Ateneo - UPO

Art and Territory. Technique and style in artistic geography between the 15th and 18th centuries.

PART I
Bibliography for attending Students.
- CASTELNUOVO, Enrico, GINZBURG, Carlo, "Centro e periferia nella storia dell'arte italiana", Officina Libraria, Milano 2019. (in commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.STODAI.1.1/1).
- GAUNA, Chiara, "La storia pittorica di Luigi Lanzi. Arti, storia e musei nel Settecento", Olschki, Firenze 2003, parti indicate a lezione (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.033.GAUNC.1).
- FAILLA, Maria Beatrice, “Verso una «fisionomia di scuola piemontese»”, in Diplomazia Musei collezionismo tra il Piemonte e l’Europa negli anni del Risorgimento, a cura di Giovanni Romano, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Torino 2011, pp. 119-144. (Materiali su D.I.R.).
More essays and text will be suggested during the course and made available on D.I.R.

Students that never attended Art History courses in the past, are warmly recommended to read a good Modern Art History handbook.
The bibliography must be studied carefully and the preparation for the exam should not be limited to reading the notes taken during the lessons.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.
- GENTILE, Guido, "Sacri Monti", Einaudi, Torino 2019 (In commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 726.509451.GENTG.1).
- CASTELNUOVO, Enrico, GINZBURG, Carlo, "Centro e periferia nella storia dell'arte italiana", Officina Libraria, Milano 2019 (in commercio; Biblioteca DISUM = 709.STODAI.1.1/1).
- ZERI, Federico, "La percezione visiva degli italiani", Einaudi, Torino 1989 (in commercio; PDF on the web, without photo).
PART II
Attending Students.

- Le tecniche artistiche, ed. by C. Maltese, Mursia, Milano 1985, ed edizioni successive (texts read during the lessons; link available on the D.I.R.).
- L'Arte (critica e conservazione), dizionario ed by Roberto Cassanelli, Alessandro Conti, Michael Ann Holly, Adalgisa Lugli, Jaka Book, Milano 1993 (voci indicate a lezione, materials available on the D.I.R.).
- Cennino Cennini, Il libro dell’arte, Vicenza 2003 ed edizioni successive (parti indicate a lezione).
- L.B. Alberti, De Pictura (Della Pittura),ed. by C. Grayson, Laterza, Bari 1980. (Texts read during the lessons; link available on the D.I.R.).
- Lorenzo Ghiberti, I Commentari (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, II, 333), ed. by Lorenzo Bartoli, Biblioteca della scienza italiana, 17, Giunti, Firenze 1998, parts indicated in class. (Materials available on the D.I.R.).
- Parts indicated in class: G. Vasari, Le Vite, edizione Giuntina del 1568, consultabile 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, ed. by Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi, Sansoni Editore, Firenze 1966-1987. (DISUM Library 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 handbook.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.
B. Aikema, I Rinascimenti in Europa 1480-1620. Arte, geografia e potere, Libri Scheiwiller, Milano 2024. (In commercio).
- Barbara Agosti, Giorgio Vasari. Luoghi e tempi della Vite, Officina Libraria, Milano 2013 (ed edizioni successive). (In commercio; DISUM Library = 709.02.VASAG.AGOSB.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, that is, basic knowledge of historical facts and the dynamics that govern the relationships between centers of artistic production, culture, and the public in the modern age, in the Italian geographical area. It also provides adequate ability to apply knowledge and understanding in the ability to recognize and define the cultural, artistic and geographical context in which a work was born and the dynamics in which it is inserted.
At an advanced level, in relation to the Student's training, the course has the following training objectives:
• expression of judgments: acquisition of the ability to fully express the historical significance of a work of art within a complex context of territorial, geographical and cultural relationships. acquisition of disciplinary lexical ability.
• communication skills: the Student will acquire the ability to illustrate to a group of interested and non-specialist adults the characters and contents of the artistic production of a place, in relation to the cultural and geographical context in which it exists.
• study skills: the Student will be able to independently deal with the reading of written and figurative texts that illustrate the cultural production of the Italian artistic centers of the Modern Age.

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 communicated on the D.I.R. forum.

Attendance at the course is recommended.

Those with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Once they have contacted the University Staff, persons with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.
Patrizia Zambrano e-mail address is: patrizia.zambrano@uniupo.it.
Patrizia Zambrano studio is located at the Department of Humanities, Vercelli, Palazzo Tartara, via G. Ferraris 109, IInd floor, studio number 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.

PART I + PART II
The final exam consists of an interview of 4-5 questions and addresses the topics dealt with in the class and the bibliography assigned*.
Questions can have as their theme:
- Definition and articulation of the concepts of centers and periphery; what 'delay' is, what 'scarto' is, Luigi Lanzi and Piedmont, Giorgio Vasari and the concept of periphery, large and small circulation (works, artists, sources), choice of territorial criteria for the study of Art History, etc.
- The conceptual fundaments (periodization, chronology, style).
- The lexicons analyzed during the lessons.
- Basic artistic techniques (fresco, tempera, oil, bronze, engraving, marble, terracotta), rudiments of iconography (main subjects of European Renaissance painting and sculpture).
- Working tools of the art historian such as documents, contracts and payments, main sources for the History of Modern Art, etc.).
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.

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.

The course will take the start from an historical definition of the concept of the relation between 'center and periphery' as a key idea of the broad theme of artistic geography. It will cover its history and provide a series of examples and case studies also, but not exclusively, related to the Piedmont area. Particular attention will be paid to the interconnections operating, over the centuries, between physical geography, political geography, and artistic geography, especially in relation to the travels of artists and movement of the works of arts, the relationships between cultural areas, the spread of innovation, the dynamics of patrons in relation to the places and the tangible and intangible communication routes in modern times.
Specific and significant case studies linked to the cultural context of Eastern Piedmont will be analysed in the last part of the course, in order to verify, in the field, the validity of the theoretical framework of the proposed model.
The second part of the course follows two tracks, namely through an in-depth historical and technical analysis of some highly significant works and through the reading, analysis and study of a series of texts of artistic literature which have great importance for the techniques and the formation of modern styles in painting and sculpture between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Lessons 1-3: introduction to the course and the history of the Art History sources.
Lessons 4-7: Cennino Cennini, introduction to painting techniques.
Lessons 8-10: Lorenzo Ghiberti, history of art and sculpture techniques.
11-12: Aspects of the artist's profession between the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, contracts, working times, the workshop.
Lessons 13-15: Technique and style: Leon Battista Alberti.
16-18: Technique and style, a practical case of use of the art historian's working tools.

Special attention will be paid to figures of women artists, collectors, benefactors, donors and protagonists of the artistic life of the geographical area between the 16th and 19th centuries.

To achieve sufficient or more than sufficient knowledge, skills and abilities as intended, the Student is expected to achieve the following outcomes:

To achieve a basic level, the Student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: knowing contents, methods and vocabulary related to the presence of territorial historical-artistic centers and contexts characterized by both simple and complex dynamics of relationships and interconnections.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: ability to apply the acquired knowledge demonstrating to be able to orient oneself in space and time, relative to the historical artistic territorial contexts, even complex and polycentric, which characterize the modern age.
Transversal skills
- Autonomy of judgment: knowing how to express autonomous evaluations of the historical-artistic contexts in the geographical dimension and in the existing cultural relationships, in the course of history and in actuality, between the different centers, also in light of the movements of artists and works. 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: being able to communicate the specificity of a historical-artistic context on a territorial and geographical basis to a non-specialist public, also in the perspective of its enhancement.
- Learning skills: knowing how to transmit and disseminate, in an autonomous and personal way, the specificity of the territorial historical-artistic contexts not only for the benefit of their knowledge, but also in the concrete perspective of their future cultural enhancement.

For the achievement of an advanced level, the Student must demonstrate:
- Knowledge and understanding: knowing how to identify, describe and analyze the dynamics that govern, in the different ways, the relationships of artistic geography in the center-periphery dynamic.
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to be able to carry out limited but original reflections / researches on a territorial basis. 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, however placing it in relation to a 'work or a series of works of art so as to highlight the existing and underlying relationships between them.

Transversal skills
- Independent judgment: use the digital sources (both textual and visual) available in a correct and functional way.
- Communication skills: use disciplinary vocabulary in communicating content.
- Learning skills: being able to independently trace and use historical and possibly archival sources in the short and wide range. Moreover, 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 related to the historical and artistic contexts; knowing how to deduce the historical-cultural role of an artefact and knowing how to relate it to the contemporary context in the Italian society.