The aim of this course is to illustrate the fundamental role played by the ancient classical world in the Italian Renaissance art: between the 15th and the 16th centuries the classical heritage (ancient Greek and Roman) became a source of inspiration to regenerate both society and culture of Renaissance Italy. The ground was slowly prepared by the still empirical approaches to the antiquity of Nicola Pisano (sculptor) and Cavallini and Giotto (painters), active between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century. The course starts with the study of these late medieval artists, it moves on to the Early Renaissance Art in republican Florence (the first “revolutionary” generation of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio) and its sudden spread to the other courts of the Italian peninsula. The different artistic languages maturated in each Italian court by the contact with the Florentine innovations find a great synthesis in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1481-82) and, later, in the masterpiece of Raffaello and Michelangelo. (3 credits)
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course students will have:
- an outline of the artistic development of the arts from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance;
- a knowledge of the most important renaissance works of arts;
- a familiarity with the main philosophical and historical issues of the Renaissance;
- an ability to understand the language of the arts and to identify styles of different periods and geographical areas.
Method of presentation:
The course is mainly based on class sessions consisting of lectures delivered by the instructor, visits to monuments/museums and class discussions concerning the stylistic language and content of works of art.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation: 15 %; presentation 15 %; short paper 15%; mid term exam: 25 %; final exam: 30%.
Student presentations. Presentations will be held during the field studies and will consist of an accurate description (stylistic and iconographic) of artworks and monuments. Topics, contents, sources will be decide upon with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Students are asked to provide classmates and instructor with handouts, possibly illustrated. Presentation will be graded on content, structure, delivery and quality of the handout.
Short paper (max 3 pages, 6000 characters, spaces included): description and identification of a painting/sculpture.
Grading: the final grade will be based on the exams, presentations (on site: field studies), attendance and class participation.
Format of the exams: Mid-term and Final exams will consist of multiple choice questions; true/false questions; short answers, identification of works of art.
content:
1 Classical Antiquity, Renaissance and Renascences
WEEK 1 Greek Art: Polycletus and the Spear bearer
Roman Art: Augustus of Prima Porta and the Arch Constantine
Art in the Middle Ages: The renovation of sculpture: Nicola Pisano
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 2-8; Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 48-49
2 Stylistic achievements between the 13th and 14th centuries
WEEK 2 The gothic models and the renovation of painting: Cimabue, Giotto, Pietro Cavallini.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 9-18; 23-39.
Field study: Santa Cecilia in Trastevere
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 96 and 98; p. 101.
3 Culture in Florence in the first half of the 15th century
WEEK 3 Brunelleschi’s Architecture.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 58-72
Donatello in Florence
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 75-82
Gentile da Fabriano, Masolino and Masaccio
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 85-103
Field study: San Clemente, Branda Chapel
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 105-111
WEEK 4 Leon Battista Alberti, artist and theorist. Painting in Florence after 1450
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 89; 105-106; 154-160; 222-228; 256-260
4 Botticelli and the Florentine Neo-Platonism
Florence under Lorenzo de’Medici. The Accademia of Marsilio Ficino: the neoplatonic philosophy. The reintegration of subjects and classic themes with the classical style. The allegorical works of Botticelli.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 229-238
WEEK 5 Filippino Lippi and Ghirlandaio
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 238-245
Field study: Church of Aracoeli and Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 118-119
WEEK 6: Midterm Review & Midterm Exam
5 Renaissance Rome
WEEK 7: The young Michelangelo: The Pietà and the David
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 312-321
Field study: Saint Peter Basilica (Filarete’s Bronze Door, Michelangelo’s Pietà)
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p. 112; 133-135.
WEEK 8: Raphael in Florence: Leonardo’s influence. Raphael in Rome.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 292-298; 307-310; 321-329
Field study: Villa Farnesina
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p.120-122.
PRESENTATIONS History of Villa Farnesina. The Architecture and the Garden. Hall of Galatea: Frescoes in the Vaults representing the Horoscope of Agostino Chigi (2 students). Hall of Galatea: Lunettes by Sebastiano del Piombo. The Loggia of Psyche. Hall of the Perspectives. Alexander and Roxane’s Wedding Room.
WEEK 9: Raphael in the Vatican and in Santa Maria del Popolo
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 344-353
Field study: Santa Maria del Popolo
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p. 125-128.
WEEK 10: Julius II, the Antique and Bramante.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 330-334
The Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo and the ceiling.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 336-343
WEEK 11: The Sculpture of Michelangelo. The Sack of Rome. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 386-388
Field study: Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p.128-132; 136-139.
PRESENTATIONS Raphael’s Transfiguration, Raphael’s School of Athens, Raphael’s Disputation over the Sacrament, Raphael’s Fire in the Borgo, Raphael’s Mass of Bolsena and Liberation of Saint Peter, Sistine Chapel: cycle of Moses and Jesus (1481), Michelangelo’s Ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.
WEEK 12: Final Review. Short paper due.
Field study: Michelangelo’s Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli
WEEK 13: FINAL EXAM
The professor reserves the right to make changes to our course schedule, including different readings and field studies.
Required readings:
1. Schneider Adams, Laurie, Italian Renaissance Art, Westview Press 2001 (selected parts).
2. Rome. Art and Archaeology, Scala, Firenze 2000 (selected parts)
Recommended readings:
(available at the IES Library)
Bellosi, Luciano, Giotto, La Scala, Firenze 2003; Stinger, Charles The Renaissance in Rome, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1998; Panofsky, Erwin, Studies in Iconology. Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Reinassance, (New York 1972) (part V and VI)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Pier Paolo Racioppi received his Ph.D in Art History at the University of Roma TRE. He has also achieved the higher degree in the History of Medieval and Modern Art at University “La Sapienza”. Winner of the San Luca scholarship in 1997, he conducted research in the United States on Academies and Collections in early Nineteenth Century America. Since 1996 he has collaborated with Professor Rossi Pinelli in teaching seminars and colloquia on 18th and 19th century art. Since 1998, he is the editor of the Italian edition of the catalogues of Museum With No Frontiers. He has published several articles in specialized art history journals and in the Treccani Encyclopedia.
The aim of this course is to illustrate the fundamental role played by the ancient classical world in the Italian Renaissance art: between the 15th and the 16th centuries the classical heritage (ancient Greek and Roman) became a source of inspiration to regenerate both society and culture of Renaissance Italy. The ground was slowly prepared by the still empirical approaches to the antiquity of Nicola Pisano (sculptor) and Cavallini and Giotto (painters), active between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century. The course starts with the study of these late medieval artists, it moves on to the Early Renaissance Art in republican Florence (the first “revolutionary” generation of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio) and its sudden spread to the other courts of the Italian peninsula. The different artistic languages maturated in each Italian court by the contact with the Florentine innovations find a great synthesis in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1481-82) and, later, in the masterpiece of Raffaello and Michelangelo. (3 credits)
By the end of the course students will have:
- an outline of the artistic development of the arts from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance;
- a knowledge of the most important renaissance works of arts;
- a familiarity with the main philosophical and historical issues of the Renaissance;
- an ability to understand the language of the arts and to identify styles of different periods and geographical areas.
The course is mainly based on class sessions consisting of lectures delivered by the instructor, visits to monuments/museums and class discussions concerning the stylistic language and content of works of art.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Class participation: 15 %; presentation 15 %; short paper 15%; mid term exam: 25 %; final exam: 30%.
Student presentations. Presentations will be held during the field studies and will consist of an accurate description (stylistic and iconographic) of artworks and monuments. Topics, contents, sources will be decide upon with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Students are asked to provide classmates and instructor with handouts, possibly illustrated. Presentation will be graded on content, structure, delivery and quality of the handout.
Short paper (max 3 pages, 6000 characters, spaces included): description and identification of a painting/sculpture.
Grading: the final grade will be based on the exams, presentations (on site: field studies), attendance and class participation.
Format of the exams: Mid-term and Final exams will consist of multiple choice questions; true/false questions; short answers, identification of works of art.
1 Classical Antiquity, Renaissance and Renascences
WEEK 1 Greek Art: Polycletus and the Spear bearer
Roman Art: Augustus of Prima Porta and the Arch Constantine
Art in the Middle Ages: The renovation of sculpture: Nicola Pisano
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 2-8; Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 48-49
2 Stylistic achievements between the 13th and 14th centuries
WEEK 2 The gothic models and the renovation of painting: Cimabue, Giotto, Pietro Cavallini.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 9-18; 23-39.
Field study: Santa Cecilia in Trastevere
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 96 and 98; p. 101.
3 Culture in Florence in the first half of the 15th century
WEEK 3 Brunelleschi’s Architecture.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 58-72
Donatello in Florence
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 75-82
Gentile da Fabriano, Masolino and Masaccio
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 85-103
Field study: San Clemente, Branda Chapel
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 105-111
WEEK 4 Leon Battista Alberti, artist and theorist. Painting in Florence after 1450
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 89; 105-106; 154-160; 222-228; 256-260
4 Botticelli and the Florentine Neo-Platonism
Florence under Lorenzo de’Medici. The Accademia of Marsilio Ficino: the neoplatonic philosophy. The reintegration of subjects and classic themes with the classical style. The allegorical works of Botticelli.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 229-238
WEEK 5 Filippino Lippi and Ghirlandaio
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 238-245
Field study: Church of Aracoeli and Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology p. 118-119
WEEK 6: Midterm Review & Midterm Exam
5 Renaissance Rome
WEEK 7: The young Michelangelo: The Pietà and the David
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 312-321
Field study: Saint Peter Basilica (Filarete’s Bronze Door, Michelangelo’s Pietà)
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p. 112; 133-135.
WEEK 8: Raphael in Florence: Leonardo’s influence. Raphael in Rome.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 292-298; 307-310; 321-329
Field study: Villa Farnesina
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p.120-122.
PRESENTATIONS History of Villa Farnesina. The Architecture and the Garden. Hall of Galatea: Frescoes in the Vaults representing the Horoscope of Agostino Chigi (2 students). Hall of Galatea: Lunettes by Sebastiano del Piombo. The Loggia of Psyche. Hall of the Perspectives. Alexander and Roxane’s Wedding Room.
WEEK 9: Raphael in the Vatican and in Santa Maria del Popolo
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 344-353
Field study: Santa Maria del Popolo
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p. 125-128.
WEEK 10: Julius II, the Antique and Bramante.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 330-334
The Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo and the ceiling.
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 336-343
WEEK 11: The Sculpture of Michelangelo. The Sack of Rome. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment
Readings: Schneider Adams: p. 386-388
Field study: Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel
Reading: Rome. Art and Archaeology, p.128-132; 136-139.
PRESENTATIONS Raphael’s Transfiguration, Raphael’s School of Athens, Raphael’s Disputation over the Sacrament, Raphael’s Fire in the Borgo, Raphael’s Mass of Bolsena and Liberation of Saint Peter, Sistine Chapel: cycle of Moses and Jesus (1481), Michelangelo’s Ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.
WEEK 12: Final Review. Short paper due.
Field study: Michelangelo’s Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli
WEEK 13: FINAL EXAM
The professor reserves the right to make changes to our course schedule, including different readings and field studies.
1. Schneider Adams, Laurie, Italian Renaissance Art, Westview Press 2001 (selected parts).
2. Rome. Art and Archaeology, Scala, Firenze 2000 (selected parts)
(available at the IES Library)
Bellosi, Luciano, Giotto, La Scala, Firenze 2003; Stinger, Charles The Renaissance in Rome, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1998; Panofsky, Erwin, Studies in Iconology. Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Reinassance, (New York 1972) (part V and VI)
Pier Paolo Racioppi received his Ph.D in Art History at the University of Roma TRE. He has also achieved the higher degree in the History of Medieval and Modern Art at University “La Sapienza”. Winner of the San Luca scholarship in 1997, he conducted research in the United States on Academies and Collections in early Nineteenth Century America. Since 1996 he has collaborated with Professor Rossi Pinelli in teaching seminars and colloquia on 18th and 19th century art. Since 1998, he is the editor of the Italian edition of the catalogues of Museum With No Frontiers. He has published several articles in specialized art history journals and in the Treccani Encyclopedia.
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