Learning objectives
The course aims to provide advanced critical tools for methodologically correct and up-to-date contextualization of medieval images. The two parts of the course, through specific focuses on particularly significant emergencies and in-depth critical analyses of fundamental texts on the perception of art in the Middle Ages, will the student able to initiate a more conscious reading of the works in order to elaborate basic historical-critical contextualizations in a broader and at the same time critically deeper panorama, acquiring greater communication skills and autonomy of judgment.
Knowledge and comprehension skills.
Students should acquire the ability to approach the reading of critical texts (manuals, essays, reviews, catalogues) by grasping their conceptual nodes.
Applied knowledge and comprehension skills.
Students should gradually acquire the ability to apply the knowledge acquired in relation to emergencies never observed before.
Autonomy of judgment.
The skills acquired will enable students, by critically interweaving art-historical literature and direct analysis of the work, to make autonomous evaluations and judgments.
Communication skills.
With particular insistence, students will be urged to achieve specific written and oral communicative competence, a fundamental skill for the discipline.
Learning skills:
The critical-analytical tools fielded should enable students a more mature and fruitful capacity for learning and adaptation necessary for the continuation of master's studies and for a more impactful entry into the world of work.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The course deals with the subject of medieval image choices in figurative and architectural fields (sculpture, painting, mosaics, miniature, religious buildings, public and private secular buildings) in the complex framework that is shaped by the intersection of micro- and macro-historical contexts, the dynamics of patronage and coeval theological and philosophical speculations.
The course is divided into two parts: in the first part, the focus will be on the history of the discipline of iconography and iconology, starting from the biblical text and patristic sources; then the attention will be focused on the exegesis of Jerome Baschet's reference text for modern medieval iconography; subsequently by applying these proposed interpretative schemes on some Italian examples, students are required to understand in a methodologically up-to-date and correct way the meaning of images models in their context.
In the second part of the course some image models will be anlyzed some image models from the time of the Swabians in the imperial borders between the mid-12th century and the first half of the 13th century, between Frederick I Barbarossa and Frederick II Hohenstaufen.
Full programme
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Bibliography
For those who have never taken a medieval art history exam, integration on the e-learning course on the https://elly2020.dusic.unipr.it/ is obligatory.
For those who have already taken a medieval art history exam and have attended the course:
J. BASCHET, L’iconografia medievale, Milano, Jaca Book, 2014 or next edition.
Additional course materials (approximately 13 PDFs) will be uploaded to UNIPR's Elly platform during the course
Teaching methods
During the lectures, possibly also outside the classroom directly in contact with the artworks, the most problematic critical issues related to the creation, image models, style, patronage and reception of the works examined will be addressed. For this purpose during the lectures we will make use of a large body of images related to each topic; in this way students can be faced directly with methodological and epistemological problems.
Seminars on individual problems may also be organized with the reading and discussion of articles or essays to provide the tools for a coherent methodology of study.
Assessment methods and criteria
During the course, moments of examination may be organized in order to test the ability to understand and apply the knowledge acquired. At the end of the course, the student should be able to orient himself/herself and know how to read the work in its specificities, techniques and semantics, identifying its characteristics and historical context.
The ability to use the correct critical and art-historical terminology will be required, and students must demonstrate the ability to adopt the correct methodology of investigation even on contexts not addressed in class.
The grade will be deemed insufficient in the absence of minimal knowledge of the course topics or with insufficient ownership of language. The exam is insufficient by preparing only part of the indicated syllabus.
A sufficient assessment (range: 18/30 - 22/30) is determined by a minimum level of correct answers or with minimal ability to apply the learned concepts; a median score (range: 23/30 - 26/30) is determined by the ability to express the acquired knowledge in an argued manner; higher scores (range: 27/30 - 30/30) correspond to an optimum/excellent level of the assessment indicators.
Other information
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