Ateneo - UPO

THE IMAGE OF ITALY IN THE EUROPE OF THE ANCIEN RÉGIME AND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE GRAND TOUR

F. Zeri, La percezione visiva dell’Italia e degli Italiani, Einaudi, Turin 1976 and 1989; A. Brilli, Il viaggio in Italia. Storia di una grande tradizione culturale, Pizzi, Cinisello Balsamo 1987, Silvana, Cinisello Balsamo 1989, and Il Mulino, Bologna 2006; A. Brilli, Quando viaggiare era un’arte. Il romanzo del Grand Tour, Il Mulino, Bologna 1995; A. Brilli, Un paese di romantici briganti. Gli Italiani nell’immaginario del Grand Tour, Il Mulino, Bologna 2003; A. Brilli, Il grande racconto del viaggio in Italia. Itinerari di ieri per viaggiatori di oggi, Il Mulino, Bologna 2014; J. Black, Italy and the Grand Tour, Yale U.P., New Haven 2003; C. De Seta, L’Italia del Grand Tour. Da Montaigne a Goethe, Electa, Naples 1992 and 2001; C. De Seta, L’Italia nello specchio del Grand Tour, Rizzoli, Milan 2014; A. Wilton and I. Bergamini, eds., Grand Tour. Il fascino dell’Italia nel XVIII secolo, exhibition catalogue (Rome), Skira, Milan 1997; C. De Seta, ed., Grand Tour. Viaggi narrati e dipinti, exhibition catalogue, Electa, Naples 2001; G. Marcenaro and P. Boragina, eds., Viaggio in Italia. Un corteo magico dal Cinquecento al Novecento, exhibition catalogue, Electa, Milan 2001; F. Mazzocca, S. Grandesso and F. Leone, eds., Grand Tour. Sogno d’Italia da Venezia a Pompei, exhibition catalogue, Skira, Milan 2022. Besides, an anthology of extracts from among the travel diaries of Montaigne, Symonds, Lassels, Addison, Brosses, Lalande, Sade, Cochin, Moratín, Montesquieu, Goethe, Chateaubriand, Stendhal and others. Non-attending students will have to read a second travel diary.

Educational objective A: Knowledge • Knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to get acquainted with the image of Italy and Italians in other European cultures, as well as with the favourite places and the principal expectations of foreign travellers in Italy; at an advanced level, to understand the evolution of these concepts over time, assess the degree of objectivity in judgements and the establishment of distortions and clichés. Educational objective B: Skills • 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to acquire the basic tools to critically read and interpret diaries and travel reports in Italy, as well as urban views and Italian landscapes painted by foreign artists or intended for a foreign public; • 2. Autonomy of judgement: at an advanced level, to command the changes in the image of Italy in the eyes of foreign travellers between the late Renaissance and the 19th century, and the gap between reality and their expectations and biases; • 3. Learning skills: at a transversal level, to possess the instruments helping to read and interpret further periegetic sources or travel memoirs, as well as to measure, in the great amount of images of Italy and Italians which were made between the end of the 16th and the 19th century, the changing balance between faithful reproductions of reality and imaginary representations. Educational objective C: Communication • Communication skills: at a basic level, to rephrase and summarise the contents and points of view of European travel literature regarding Italy, as well as describe the essential characteristics of Italian landscape, as transalpine artists rendered them in their works; at an advanced level, to comment with propriety, effectiveness and full command of terminology on the different levels of interpretation of literary and archival sources relating to the Grand Tour and travelling in general.

A good knowledge of European political and cultural history between the seventeenth century and the Napoleonic Age.

Oral lessons, possibly including a guided tour of the Borromean Islands on Lake Major. 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 with physical disabilities, learning disabilities (DSA) or special education needs (BES) can request specific services and tools via reference office consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects. Those who cannot attend are invited to contact the teacher at least one month before the exam, in order to establish personally the texts to study and possibly receive more didactic materials.In case of failure to register for exams electronically, will be eligible to take the test ONLY those who have, at least three days in advance, contacted the teacher personally or sent a message to his email address. No exceptions will be allowed.

Oral exam, c. 20/30’ long, consisting of four questions, at least one of which will be a general one on the course contents and at least two will concern the analysis and commentary of single works of art, through the observation of digital images on the computer or transmitted via whatsapp 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: a basic knowledge of the perception that European travellers had of Italy and Italians between the 17th and 19th centuries, as well as of the circumstances, motivations, routes, times and difficulties of 'travelling to and in Italy' during the age of the Grand Tour (25% of the overall assessment). Educational objective B: Skills • 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to place in time and space one or two landscape and view paintings, dating back to the 16th-19th centuries, representing a part of the Italian territory or a specific place and to understand comparatively the general meaning of a literary source consisting of a diary, account or correspondence of a travel to Italy, which the student will have agreed upon with the teacher in advance (25% of the overall assessment); • 2. Autonomy of judgement: to analyse critically the iconography of the proposed images that will be proposed and the themes touched upon in one or two textual sources of travel literature, making independent observations (25% of the overall assessment). Educational objective C: Communication • Communication skills: being able to use a clear, appropriate and correct terminology (25% of the overall assessment). An exam demonstrating a knowledge of the programme 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 programme and the topics discussed along the course, excellent judgement and synthesis skills, a full command of terms and fluency of language.

Teaching Units: Unit 1: the image of Italy and Italians in the Early Modern Age Unit 2: the image of Italy and Italians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, until the beginning of the twentieth century Unit 3: the prehistory of the Grand Tour. Travels of foreign artists in Italy between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries Unit 4: Among libertines, ‘monsù’ and ‘milordi’: Italy and the Grand Tour between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries Unit 5: the influence of Romanticism on the Grand Tour. Within the course, a lesson will be devoted to gender integration, considering the role of travelling women of the Grand Tour and, more generally, during the Modern Age.

Educational objective A: Knowledge • Knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to acquire a general knowledge of the constants and shifts in the vision of Italy and its inhabitants in the eyes of European visitors between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, as can be discerned through both visual and textual sources; at an advanced level, to relate these sources to contemporary European culture, independently assessing their historical relevance. Educational objective B: Skills • 1. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: at a basic level, to place in time single works of art and text passages, put them in the context of an artistic and cultural movement, being able to distinguish the essential examination topics; • 2. Autonomy of judgement: at an advanced level, to examine from a geo-topographical and emotional point of view landscape images, views or figure scenes by non-Italian artists from the centuries under consideration, as well as to make comments on short pieces of periegetic literature also by foreign authors, separating in judgement what tends to a sincere and objective vision from prejudices and commonplaces, in their evolution through the centuries and considering the variety of countries to which the observers belonged, in order to grasp the continuous transformation of how Italy's human and natural reality was interpreted; • 3. Learning skills: at a transversal level, to acquire the methodological and critical tools useful for observing and reading with enough co-ordinates, thanks to the knowledge and instruments obtained through study, further images and travel essays. Educational objective C: Communication • Communication skills: at a basic level, to acquire an adequate command of the terminology and logical passages useful for resuming the topics and problems dealt with in the programme; at an advanced level, to expound with intellectual and human empathy the expectations, enthusiasms, illusions and disappointments of at least one artist and traveller in Italy during the modern age, applying with ease the technical language of the subject.