this course focuses on the political and cultural meaning of paintings, sculptures and buildings created in Rome between late 16th and mid-17th centuries, most of them commissioned by popes but also by cardinals and aristocrats. The close relationship between art and catholic religion as well as the power of art as a method of communication and promotion are illustrated through the examination of works of art produced in the age of the Counter Reformation and by the great masters of the Seicento (Caravaggio and the caravaggesques, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni and the Bolognese group of artists, Rubens, Bernini, Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, Nicolas Poussin, Alessandro Algardi among others). The course aims at emphasizing the complexity of the manifold expressions - hardly included into the label of Baroque - that characterize one of the most lively time periods in the history of art, an age that greatly contributed to shape the current aspect of Rome.
Prerequisites:
a basic knowledge of Renaissance art greatly helps in understanding the meaning of this course.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course students are expected to:
• gain a deep understanding of the developments in the visual arts in Rome between late 16th and mid 17th centuries
• be able to describe and discuss works of art in their political, social, religious context.
• develop visual skills to allow them to recognize different styles and attributes of artistic works from the late 16th to the mid 17th century.
• Become familiar with the methods and key concepts of art history as applied to the time periods covered by the course
Method of presentation:
Lectures, slides, field studies.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); midterm exam (25%); research paper (25%); final exam (30%).
*Details of required work:
Both midterm and final exams are based on class lectures, on site visits and assigned readings.
Detailed guidelines about the required research paper standards will be discussed during the course.
Students are expected to take full advantage of their stay in Rome by completing the course program also through independent visits to monuments and sites not included in the course field studies (galleries and museums, churches, monuments, urban sites; a list of mandatory and recommended visits will be given at the beginning of the course).
Quizzes and reaction papers (affecting the class participation grade) may be given in order to assure that students keep up with the readings and with the visits to those sites that are listed as “mandatory” in the independent visits list.
content:
Week 1
Presentation of the course, of the readings and of the field studies.
Rome: a town ruled by a king called Pope. Papal iconography and symbols: functions, strategies and court life. Historical and political context: the Papacy within Reformation and Counter Reformation.
Readings: Course Reader (PARTRIDGE 9-17; HOLLINGSWORTH, chapters 6 and 7, pp. 121-142).
Week 2
Before the Baroque: the Council of Trent and its consequences over artistic production. Pope Sixtus V and urban planning renovation.
Field study 1: Chiesa del Gesù, S. Andrea della Valle and Chiesa Nuova.
Readings: Course Reader (CHASTEL, pp. 263-267; PARTRIDGE, pp. 32-40, 56-59); WITTKOWER I, pp. 1-17.
Week 3
Caravaggio: the revolution of truth.
Field study 2: S. Maria del Popolo, S. Luigi dei Francesi, S. Agostino
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 18-26; Course Reader (ROME. ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, pp. 161-174)
Recommended readings (available in IES Library): ROSSELLA VODRET, Caravaggio in Rome. Itineraries, Silvana editoriale, Milan 2010
Week 4-5
Annibale Carracci and the naturalistic reformation of style. Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci’s legacies: Caravaggist and classicist painters in Rome in the early 17th century.
Field study 3: Galleria Doria Pamhpilj
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 18-54; Course Reader (ROBERTSON, pp. 116-139 + entry n. 56).
Week 6
Review and midterm exam
Week 7
Painting in Rome in the 17th century: Classicism and Baroque I.
Origin and use of the term baroque: a label to be handled with care.
Readings: WITTKOWER, I, pp. 54-58; WITTKOWER II, pp. 1-4, 63, 64-82; Course Reader (ROBERTSON, pp. 116-139; entries n. 137, 138)
Week 8
Patronage and Collectionism in the Baroque age: Scipione Borghese.
Field study 4: Galleria Borghese
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 5-14; Course Reader (COLIVA, pp. 16-23)
Week 9
Bernini, Algardi and sculpture in Rome in the 17th century
Field study 5: St. Peter’s basilica
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 89-93; WITTKOWER II, pp. 5-23, 88-98; 121-132.
Week 10
Painting in Rome in the 17th century: Classicism and Baroque II. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Sacchi and Nicolas Poussin
Field study 6: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini)
Readings: WITTKOWER II, pp. 74-88; Course Reader (BRIGSTOCKE, pp. 385-390)
Recommended reading (available in IES Library): FRANCIS HASKELL, Patrons and Painters. Art and Society in Baroque Italy, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1980, pp. 24-40)
Week 11
Baroque architecture and sculpture in Rome: Bernini and Borromini
Field study 7: from piazza del Quirinale to S. Maria della Vittoria
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 75-79; WITTKOWER II, pp. 23-74
Week 12
The Rome of popes Innocent X and Alexander VII: Baroque architecture and urban planning.
Field study 8: Piazza Navona, S. Maria della Pace, S. Ivo alla Sapienza.
Readings: Course Reader (ROME. ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, pp. 200-206)
Week 13
Final exam
Required readings:
Course textbook: Wittkower, Rudolph (revised by Joseph Connor and Jennifer Montagu), Art and
Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, Yale University Press-Pelican History of Art, 1999
I. Early Baroque pp. 1-58; 75-79; 89-93 (and relative notes: 97-105).
II. High Baroque, pp. 1-98; 121-132 (and relative notes: 169-180)
Course reader (all texts also available in IES Library)
LOREN PARTRIDGE, The Renaissance in Rome, Everyman Art Library, London 1996 (ISBN: 0297 83367 7), pp. 9-17, 32-40, 56-59
ANDREA AUGENTI (ed.), Rome. Art and Archaeology, Scala group, Firenze 2003 (ISBN: 9788881172689), pp. 161-174; 200-206
ANDRE CHASTEL, Italian Art, Faber and Faber, London 1963, pp. 263-267
MARY HOLLINGSWORTH, Patronage in Sixteenth Century Italy, John Murray, London 1996 (ISBN 0-7195-5388-1), pp. 121-142
ANNA COLIVA, Scipione Borghese as collector, in The Borghese Gallery, ed. By. P. Moreno, C. Stefani, TCI, Milan 2001, pp. 16-23; ISBN: 8836519466
CLARE ROBERTSON, The Classical Tradition, in The Genius of Rome 1592-1623, cat. Exhibition ed. by Beverly Louise Brown (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2001), pp. 116-139
HUGH BRIGSTOCKE, Nicolas Poussin, in The Grove Dictionary of Art, ed. By J. Turner, MacMillan Publishers Ltd, vol. 25, 1996, pp. 385-390, ISBN 1-884446-00-0
Students are expected to refer to other pertinent texts in IES Library that are useful as picture sources: they will be available in a reserve shelf in the Library.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Federica Giacomini is an art historian and art restorer. In 1994 she received a four-year course diploma from Istituto Centrale del Restauro as a Restorer of paintings and marbles; in 1999 she received her degree in Art History from Università di Roma – La Sapienza and in 2005 a Ph.D. in Art History and Conservation from Università della Tuscia, with a dissertation on Painting Restoration in Rome in the XIX Century (published by edizioni Quasar in 2007). She has worked on conservation projects of important frescoes, canvas, marbles and stucco works (i.e. Carracci’s Gallery in Palazzo Farnese; Acqua Paola Fountain; Pantheon’s interior decorations), and her current main interest is the history and ethics of conservation. She is currently involved in different projects concerning the Galleria Borghese, both as restorer and as art historian. She teaches “Teoria e tecniche del restauro dei manufatti” at Università della Tuscia (Viterbo).
Baroque Rome
this course focuses on the political and cultural meaning of paintings, sculptures and buildings created in Rome between late 16th and mid-17th centuries, most of them commissioned by popes but also by cardinals and aristocrats. The close relationship between art and catholic religion as well as the power of art as a method of communication and promotion are illustrated through the examination of works of art produced in the age of the Counter Reformation and by the great masters of the Seicento (Caravaggio and the caravaggesques, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni and the Bolognese group of artists, Rubens, Bernini, Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, Nicolas Poussin, Alessandro Algardi among others). The course aims at emphasizing the complexity of the manifold expressions - hardly included into the label of Baroque - that characterize one of the most lively time periods in the history of art, an age that greatly contributed to shape the current aspect of Rome.
a basic knowledge of Renaissance art greatly helps in understanding the meaning of this course.
By the end of the course students are expected to:
• gain a deep understanding of the developments in the visual arts in Rome between late 16th and mid 17th centuries
• be able to describe and discuss works of art in their political, social, religious context.
• develop visual skills to allow them to recognize different styles and attributes of artistic works from the late 16th to the mid 17th century.
• Become familiar with the methods and key concepts of art history as applied to the time periods covered by the course
Lectures, slides, field studies.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Class participation (20%); midterm exam (25%); research paper (25%); final exam (30%).
*Details of required work:
Both midterm and final exams are based on class lectures, on site visits and assigned readings.
Detailed guidelines about the required research paper standards will be discussed during the course.
Students are expected to take full advantage of their stay in Rome by completing the course program also through independent visits to monuments and sites not included in the course field studies (galleries and museums, churches, monuments, urban sites; a list of mandatory and recommended visits will be given at the beginning of the course).
Quizzes and reaction papers (affecting the class participation grade) may be given in order to assure that students keep up with the readings and with the visits to those sites that are listed as “mandatory” in the independent visits list.
Week 1
Presentation of the course, of the readings and of the field studies.
Rome: a town ruled by a king called Pope. Papal iconography and symbols: functions, strategies and court life. Historical and political context: the Papacy within Reformation and Counter Reformation.
Readings: Course Reader (PARTRIDGE 9-17; HOLLINGSWORTH, chapters 6 and 7, pp. 121-142).
Week 2
Before the Baroque: the Council of Trent and its consequences over artistic production. Pope Sixtus V and urban planning renovation.
Field study 1: Chiesa del Gesù, S. Andrea della Valle and Chiesa Nuova.
Readings: Course Reader (CHASTEL, pp. 263-267; PARTRIDGE, pp. 32-40, 56-59); WITTKOWER I, pp. 1-17.
Week 3
Caravaggio: the revolution of truth.
Field study 2: S. Maria del Popolo, S. Luigi dei Francesi, S. Agostino
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 18-26; Course Reader (ROME. ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, pp. 161-174)
Recommended readings (available in IES Library): ROSSELLA VODRET, Caravaggio in Rome. Itineraries, Silvana editoriale, Milan 2010
Week 4-5
Annibale Carracci and the naturalistic reformation of style. Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci’s legacies: Caravaggist and classicist painters in Rome in the early 17th century.
Field study 3: Galleria Doria Pamhpilj
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 18-54; Course Reader (ROBERTSON, pp. 116-139 + entry n. 56).
Week 6
Review and midterm exam
Week 7
Painting in Rome in the 17th century: Classicism and Baroque I.
Origin and use of the term baroque: a label to be handled with care.
Readings: WITTKOWER, I, pp. 54-58; WITTKOWER II, pp. 1-4, 63, 64-82; Course Reader (ROBERTSON, pp. 116-139; entries n. 137, 138)
Week 8
Patronage and Collectionism in the Baroque age: Scipione Borghese.
Field study 4: Galleria Borghese
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 5-14; Course Reader (COLIVA, pp. 16-23)
Week 9
Bernini, Algardi and sculpture in Rome in the 17th century
Field study 5: St. Peter’s basilica
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 89-93; WITTKOWER II, pp. 5-23, 88-98; 121-132.
Week 10
Painting in Rome in the 17th century: Classicism and Baroque II. Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Sacchi and Nicolas Poussin
Field study 6: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini)
Readings: WITTKOWER II, pp. 74-88; Course Reader (BRIGSTOCKE, pp. 385-390)
Recommended reading (available in IES Library): FRANCIS HASKELL, Patrons and Painters. Art and Society in Baroque Italy, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1980, pp. 24-40)
Week 11
Baroque architecture and sculpture in Rome: Bernini and Borromini
Field study 7: from piazza del Quirinale to S. Maria della Vittoria
Readings: WITTKOWER I, pp. 75-79; WITTKOWER II, pp. 23-74
Week 12
The Rome of popes Innocent X and Alexander VII: Baroque architecture and urban planning.
Field study 8: Piazza Navona, S. Maria della Pace, S. Ivo alla Sapienza.
Readings: Course Reader (ROME. ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, pp. 200-206)
Week 13
Final exam
Course textbook: Wittkower, Rudolph (revised by Joseph Connor and Jennifer Montagu), Art and
Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, Yale University Press-Pelican History of Art, 1999
I. Early Baroque pp. 1-58; 75-79; 89-93 (and relative notes: 97-105).
II. High Baroque, pp. 1-98; 121-132 (and relative notes: 169-180)
Course reader (all texts also available in IES Library)
LOREN PARTRIDGE, The Renaissance in Rome, Everyman Art Library, London 1996 (ISBN: 0297 83367 7), pp. 9-17, 32-40, 56-59
ANDREA AUGENTI (ed.), Rome. Art and Archaeology, Scala group, Firenze 2003 (ISBN: 9788881172689), pp. 161-174; 200-206
ANDRE CHASTEL, Italian Art, Faber and Faber, London 1963, pp. 263-267
MARY HOLLINGSWORTH, Patronage in Sixteenth Century Italy, John Murray, London 1996 (ISBN 0-7195-5388-1), pp. 121-142
ANNA COLIVA, Scipione Borghese as collector, in The Borghese Gallery, ed. By. P. Moreno, C. Stefani, TCI, Milan 2001, pp. 16-23; ISBN: 8836519466
CLARE ROBERTSON, The Classical Tradition, in The Genius of Rome 1592-1623, cat. Exhibition ed. by Beverly Louise Brown (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2001), pp. 116-139
HUGH BRIGSTOCKE, Nicolas Poussin, in The Grove Dictionary of Art, ed. By J. Turner, MacMillan Publishers Ltd, vol. 25, 1996, pp. 385-390, ISBN 1-884446-00-0
Students are expected to refer to other pertinent texts in IES Library that are useful as picture sources: they will be available in a reserve shelf in the Library.
Federica Giacomini is an art historian and art restorer. In 1994 she received a four-year course diploma from Istituto Centrale del Restauro as a Restorer of paintings and marbles; in 1999 she received her degree in Art History from Università di Roma – La Sapienza and in 2005 a Ph.D. in Art History and Conservation from Università della Tuscia, with a dissertation on Painting Restoration in Rome in the XIX Century (published by edizioni Quasar in 2007). She has worked on conservation projects of important frescoes, canvas, marbles and stucco works (i.e. Carracci’s Gallery in Palazzo Farnese; Acqua Paola Fountain; Pantheon’s interior decorations), and her current main interest is the history and ethics of conservation. She is currently involved in different projects concerning the Galleria Borghese, both as restorer and as art historian. She teaches “Teoria e tecniche del restauro dei manufatti” at Università della Tuscia (Viterbo).
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