B1674 - Comparative History of Arts in Europe (1)

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course the student: knows the most relevant events of the history of Arts in the medieval Europe (painting, sculpture, architecture, illuminated manuscripts, goldsmithing, textile arts); can apply the comparative method to the dynamics of travel, exchange, patronage, iconography, and artistic style.

Course contents

EUROPE BETWEEN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE: PRODUCTION CENTERS, EXCHANGES, PATRONAGESAND ARTISTS

The course investigatesthe arts through topicsthat can read in a transversal and synchronic way the great facts of art from the Twelfth to the early Sixteenth Century in Europe.

For this reason the course is divided into five modules, able to investigatemost of european artistic cases, without isolatingItaly, but keeping it constantly at the center of the discussion, and finally highlighting those changes that will be strengthened in the modern age.

The 16th Century part is dedicated entirely to the exemplary exchange between Germany and Italy, exemplifiedby the Nuremberg painter Albrecht Dürer, the artist who was the subject of a recent and important Milanese retrospective at the Palazzo Reale in 2018.

I MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND EARLYRENAISSANCE

From the High Middle Ages without nations to modern Europe:definition of chronological fields

Cities, politics, businesses

European itineraries

II VARIETAS: BETWEEN ROMANIC AND GOTHIC

The centers of the European Romanesque and the monastic networks (from Cluny to Polirone)

From Rome to London, the case of Westminster Abbey

Experimentalism, renewal and regional varieties

Between architecture, painting and sculpture: the Europe of Gothic cathedrals

III THE ASCENT OF NEW CENTERS

Paris, Avignon, Prague, Wien

The Italian revolution

IV PATRONAGES, TYPES AND ICONOGRAPHY

Spirituality and images

Mendicant orders

Images of power: popes, kings and sovereigns

V ITALY AND MODERN EUROPE

From Nuremberg to Venice: Dürer

Readings/Bibliography

Student shall:

• study the history of European art from 1100 to the beginning of 1500. Recommended reading: P. De Vecchi, E. Cerchiari, Arte nel tempo, Bompiani, Milano 1991-92 (or subsequent reprints);
• study an one essay or onebook of a chosen list:

  I MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND EARLYRENAISSANCE

• Giuseppe Sergi, L’idea di Medioevo tra storia e senso comune, Roma 2005 Willibald Sauerländer, I tempi della storia dell’arte, in: Arti e Storia nel Medioevo. Tempi Spazi Istituzioni, vol. I, edited by Enrico Castelnuovo, Giuseppe Sergi, Torino 2002, 156-170
• Arturo Carlo Quintavalle,I medioevi delle nazioni “art Roman” e “art gotique” in Occidente, in: Medioevo. L’Europa delle cattedrali, edited by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Milano 2007, 11-24
• Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari, Per la “fortuna” del Rinascimento “dal Vasari ai neoclassici”, in:L’arte del Rinascimento nel contesto, edited by Edoardo Villata, Milano 2015, 17-62
• Gianni Maria Varanini, Il Medioevo occidentale, in: Tempi, spazi istituzioni, edited by di Enrico Castelnuovo, Giuseppe Sergi, Torino 2003, 73-91

  II VARIETAS: BETWEEN ROMANIC AND GOTHIC

• Dieter Kimpel, I cantieri, in: Arti e Storia nel Medioevo. Tempi Spazi Istituzioni, vol. I, edited by Enrico Castelnuovo, Giuseppe Sergi, Torino 2002, 171-197
• Paolo Piva, Da Cluny a Polirone. Un recupero essenziale del Romanico europeo, Mantova 1980
• Chiara Piccinini, Osservazioni sulla scultura architettonica monumentale: i portali scolpiti fra romanico e gotico, in: Del costruire: tecniche, artisti, artigiani, committenti, edited by Enrico Castelnuovo, Giuseppe Sergi, Torino 2003, 213-233
• Anna Maria D’Achille, Da Pietro D’Oderisio ad Arnolfo di Cambio. Studi sulla scultura a Roma nel Duecento, Roma 2000, 113-130
• Kevin Blokley Anglo-Saxon masonry below the Cosmati pavement, in: “The archeological journal”, 161, 2004 (2005), 223-233
• Paul Binsky, The Cosmati at Westminster and the English Court Style,in: “The Art Bulletin”, 72, 1990, 6-34
• Alessio Monciatti, I decenni centrali per l’Europa gotica, in: L’arte del Duecento, Torino 2013, 102-143 (e schede citate)
• Xavier Barral i Altet, Tra vecchio e nuovo: la disfatta europea del romanico francese, in: Il Medioevo delle Cattedrali. Chiesa e Impero la lotta delle immagini, edited by Carlo Arturo Quitavalle, Milano 2006, 335-344

• III THE ASCENT OF CENTERS: THE NEW THAT GOES ON

• Michele Tomasi, L’arte del Trecento in Europa, Torino 2012, 11-20
• Enrico Castelnuovo, Bologna come Avignone, in: Enrico Castenuovo, La cattedrale tascabile, Città di Castello 2000, 304-310; Enrico Castenuovo, Tomaso da Modena e l’Europa, in: Enrico Castenuovo, La cattedrale tascabile, Città di Castello 2000, 347-362
• Frédéric Elsig, L’arte del Quattrocento a Nord delle Alpi, Torino 2011, 3-53

  IV PATRONAGES, TYPES AND ICONOGRAPHY

• Michele Bacci, Artisti, corti, comuni, in: Arti e Storia nel Medioevo. Tempi Spazi Istituzioni, vol. I, a cura di Enrico Castelnuovo, Giuseppe Sergi, Torino 2002, 631-700
• Glauco Cantarella, Cluny tra passato e futuro nelle “Vite” di Sant’Ugo, in: Ugo abate di Cluny, a cura di Glauco Cantarella, Dorino Tuniz, Bergamo 1988, 9-43
• Giovanna Valenzano, La suddivisione dello spazio nelle chiese mendicanti. Sulle tracce dei tramezzi nelle venezie, in: Arredi liturgici e architettura, edited by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Milano 2007, 99-114
• Michele Tomasi, L’arte del Trecento in Europa, Torino 2012, 28-62
• Andrea De Marchi, La pala d’altare. Dal paliotto al polittico gotico, Firenze 2009, 5-16; 55-64
• Andrea De Marchi, La pala d’altare. Dal polittico alla pala quadra, Firenze 2012, 9-25
• Raffaele Argenziano, Nuovi santi, nuove iconografie e nuovi committenti nell’Italia del Rinascimento: un medioevo ininterrotto, in: L’arte rinascimentale nel contesto, a cura di Edoardo Villata, Milano 2015, 193-212
• Anna Maria D’Achille, La tomba di Bonifacio VIII e le immagini scolpite del papa, in: Da Pietro D’Oderisio ad Arnolfo di Cambio. Studi sulla scultura a Roma nel Duecento, Roma 2000, 189-201

V ITALY AND MODERN EUROPE

-Dürer e il Rinascimento tra Germania e Italia, catalogo della mostra (Milano, Palazzo Reale), edited by Bernard Aikema, Milano 2018:Bernard Aikema, Albrecht Dürer e i suoi contemporanei, fra Oberdeutschland e Valpadana; 19-42; Isabella diLeonardo, Dürertra Norimberga e Venezia, 1506-1507, 101-105

Teaching methods

Lectures and practical exercises.

Assessment methods

It will be an oral exam, tending to verify students’ ability to recognise the peculiarities of different artistic styles, main iconographic symbols, and to describe, through appropriate vocabulary, the work of art. This is why the practical exercise, carried out with the teacher in the classroom, as described above, is particularly important.

Examination will start by verifying the knowledge of development of European Art in the defined chronological period, through identification and comment of 3 images. For attending students, the images may be selected from the ones projected by the teacher (ppt will be made available to students), for non-attending students, they will be selected from the above mentioned handbook.

Excellent marking will be assigned for identification of all three images, an organic understanding of the treated topics, a fluent exposition of topics with the appropriate vocabulary, originality of personal reflections and comparative analysis of the history of art in European countries, plus a clear exposition of the chosen essay (ability to explain in detail the author’s position).

Identification of two out of three of the images, a scholastic, mechanic and mnemonic knowledge of the subject, synthesis and analysis accompanied by a flat, correct but inappropriate vocabulary, with unclear and not sufficiently detailed exposition of the chosen topic, even if critically correct, may lead, at the most, to a decent evaluation.

No more than a pass mark may be assigned for identification of only one image, accompanied by lack of background knowledge, inappropriate vocabulary, a poor bibliography and a merely basic knowledge of history of art in European countries, with unclear and undetailed exposition of the chosen topic, and a limited understanding of the critical dimension.

The inability to identify any of the three images, together with lack of background knowledge, inappropriate vocabulary, a poor bibliography and the inability to analyse history of art in European countries, plus an unclear and totally superficial exposition of the chosen topic, accompanied by complete incomprehension of the critical dimension, will necessarily lead to a negative assessment.

Teaching tools

Lectures with digital slides, which will be made available for students.

Office hours

See the website of Fabio Massaccesi