelli and the Anonymous Magliabechiano (or Gaddiano); Anton Francesco Doni, Il Disegno (1549); Benedetto Varchi and the maggioranza delle arti (1547-1550);
9. Vasari's Lives: the 1550 edition; Vasari's Lives: the 1568 edition;
10. after Vasari's Lives: Ascanio Condivi, Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarroti (1553); Lodovico Dolce, Dialogo della pittura (1557); Benvenuto Cellini, La vita and the Trattati (1568);
11.the Council of Trent and the norms on the figurative arts: the role of Carlo Borromeo and Gabriele Paleotti; Gregorio Comanini, Il Figino 1591); Raffaello Borghini, Il Riposo; Francesco Bocchi and the Bellezze della città di Fiorenza (1591); F. Sansovino, Venezia, città nobilissima e singolare (1581); G. B. Paggi and the Diffinizione ossia divisione della pittura (1607);
12. G.B. Armenini, De' veri precetti della pittura, 1586; Giovan Paolo Lomazzo: the Trattato dell'arte de la pittura, scoltura et architettura and the Idea del tempio della pittura);
13. Federico Zuccari, the Accademia di S. Luca and the Rome of the Connoisseurs:Giovanni Battista Agucchi, Benedetto Giustiniani and Giulio Mancini;
14. Gaspare Celio and the Vite degli artisti;Giovanni Baglione, Le vite di pittori, scultori e architetti dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII del 1572 fino all'epoca di papa Urbano Ottavo nel 1642;
15.  Giovan Pietro Bellori, Le Vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti moderni (1672); Luigi Scaramuccia, Le finezze de’ pennelli italiani (1674);
16. Between ancients and moderns: Francesco Scannelli, Microcosmo della pittura (1657) and the Vite de pittori antichi scritte e illustrate da Carlo Dati nell'Accademia della Crusca lo Smarrito (1667);
17. Seventeenth-century Venice: Carlo Ridolfi, Le meraviglie dell'arte ovvero le Vite degli illustri pittori veneti e dello Stato (1646-48); and M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco (1660) and Le miniere della pittura (1664);
18. Le Vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti genovesi e de' forestieri che in Genova operarono (1674) by Raffaele Soprani and the Felsina pittrice (1678) by Carlo Cesare Malvasia;
19. Filippo Baldinucci and the Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua (1681-1728);
20. L. Pascoli, Vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti moderni, Rome 1730; G.B.Passeri, Vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti che ànno lavorato in Roma, morti dal 1641 fino al 1673, Rome 1772 and C.G. Ratti, Vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi, Genoa 1769.

Students who are NOT attending are required to contact the teacher at the institutional email address (eliana.carrara@unige.it) in order to be able to support a specific program.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for students taking the course:

J. Schlosser Magnino, La letteratura artistica: manuale delle fonti della storia dell'arte moderna, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1997 (or other edition; the italian text is completely readable at the following link: https: //digi.ub.uni- heidelberg.de/diglit/schlosser1964);

A. Blunt, Artistic Theories in Italy, 1450-1600, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1962 (= Turin, Einaudi, 2001).

Recommended books:

Donata Levi, Il discorso sull'arte. Dalla tarda antichità a Ghiberti, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010;

Michael Baxandall, Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition, 1350-1450, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986;

Michael Baxandall, Pittura  ed esperienze sociali nell'Italia del Quattrocento, Torino, Einaudi, 2000;

Michael Baxandall, Parole per le immagini. L'arte rinascimentale e la critica, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2009;

Paola Barocchi, Storiografia e collezionismo dal Vasari al Lanzi, in Storia dell'arte italiana, I.2, L'artista e il pubblico, a cura di Giovanni Previtali, Torino, Einaudi, 1979, pp. 5-81;

Giovanna Perini, Le lettere degli artisti da strumento di comunicazione, a documento, a cimelio, in Documentary Culture: Florence and Rome from Grand-Duke Ferdinand I to Pope Alexander VII, conference proceedings (Florence 1990), Bologna, Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1992, pp. 165-183;

Il carteggio d'artista. Fonti, questioni, ricerche tra XVII e XIX secolo, a cura di S. Rolfi, C. Mazzarelli, Cinisello Balsamo (MI), 2019;

Lettere d'artista. Per una storia transnazionale dell'arte (XVIII-XIX secolo), a cura di G. Capitelli, M.P. Donato, C. Mazzarelli, S.A. Meyer, I. Miarelli Mariani, Cinisello Balsamo (MI), 2022;

James Hall, Lo studio d'artista. Una storia culturale, Torino, Einaudi, 2022.

Further bibliography will be provided in class.

Students who are NOT attending are required to contact the teacher at the institutional email address (eliana.carrara@unige.it) in order to be able to support a specific program, which is as follows:

J. Schlosser Magnino, La letteratura artistica: manuale delle fonti della storia dell'arte moderna, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1997 (or other edition; the italian text is completely readable at the following link: https: //digi.ub.uni- heidelberg.de/diglit/schlosser1964);

A. Blunt, Artistic Theories in Italy, 1450-1600, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1962 (= Turin, Einaudi, 2001);

and two volumes to choose from the following:

C.E. Gilbert, L'arte del Quattrocento nelle testimonianze coeve, Firenze-Vienna, IRSA, 1988;

E. Passignat, Il Cinquecento. Le fonti per la storia dell'arte, Roma, Carocci, 2017;

T. Montanari, L'età barocca. Le fonti per la storia dell'arte (1600-1750), Roma, Carocci, 2020.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ELIANA CARRARA (President)

PAOLO ANTONINO MARIA TRIOLO

ANDREA PAOLINI (Substitute)

ELENA PUTTI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Classes will begin on Tuesday 20 February, 1 p.m.;

the course will have the collaboration of Dr Andrea Paolini.

Class schedule

ARTISTIC LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The verification will be carried out through an oral interview.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam will aim to ascertain knowledge of the topics covered in class and of the texts assigned for reading.

There is the possibility of a written intermediate test, which will focus on the topics dealt with in the first part of the Course and will allow - if passed with a mark of 24/30 or higher - to reduce the number of texts to be studied in view of the examination, since the following essay will be eliminated: 

A. Blunt, Le teorie artistiche in Italia. Dal Rinascimento al Manierismo, Torino, Einaudi, 2001.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Examinations will be held in presence.