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Renaissance Art (15th Century in Italy)

Code: 100546 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500239 Art History OB 2

Contact

Name:
Nuria Llorens Moreno
Email:
nuria.llorens@uab.cat

Teachers

(External) Per determinar

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There is no prerequisite


Objectives and Contextualisation

 

The fundamental objective of the course is to provide the student with some basic keys to interpret the Italian art of the fifteenth century, his intellectual ambition, his connections with the new culture of humanism and its historical significance. It also aims to promote the intellectual autonomy of the student and particularly a critical attitude towards bibliographic sources. The understanding of the originality and the theoretical foundation of the Quattrocento experiences we understand that it is necessary to be able to later study other subjects related to the western artistic production of the XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.


Competences

  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  6. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Efficiently presenting knowledge in oral and written form.
  9. Encouraging creativity and fomenting innovative ideas.
  10. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  11. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  12. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  13. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.
  14. Working in teams, respecting the other's points of view and designing collaboration strategies.

Content

1. Humanism and the reform of the arts. Petrarch and the origins of Humanism. Florentine Humanism of the first quattrocento: classicism and "civic humanism". The studia humanitatis: definition, themes and historical significance of Humanism.

2. Rinascita dell'antichità: From Vitruvius to De re aedificatoria. "Liberality" of the arts. Imitation of "Nature". F. Brunelleschi and the "invention" of perspective. L. B. Alberti: the birth of the theory of art. The codification of perspective and the rhetorical model in De pictura. The theory of beauty: the concept of concinnitas.

3. Brunelleschi's architecture. Alberti's architectural projects in Florence and Mantua. Michelozzo, Francisco Giorgio Martini, Giulano da Sangallo and Antonio Averlino Il Filarete.

4. The "other" humanistic courts. Rimini, Urbino, Milan, Ferrara and Naples.

5. The studioli and the portrait in gender key. Catherine Sforza, Isabella d'Este and Leonora Gonzaga.

6. Sculpture of the fifteenth century. The competition of 1401: Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. Ghiberti: The first doors of the Baptistery.

7. The emergence of Nanni di Banco and Donato di Bardi Donatello. Works for the Duomo and for Orsanmichele.

8. The new statuary: Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Ghiberti. The relief: rilievo stiacciato and perspective. Jacopo della Quercia. The evolution of Ghiberti, the "Gates of Paradise". The evolution of Donatello, from the maturity in the last works. The "sweet" style of the second half of the century.

9. From Florence to Urbino. Masaccio and Masolino. Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano, Andrea del Castagno. Piero della Francesca.

10. From Mantua to Venice. Andrea Mantegna. Giovanni Bellini and the modern Venetian school. Antonello da Messina.

11. Florence at the end of the century: the change of cultural climate in the middle of the century and the Neoplatonic current. Antonio del Pollayuolo, Verrochio, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi, Botticelli, Perugino.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom lessons 40 1.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 40 1.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Delivery of an essay on a subject to be chosen 70 2.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13

Classroom lectures

- Text commentary and discussion; possible seminars (depending on the number of students).

Tutorials

- Methodological and bibliographical guidance; advice in the realization of assignments

- Supervised activities (resolution of doubts related to the subject).

Practical and/or complementary activities (depending on the possibilities):

- Possibility (according to students and availability) of taking a trip to one of the Italian cities of the early Renaissance (Florence, Urbino, Ferrara...).

- Occasional visits to exhibitions, institutions, heritage sites or state museums (related to the subject; e.g. Prado Museum, Fine Arts Museum of Valencia, MNAC, etc.).

- Additional conferences, lectures and seminars

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Delivery of an essay 30% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Exam 1 40% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Images test 10% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Oral presentation 20 % 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

 
Evidence 1. A written exam in which the student will have to prove both the knowledge of the subject proposed by the teacher and the ability to construct the arguments and to adequately express the contents. The test constitutes 30% of the final grade.

Evidence 2. A written exam in which the student will have to prove both the knowledge of the subject proposed by the teacher and the ability to construct the arguments and to adequately express the contents. The test constitutes 30% of the final grade.

Evidence 3. Presentation of an individual essay in which the student will have to prove his / her ability to define a study object, a sufficient knowledge of the relative bibliography and the ability to pose questions and propose answers. As in the previous evidence, the ability to organize discourse and the quality of written expression will also be valued. Written work constitutes 40% of the final grade.

Evidence format:

You will have to pass both the exam and the individual essay (Evidence 1 and 2). In the case that one of these evidences has been failed, or both, the final qualification will be "Suspenso".

Details about the format of the evidence will be communicated at the beginning of the course well in advance.

The theme of the essay will always be chosen in accordance with the teacher's guidelines. Obligatoryly, the essay must incorporate the footnote system with references to bibliographic or documentary sources. The evidences of plagiarism can bring a suspense. Plagiarism is the appropriation of ideas outside without citing the source, especially if they are core ideas of work, and also the transcription of sentences without putting them in quotation marks and without indicating the source in the corresponding footnote.
 

Exams and papers written in Catalan or Spanish and also in other languages that the teacher canreadwill be accepted.

At the time of each evaluation activity, the teacher will inform the students of the procedure and date of revision ofthe grades.

The student will receive the grade of Non-evaluable as long as they have not submitted more than 40% of the evaluation activities.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

SINGLE ASSESSMENT:

The single assessment will consist of the same three evidences foreseen in the continuous assessment, with the same percentages. The date of the exam (first and second written exams) and the delivery of the individual work will be at the end of the course, coinciding with the recovery date.

RECOVERY:

Re-evaluation is contemplated both for the essay and for the exam.

PLAGIARISM

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


Bibliography

Bibliographical references

Barasch, Moshe, Teorías del arte. De Platón a Winckelmann, Madrid : Alianza, 1991

Baxandall, Michael, Giotto and the Orators. Humanist observers of painting in Italy and the discovery of pictorial composition, 1350-1450, Oxford University Press, 1971

Baxandall, Michael, Pintura y vida cotidiana en el Renacimiento. Arte y experiencia en el Quattrocento, Barcelona: G. Gili, 1978 (1972)

Burckhardt, J., La cultura del Renacimiento en Italia: un ensayo, Madrid: Akal, 1992 (1860)

Burke, P., El Renacimiento italiano. Cultura y sociedad en Italia, Madrid: Alianza, 1993 (1986)

Campbell, Stephen J. & Cole, Michael W., A New History of Italian Renaissance Art, Londres, 2012

Chastel, André, Arte y humanismo en Florencia en época de Lorenzo el Magnífico, Madrid: Cátedra, 1982 (1959)

De Fusco, Renato, El Quattrocento en Italia, Madrid: Istmo, 1999 (1984)

Frommel, Christoph Luitpold, The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance, London, 2007 (ed. italiana, Milà: Skira, 2009)

Garriga, Joaquim, “La intersegazione de Leon Battista Alberti (I)”, D’art, 20 (1994), p. 11-57

Gombrich, Ernst H., El legado de Apeles, Madrid : Alianza, 1982

Heydenreich, L. H., Lotz, W., Arquitectura en Italia 1400-1600, Madrid: Cátedra, 1991 (1974)

Joannides, P., Masaccio and Masolino. A complete Catalogue, London : Phaidon, 1993

Klotz, H., Filippo Brunelleschi. The Early Works and the Medieval Tradition, London : Academy Editions, 1990

Krautheimer, R., Lorenzo Ghiberti, Princeton University Press, 1956

Kruft, H.-W., Historia de la teoría de la arquitectura. 1. Desde la Antigüedad hasta el siglo XVIII, Madrid : Alianza, 1990

Nauert (Jr),Charles G., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge University Press, 1995

Panofsky, Erwin, La perspectiva com a “forma simbòlica” i altres escrits de teoria de l’art, Barcelona : Edicions 62, 1987

Panofsky, Erwin, Renacimiento y renacimientos en el arte occidental, Madrid : Alianza, 1975 (1960)

Paoletti, J. T., Radke, G. M., El arte en la Italia del Renacimiento, Madrid: Akal, 2002 (1997)

Pope-Henessy, John, El retrato en el Renacimiento, Madrid: Akal, 1985 (1966)

Pope-Henessy, John, La escultura italiana en el Renacimiento, Madrid: Nerea, 1989 (1958)

Rosenauer, A., Donatello, Milano : Electa, 1993

Tavernor, Robert, On Alberti and the Art of Building, Yale University Press, 1998

Wackernagel, M., El medio artístico en la Florencia del Renacimiento, Madrid: Akal, 1997 (1981)

White, John,  The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, London : Faber & Faber, 1987

Wittkower, R., Los fundamentos de la arquitectura en la edad del Humanismo, Madrid : Alianza, 1995

 

 

 


Software

Nothing special


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed