Ateneo - UPO

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ (1599-1660). A SPANISH PAINTER OF THE EUROPEAN BAROQUE

Bibliographic guidelines:
A selection of book chapter readings from: Julián Gállego, El pintor, de artesano a artista, Granada, 1976; Jonathan Brown, Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Painting, Princeton, 1978; Vicente Carducho, Diálogos de la Pintura (1633), ed. Francisco Calvo Serraller, Madrid, 1979; Francisco Calvo Serraller, Teoría de la Pintura del Siglo de Oro, Madrid, 1981; Julián Gállego, El cuadro dentro del cuadro, Madrid, 1984; Julián Gállego, Visión y símbolos en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro, Madrid, 1987; Jonathan Brown, The Golden Age of Spanish Painting, New Haven and London, 1991; Francisco Pacheco, Arte de la Pintura, ed. Bonaventura Bassegoda, Madrid, 1990; Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Pintura barroca en España, Madrid, 1992; Karin Hellwig, La literatura artística española del siglo XVII, Madrid, 1999.
Bibliography:
Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, Velázquez. Edición completa, Barcelona, 1944; Antonio Gallego y Burín, eds., Varia Velazqueña. Homenaje a Velázquez en el III Centenario de su muerte, 1660-1990, Madrid, 1960; Velázquez y lo velazqueño. Catálogo de la exposición homenaje a Diego de Silva Velázquez en el III Centenario de su muerte, 1660-1990, 2ª ed. Madrid, 1961; José Camón Aznar, Velázquez, Madrid, 1964; Jonathan Brown and J.H. Elliot, A Palace for a King. The Buen Retiro and the Court of Felipe IV, New Haven and London, 1980; Jonathan Brown, Velázquez, Painter and Courtier, New Haven and London, 1986; Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Julián Gállego, Velázquez, Madrid, 1990; Carmen Garrido, Velázquez. Técnica y evolución, Madrid, 1992; Jonathan Brown, Kings and Connoissuers: Collecting Art in Seventeenth-Century Europe, New Haven and London, 1995; Juan Miguel Serrera, El palacio como taller y el taller como palacio. Una reflexión más sobre Las Meninas, en Fernando Marías, ed., Otras Meninas, Madrid, 1995; Fernando Marías, Velázquez, Pintor y criado del rey, Hondarribia, 1999; Carl Justi, Velázquez y su siglo (1888), ed. Karin Hellwig, Madrid, 1999; Ángel Aterido, Corpus velazqueño, Madrid, 2000; Salvador Salort, Velázquez en Italia, Madrid, 2002; Enriqueta Harris, Velázquez, Oxford, 1982; Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Benito Navarrete Prieto, De Herrera a Velázquez. El primer naturalismo en Sevilla, Madrid, 2005; Salvador Salort, Diego Velázquez, pintor, 1599-1660, Madrid, 2008; Antonio Palomino, Vida de don Diego Velázquez de Silva, ed. Miguel Morán Turina, Madrid, 2008; Fernando Checa, Velázquez. Obra completa, Madrid, 2008; José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez: Vida y obra de un pintor cortesano, Zaragoza, 2011; Javier Portús Pérez, Velázquez y la familia de Felipe IV, Madrid, 2013.
Further literature will be possibly given during the lessons.

Educational objective A: Knowledge
• Knowledge and understanding: through the study of the life and work of Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599-1660), the course intends to examine the painting that took place in Spain and Europe in the seventeenth century, and in particular naturalism and the baroque. At a basic level, the broad objective is to know the main lines of the history of art in Spain during the seventeenth century; at an advanced level, mastering the basic concepts on which the belonging of an artist and a work of art to a period, to a stylistic current and to a regional school is based, with particular attention to the seventeenth century.
Educational objective B: Skills
• 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to refer a painting or sculpture to a specified century.
• 2. Autonomy of judgement: at an advanced level, to refer an art work to a specified period, more precisely for the seventeenth century, explaining the reasons for the judgement expressed, and then to a stylistic current, a regional school and, in the case of the most important ones, to an author; besides, to recognize its iconography and thus to make plausible hypotheses about its original destination and function;
• 3. Learning skills: at a transversal level, to obtain the basics enabling to study further paintings of the seventeenth from life, and cope with new topics and artists of the same period.
Educational objective C: Communication
• Communication skills: at a basic level, to describe the personality of a major artist in general and the fundamental characteristics of art works with an essential property of language; at an advanced level, to be able to explain, with clarity and full mastery of terminology, the style and the various levels of interpretation of a single work of art as well as of an entire movement.

A good general knowledge of European political, economic, religious and cultural history during the Seventeenth Century. Besides, a general acquaintance with the outlines of art history of the Baroque age.

Oral lessons. Some time will be devoted to innovative teaching methods, including search of visual, documentary and literary materials on the internet and an introduction to the use of most common databases.

Students who cannot attend are asked to contact the teacher at least one month before the exam to agree on the texts of study and to receive any material electronically. In case of failure to register for exams electronically, ONLY those who have, at least three days in advance, contacted the teacher in person or sent a message to his email address will be eligible to take the test. No exceptions will be allowed.

Oral exam, c. 20/30’ long, consisting of four or five questions, two of which will be of a general nature on the contents of the course and two or three will concern the analysis and commentary of art works, through digital images shown on the computer or sent by e-mail in real time, to be seen on the mobile phone. For the purposes of the learning objectives, the following will be assessed in particular:
Educational objective A: Knowledge
• Knowledge and understanding: to know the life and works of Diego Velázquez and, on a broader scale, the production of the main currents and the most important painters active in Spain in the 17th Century, also in relation to other artistic expressions and contemporary thought (50% of the overall assessment will be attributed to this aspect).
Educational objective B: Skills
• 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to attribute art works of the Modern Age to a specific period and stylistic ambience, by means of photographs shown on the computer or sent via e-mail on the mobile phone (20% of the overall assessment);
• 2. Autonomy of judgement: to analyze with critical property the style and iconography of art works belonging to the period studied in the course (15% of the overall assessment).
Educational objective C: Communication
• Communication skills: to express oneself in a clear, appropriate and correct terminology (15% of the overall assessment).
An exam demonstrating a knowledge of the program limited to a brief exposition of the main topics, without personal critical evaluations and using essential and only partially appropriate and correct terminology, will be considered sufficient.
The exam will be judged excellent if it demonstrates an articulate, detailed and precise knowledge of the program and the topics discussed along the course, excellent judgement and synthesis skills, a full command of terms and fluency of language.
Professor Miguel Ángel Aramburu-Zabala will only be present in the first exam session, on Monday, June 24, 2024, while the other sessionss will be in charge of Professor Antonio Vannugli.

Teaching units:
UD 1: Baroque painting in Spain. 6 HOURS
UD 2: Naturalism and Baroque. 6 HOURS
UD 3: Diego Velázquez: The formation. 6 HOURS
UD 4: Diego Velázquez: Images and ideas. 6 HOURS
UD 5: Diego Velázquez, painter of the Court. 6 HOURS

Educational objective A: Knowledge
• Knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to acquire a fundamental knowledge of the greatest masters and the most important trends in the visual arts of the Modern Age in Spain and Europe; at an advanced level, to orientate oneself among the various artistic currents that followed and overlapped during the seventeenth Century, also in relation to the other kinds of creative expression and to contemporary religious and philosophical culture.
Educational objective B: Skills
• 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to place a single work of art of the Modern Age in the right century, recognizing the author in the case of the most famous ones;
• 2. Autonomy of judgement: at an advanced level, to explain the reasons of style that allow to identify the moment and the school to which a work of art belongs, with particular regard to the Naturalism and the Baroque, as well as to make a correct interpretation of its iconography, both in the religious and the profane fields;
• 3. Learning skills: at a transversal level, to acquire the critical and methodological tools useful for deepening studies on the period, not only in art history but also, more generally, in any field of the history of culture.
Educational objective C: Communication
• Communication skills: at a basic level, to acquire a minimum mastery of art-historical terminology in relation to the period discussed in the course; at an advanced level, to apply with autonomy and ease the technical language of the subject, modulating it appropriately according to the various genres and types of artistic representation.