Unit name | Early Italian Art |
---|---|
Unit code | HART20009 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Williamson |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History of Art (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The focus of this unit will be on the art produced by painters from the city-republics of Central Italy in the fourteenth century (principally Siena, Florence and San Gimignano). This is often seen as a 'Golden Age' of Italian painting, although what makes that era 'Golden' is sometimes thought to be wholly or mainly Florentine painting, with a particular focus on Giotto. This unit will look in detail at Sienese painting alongside Florentine painting. It will look also at painting done by Central Italian artists in other areas of Italy such as Padua, in the north of Italy, and Naples in the South, and at the papal court in Avignon. The work of Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti and PietroLorenzetti will all be considered. A particular focus will be on considering works of art in their religious, political and social contexts, and issues such as viewership, function and reception will be considered as much as patronage and production.
We will look at this work in a variety of thematic contexts. These may include:
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
1 x 2hr seminars and 1 x 1hr workshop weekly
5000-word essay (100%) [ILOs 1-5]
Diana Norman, Siena and the Virgin. Art and politics in a late medieval city-state (New Haven, 1999) Joanna Cannon and Beth Williamson (eds.), Art, Politics and Civic Religion in Central Italy, 1261–c. 1352 (Aldershot, 2000) Hayden Maginnis, The World of the Early Sienese Painter (University Park, PA, 2001) Judith B. Steinhoff, Sienese Painting after the Black Death (Cambridge, 2006) Jill Dunkerton (et al.), Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery (London, 1991) Dillian Gordon, The Italian Paintings Before 1400 (London, National Gallery, 2011)