HISTORY OF CHINESE ART 1

This is one of the electives courses within the China/Korea curricula of the Corso di Laurea in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea". The aim of the course is to provide students with a general knowledge of Chinese art and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the Tang dynasty (618-907) included. The course, included among correlated or supplementary ones, faces the development of Chinese art and archaeology from the new approach of the contextualization of the artistic production system: by re-placing objects in their original context , it is possible to understand why they were made, for whom, and by whom. This will allow students to acquire the adequate tools to understand, recognize and contextualize in time and space works of art, sites, styles, artists and consumers. Students will also learn basic knowledge in iconography, iconology and art criticism.

By attending classes and individual studying of the suggested texts, students will be able to achieve the following results:
Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowledge of the basic art and archaeology terminology;
- knowledge of works of art, artists, figurative styles, sites, and techniques;
- knowledge and comprehension of the context in which works of art were generated.

Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension:
- Ability to apply the related terminology;
- ability to recognize and critically comment works of art and artists, by placing them in the socio-cultural context that generated them.

Ability to judge:
- ability to analyse a work of art or a style or a site by placing them in their correct chronological and cultural dimension;
- ability to connect works of art, artists, sites and styles in time and space;
- ability to formulate and infer simple assumptions when answering questions with adequate vocabulary and formal analysis.

Ability to learn:
- Ability to read in a critical way the reference texts.

None, but a general knowledge of Chinese history and philosophy is given for granted as these courses are compulsory

Cultural horizons of the medium and late neolithic period
The beginning of the Bronze Age
From political order to regional powers: the Zhou dynasty 1045-771 BCE
The search for immortality during the first empire
The revolutions of the period of division
Cosmopolitanism and opulence: the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties

Mandatory
- S. RASTELLI, L’arte cinese. I. Dalle origini alla dinastia Tang. 6000 a.C. – X secolo d.C., Einaudi, Torino, 2016.
- Images and documentaries showed during classes and uploaded on the Moodle platform.

Subsidiary (all available in the library)
- L. LANCIOTTI e M. SCARPARI (a cura di), Cina. Nascita di un impero, Milano, Skira, 2006.
- S. DE CARO e M. SCARPARI (a cura di), I due imperi. L'aquila e il dragone, Milano, Federico Motta Editore, 2010.
S. RASTELLI (a cura di), Cina alla corte degli imperatori. Capolavori mai visti dalla tradizione Han all’eleganza Tang (25-907 d.C.), Skira, Milano, 2008.
- R. E. FISHER, Buddhist art and architecture, London and New York, Thames & Hudson, 1993.
- N. CELLI, Buddhismo, Dizionari delle Religioni, Mondadori Electa, 2006.
- R.L. THORP e R. E. VINOGRAD, Chinese art and culture, New York, Harry N.Abrams, 2001 [for foreign students who cannot read Italian]

Learning outcomes will be verified through a written test, which will last for 25 minutes, divided into 3 sections: a) questions requiring synthetic answers; b) identification of 3 works of art (of which images will be provided); c) identification and description with stylistic analysis and critical-historical comment of 1 work of art (of which the image will be provided). A test example will be included among the course materials uploaded on the Moodle platform.

More specifically, the test will weigh:
a) knowledge of the fundamental notions on Chinese art and archaeology, included the basis terminology;
b) knowledge and ability to understand in a critical way reference texts listed in the bibliography;
c) ability to describe formally a work of art;
d) ability to analyse stylistically a work of art;
e) ability to comment in critical-historical way a work of art;
The final mark (min 18/30, max 30/30) will be determined by the sum of the scores obtained in the 3 different sections in which the test is divided.

Frontal lectures with the projection of images (slides and documentaries) of the works of art analyzed during classes.

The programme is the same for both attending and non-attending students.

written