HISTORY OF APPLIED ARTS

This is a complementary course (group C) of the Master's Degree Programme in History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage (curricula in "Mediaeval-Byzantine art" and "Early Modern Art"). Participants from other programmes (e.g. Archaeology, Environmental Humanities) and curricula (Contemporary art studies) are welcome: they can work on objects chronologically close to their interests.

The course focuses on a open range of artifacts, techniques and highly-specialized processes that are object of historical scholarship. It also addresses the theoretical and geographical issues raised by this topic and, more broadly, the anthropic factors and the cultural practices (not only the productive ones) to which the objects can be related, with a concentration on their materiality.

- Familiarity with the art techniques and object typologies presented in the course.

- Awareness of the historiographical issues raised by the classification and hierarchisation of objects according to "arts", "materials" and "techniques".

-Ability to present an object focusing on its typology, materials and making process, and to relate it with non art-historical cultural issues (human capital, procedural knowledge, productive specializations of the territory, products with identity value, circular economy...)

Students with diverse academic backgrounds are welcome. Basic knowledge of Western art before 1800 is desirable, but not compulsory.

The course offers:
1. an introduction to the issues raised by the hierarchization of the arts, their interpretation and musealization according to material and technical criteria.
2. a survey of the art techniques related to the so called "applied arts" (with a different concentration each year).
3. the students' presentations.
4. a moment of close looking at the objects, for example in the form of museum visits during class time.
5. one opportunity for discussion with specialists in the field.

Compulsory readings on moodle

Handbooks useful for the participants that have never attended a survey of the history of techniques:

- Fabrizio Crivello (ed.), Arti e tecniche del Medioevo, Einaudi, Torino 2006 (BAUM: 709.02 ARTTM)

- Corrado Maltese (ed.), Le tecniche artistiche, Mursia, Milano 1983 o subsequent editions (BAUM LIBRITESTO DEP 09301)

ATTENDING STUDENTS
An essay that shall be delivered through the moodle platform by the date of each exam, and the students' presentations during the course.

The evaluation will consider:
20% partecipation and presentations
80% essay

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
An essay that shall be delivered through the moodle platform by the date of each exam, and an oral exam (based on the reafings for non attending students on moodle)

The evaluation considers:
20% oral exam
80% essay

Frontal, but dialogic lessons and papers of the participants. Museum visits.

Moodle’s blackboard is the official channel for every announcement concerning the organization of the course and the sharing of materials. All the participants are requested to sign in the moodle course.

The development of the university policies may cause changes in the teaching and assessment methods on short notice, independently from the teacher’s will. Up-to-date information will be provided during the first class of the course and in a pdf presentation that will be posted on the moodle platform.

Italian

Version not final.

Ca' Foscari applies the Italian laws for the support of students with disabilities or specific learning disorders. If you have a motor, visual, hearing disability, another impairment (Law 17/1999) or a specific learning disorder (Law 170/2010), and require support (interpreters, classroom assistance, note retrieval, technological aids for taking exams or individualized exams, materials in accessible format, specialized tutoring to support study, or other), please contact the Disability and DSA office (disabilita@unive.it) AND THE TEACHER BEFORE THE COURSE STARTS.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development