HISTORY OF THE ARTS OF VENICE AND VENETO

The course is addressed to students coming from all study areas.

Thanks to the combination of different teaching and learning techniques (frontal lectures; group discussion; group-work; guided tours) students will learn:
- to describe and compare works of Architecture, Painting and Sculpture;
- to set them in their historical context and within the development of the History of Art.

The course is conceived to introduce Venetian art to students who do not necessarily have a background in any field of Humanities, including Art. Students enrolled on a degree course in Arts or Humanities, especially MA students, are kindly asked to get in touch with the instructor.

The course will focus on the development and the spread of the arts in Venice from the origins of the city to the fall of the Serenissima. Starting from the analysis of the peculiar geo-morphological conditions of the city of Venice, the course will consider major works of Venetian art, ranging from architecture to sculpture and painting, in their historical and cultural context, from the high Middle Ages to the 19th century, also in connection with the artistic production of other important artistic centres of the Veneto region such as Treviso, Verona, Vicenza and Padua. The analysis of single masterpieces will represent a first glimpse at the historical context and will provide students with the opportunity to delve deeper into exploring their features, style and the techniques employed to produce them. A walking tour around Venice will enable students gain first-hand access to the architectures, sculptures and monuments disseminated throughout the city. Finally, the course will include a visit to one museum (to be defined), which will provide the students a chance to experience some of the most beautiful and significant examples of Venetian works of art through the ages.

Recommended Reading List:

G. ORTALLI, G. SCARABELLO, A short history of Venice, Venezia, Pacini editore 1999.

Further reading:

D. COSGROVE, The Palladian landscape. Geographical change and its cultural representations in sixteenth-century Italy, Leicester, Leicester University Press, 1993.
E. R. DURSTELER (ed.), A companion to Venetian history, 1400-1797, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2013 (especially the chapters: Venetian Architecture, by D. HOWARD, pp. 743-778; Art in Venice 1400-1600, by W. WOLTERS, pp. 779-810; Venetian Art 1600-1797, by M. FAVILLA, R. RUGOLO, D. MEIJERS, pp. 811-864).
P. FORTINI BROWN, Venice and Antiquity: The Venetian Sense of the Past, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1996.
P. FORTINI BROWN, Private lives in Renaissance Venice, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004.
M. FAVILLA, F. PEDROCCO, R. RUGOLO, Frescoes of the Veneto. Venetian Palaces and Villas, New York, The Vendome Press, 2009.
M. FAVILLA, F. PEDROCCO, R. RUGOLO, Baroque Venice. The opulence, dreams, and illusions of a world in decline, Vicenza, Sassi editore, 2009.
G. PERTOT, Venice. Extraordinary maintenance. A history of the restoration, conservation, destruction and adulteration of the fabric of the city from the fall of the Republic to the present. London, Paul Holberton Publishing, 2004.

Individual/group work; written test.

Frontal lectures, individual/group work, two guided tours.

The distinctive feature of the course is the international composition of the class, generally including a variety of provenances both in geography and education. For this reason too, attendance to classes is highly recommended. Please note that students who cannot attend classes are required to prepare some additional readings to be agreed with the instructor. The final written test will include questions from each selected reading.

written