Ateneo - UPO

Modern Art History and History of the art sources (Letteratura Artistica). The Fifteenth Century.

First Part
STUDENTS ATTENDING:
Settis, Salvatore, Montanari, Tomaso, Arte. Una storia naturale e civile. 3. Dal Quattrocento alla Controriforma, Einaudi Scuola (Mondadori Education), Milano 2019, up to page 309. (in commercio). The book must be studied carefully in every section.
WARNING: Further study material on individual themes addressed in lessons will be indicated (and eventually made available on the D.I.R. line) during the course.
Very important CLARIFICATION. Books and texts in bibliography must be carefully studied and prepared. Notes taken in class are useful but do not replace the bibliography assigned.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
Settis, Salvatore, Montanari, Tomaso, Arte. Una storia naturale e civile. 3. Dal Quattrocento alla Controriforma, Einaudi Scuola (Mondadori Education), Milano 2019 (In commercio).
One of these essays or books:
- Alessandro Conti, “L’evoluzione dell’artista”, in Storia dell’arte italiana. Questioni e metodi, a cura di Giovanni Previtali, parte prima Materiali e problemi, vol. II, L’artista e il pubblico, Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino 1979, pp. 115-263 (Biblioteca DISUM);
- Gianni Carlo Sciolla, Studiare l’Arte. Metodo, analisi e interpretazione delle opere e degli artisti, Utet Libreria, Torino 2001 ed edizioni successive.
- Alessandro Angelini, Il primato dell’occhio. Temi e metodi della storia dell’arte moderna, Quodlibet Studio, Macerata 2019.

PART II
Bibliografia, studenti frequentanti.
- Julius Schlosser Magnino, La Letteratura Artistica, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1996 ed edizioni seguenti, le parti indicate a lezione (book online).
- Kris, Ernst, Kurz, Otto, La leggenda dell’artista, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1989, ristampa 2019, le seguenti parti: ‘Presentazione’ di Enrico Castelnuovo, ‘Prefazione’ di Ernst Gombrich, ‘Prefazione’ degli autori, pp. VII-XX; ‘Introduzione’, pp. 1-12; cap. 1 (‘L’eroicizzazione dell’artista’), pp. 13-59. (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.KRISE.1).
- Collareta, Marco, “Coscienza di sé e coscienza storica in Lorenzo Ghiberti”, in Ghiberti Teorico. Natura, arte e coscienza storica nel Quattrocento, Officina Libraria, Milano 2019, pp. 29-33. (Materiale su D.I.R.).
- Lorenzo Ghiberti, I Commentari (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, II, 333), a cura di Lorenzo Bartoli, Biblioteca della scienza italiana, 17, Giunti, Firenze 1998, parti indicate a lezione. (Materiale su D.I.R.).
- Le parti indicate a lezione di: G. Vasari, Le Vite, edizione Giuntina del 1568, available online. L’edizione consigliata per questa opera è la seguente: Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568, testo a cura di Rosanna Bettarini, commento secolare a cura di Paola Barocchi, Sansoni Editore, Firenze 1966-1987. (Biblioteca DISUM and available online).
The texts of the sources of the Artistic Literature that will be read, as well as short essays will be indicated during the lessons and (possibly) made available on the D.I.R.
For those who do not have a good basic knowledge, at least at the school level, we recommend reading a good Art History manual.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.
- Donata Levi, Il discorso sull'arte. Dalla tarda antichità a Ghiberti, Bruno Mondadori, Milano-Torino 2010, capitolo 6. (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 701.18.LEVID.1).
- Barbara Agosti, Giorgio Vasari. Luoghi e tempi della Vite, Officina Libraria, Milano 2013 (ed edizioni successive). (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.02.VASAG.AGOSB.1).
- Kris, Ernst, Kurz, Otto, La leggenda dell’artista, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1989, ristampa 2019, incluse la ‘Presentazione’ di Enrico Castelnuovo, la ‘Prefazione’ di Ernst Gombrich, la ‘Prefazione’ degli autori. (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.KRISE.1).

NOTE: THE BIBLIOGRAPHY MUST BE STUDIED CAREFULLY IN EACH PART, AVOIDING LIMITING YOURSELF TO THE NOTES TAKEN DURING THE LESSONS.

The course has a series of training objectives divided into two levels.

At a basic level, the course provides knowledge and understanding, i.e. basic knowledge of the main developments, artists, works of art, techniques, iconography, according to the main developments indicated in the manuals and the critical tools to be acquired through reading and analysis of some of the fundamentals sources of Artistic Literature of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
It also provides adequate ability to apply knowledge and understanding in the ability to identify cultural areas and chronologies, genres of the history of art in the early Modern Age and also to read and understand a source of the Artistic Literature of the 15th and 16th centuries.
At an advanced level, in relation to the student's training, the course has the following educational objectives:
• expression of judgments: the course aims to provide the student with disciplinary lexical properties and the tools to describe and analyze a work of art, relating it to the historical and social context that generated it.
• communication skills: the course also aims to develop the student's ability to apply the knowledge acquired by demonstrating the ability to analyze the work of art or the figure of an artist using the sources of Art Literature appropriately.
• study skills: the lessons want to put the student in a position to analyze and describe an artist's biography, also by crossing different sources of Art Literature and also want to show the student how to focus on the evolution of artistic language in its modern forms, from the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, through a path that follows the developments indicated in the manuals, but also the documents and sources.

Good knowledge in: Art History.
Basic knowledge in: Modern History; Modern Italian Literature.

Lessons, seminars, visits to museums and monuments.
Visits to museums are considered part of the course. Schedule and timetable will be agreed and given during lessons and also communicated on the D.I.R. forum.

Patrizia Zambrano's e-mail address is: patrizia.zambrano@uniupo.it.
Patrizia Zambrano's office is in the Department of Humanities, Vercelli headquarters, Palazzo Tartara, via G. Ferraris 109, 2nd floor, studio 31.
Registration to the D.I.R. it is necessary to receive communications, as well as to be able to acquire teaching materials that will be made available on D.I.R. All students interested in receiving information and updates are therefore invited to register for the course on D.I.R.

Verification of learning takes place through an oral exam lasting about thirty minutes.

The exam aims to assess the student's ability to apply the knowledge acquired during the course, to verify the autonomy of judgment, the ability to use the disciplinary vocabulary and communication skills. It consists of an interview, divided into 4-5 questions and focuses on the topics covered in class and on the assigned bibliography *.
Visits to monuments and exhibition done during the course are an integral part of the program and are subject to examination. During the exam it is advisable to have the images of the course with you.
The questions may have as a theme:
- The main figures of the artists, their works.
- The historical-artistic phenomena of reference (for example: perspective culture, the artists' workshops, the 'International style').
- The conceptual junctions (periodization, chronology, style).
- The lexicons analyzed during the lessons.
- The topoi and the crucial and recurring historical junctions: for example, the archetypal figures of the legend of the artist in antiquity, the social role of the artist in the early Renaissance and its evolution, Lorenzo Ghiberti and the artist's autobiography, the construction of figure of Giotto, etc.).

Vote of the exam is valuated in 30/30 points and based on the following parameters:
1) knowledge of the main and principal notions presented in the lessons and in the texts indicated in the bibliography * (18 points out of 30);
2) critical reasoning capability and associations and connections (6 out of 30);
3) ability to discourse knowledge and to express it effectively and linearly, using the specialized vocabulary, where needed (6 out of 30).

* For non-attending Students, only on the assigned bibliography.

The Examination Commission, after adequate joint and shared discussion, evaluates the two tests and assigns the final grade based on the average of the marks obtained in the two partial tests.

FIRS PART
The course aims to create a basis for disciplinary knowledge of the Modern Art History. The lessons will then follow the lines in the Modern Art History textbook, identifying at the same time the most relevant thematic lines and biographical and chronological articulations, with particular attention to the Early Italian Renaissance.
Lessons 1-2: introduction to the subject through a brief excursus on the main techniques of painting in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Lessons 3-4: the narrative structures of historical and artistic historiography.
Lessons 5-6: the "International style" in Europe and Italy as a study sample (method and analysis of the works).
Lessons 7-13: the spring of the Renaissance. Analysis of the figures of the main early Renaissance artists and reading of the works.
Lesson 14-18: artists and developments in the history of modern art in the second half of the 15th century. Towards the ‘Maniera Moderna’.

SECOND PART
The main subject of the course concerns the is the sources and documents of the “Letteratura Artistica”, especially with regards to the sources about the social role of the Artist between Middle Ages and Early Renaissance. The course is articulated by reading a series of texts, in particular studying the vocabulary used to describe different art techniques by the leading authors of Renaissance Art Literature: Cennino Cennini, Leon Battista Alberti, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giorgio Vasari in their texts and treatises on Renaissance art and Artists.
Lessons 1-2: Introduction to the course and to Art Literature. The ancient matrices of genres.
Lessons 3-5: The figure of the Artist between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the birth of the artist's biography.
Lessons 6-7: The Artist between the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
Lessons 8-16: Cennino, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Leon Battista Alberti.
Lessons 17-18: The figure of the Artist on the threshold of the Modern Manner, examples in the Lives of Giorgio Vasari.

In order to achieve the knowledge, skills and abilities corresponding to the expected learning levels (basic and advanced) the student is required to do the following:

FIRST PART
To achieve a basic level, the student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: knowing the contents of the History of Modern Art manual for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: knowing how to describe the work of art from a technical and iconographic point of view, recognizing its style and time of creation.
Transversal skills:
- Autonomy of judgment: knowing how to deduce the historical-cultural role of a work of art and knowing how to relate it to the contemporary context in Italy and Europe for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
- Communication skills: knowing how to formulate correctly and using the disciplinary lexicon the description of a work of art.
- Learning skills: knowing how to carry out the analysis of a work of art not known from the textbook.

For the achievement of an advanced level, the student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: knowing the disciplinary lexicon useful for reading the sources and documents relating to works of art and artists.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: knowing how to historically qualify the contexts of origin of works of art and artists.
Transversal skills:
- Autonomy of judgment: knowing how to analyze, read and understand the work of art within the historical system (= society) that produced it.
- Communication skills: knowing how to use the knowledge acquired in order to transmit and disseminate, in non-specialist areas, the fundamental features of the works of art and the historical-artistic contexts studied.
- Learning skills: knowing how to face, on the basis of the knowledge acquired during the lessons and through the study of the bibliography, the reading and decoding of a figurative representation or a historical-artistic context of the Modern Age.

SECOND PART
To achieve a basic level, the student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: having acquired the knowledge of the main sources of the Artistic Literature of the 15th century.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to be able to read and understand the texts of Art Literature analyzed in class.
Transversal skills
- Autonomy of judgment: to be able, starting from the reading of the source of the Art Literature, to be able to describe and interpret the links and links that exist between sources, works and artists.
- Communication skills: reading, analyzing and enunciating in the form of a critical comment the themes of the text of the Artistic Literature.
- Learning skills: knowing and knowing how to use the disciplinary lexicon.

For the achievement of an advanced level, the student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: demonstrate that they know how to use the sources of Art Literature in reading works of art and the figure of the artist.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to be able to use easily and without hesitation the lexicon used in the sources analyzed and used (from Cennino Cennini to Vasari) and to articulate the analysis of a text in a simple form.
Transversal skills
- Autonomy of judgment: ability to read a work of art and the figure of the Artist or artistic phenomenon in relation to sources and documents of the Art Literature.
- Communication skills: knowing, with competence and fluency, to illustrate to a group of non-specialist listeners, using disciplinary language and lexicon, the main characters and contents of a work of art.
- Learning skills: knowing how to deduce the historical and social role of the Artist; reading and understanding, also through the knowledge of the historical lexicon, texts, documents and works of art of the Modern Age.