MEDIEVAL ICONOGRAPHY AND ICONOLOGY

The course is scheduled among the fundamental art-historical disciplines in the Master’s Degree Programme in History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage, curriculum in Medieval and Byzantine Art.

The course aims to develop:
1) knowledge and understanding skills related to the works of art and figurative themes, simple and complex, in medieval art;
2) ability to apply knowledge and understanding: knowledge of how to place and examine figurative themes in their historical, geographical and monumental context; identify iconographic themes and their symbolic significance;
3) ability to elaborate personal analysis on the identification of symbolic themes and their meaning; to be able to argue with full ownership of language and formal analysis
4) learning skills: based on the reference study material, know how to situate a figurative theme in the culture of its time, comparing it with works and themes of other cultures by grasping commonalities and differences by adopting the specific vocabulary of the art-historical discipline in making connections between themes and works of both semantic and monumental types;
5) communication skills: addressed to analyze images using appropriate and specific vocabulary of the Art History, and to create links between semantic images, monuments and urban spaces in different culture;
6) being able to behave in a professional, collaborative and profitable way with professors and colleagues.

The course requires a basic understanding of Medieval art. The course will also include readings in Latin (traslated in italian), English and French.

The teaching, substantially divided into two sections (I: theoretical and methodological bases; II: themes), aims to illustrate the essential steps in the studies of iconography and iconology, and develop the skills to analyze the analysis of images produced in the West from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages.
During the first period, the course aims to acquire knowledge and skills in iconographic and iconological analysis, providing an overview of critical historiography and methods (Male, Grabar, Warburg, Panofsky, Belting).
In the second period punctual will be examined exemplary cases (single images or groups of images) pertaining to different thematic areas: the migration of ancient themes in Christian art; the interpretation of the world and nature through the representation of animals; the relationship between text (understood as epigraph, literary text and icon) and the image; images of memory and the construction of visual schemes; the visual processing of emotions during the Middle Ages. In the second period, lectures include classroom presentation and discussion of students' research.

Section I: theoretical and methodological bases
H. Belting, Il culto delle immagini: storia dell'icona dall'età imperiale al tardo Medioevo, Roma, Carocci, 2004, Introduzione.
Id., Antropologia e iconologia, in L’immagine nel mondo, il mondo nell’immagine, Quaderni della ricerca, 1, amcura di D. Agrillo, E. Amideo, A. Di Nobile, C. Tarallo, Napoli, 2016, pp. 9-22.
F. Bisconti, Introduzione, in Temi di iconografia paleocristiana, a cura di F. Bisconti, Città del Vaticano 2000, pp. 13-86.
D. Freedberg, Il potere delle immagini: il mondo delle figure, Torino, Einaudi, 1993 (ed. or. Chicago 1989), capitolo 5, La consacrazione: come far funzionare le immagini, pp. 130-155.
C. Frugoni, Iconografia, EAM, in rete
C. Ginzburg, Da A. Warburg a E.H. Gombrich (Note su un problema di metodo), Studi Medievali, s. III, 7, 1966, pp. 1013-1065 (anche in C. Ginzburg, Miti, emblemi, spie, Torino, Einaudi 1986, pp. 29-106)
Temi di iconografia paleocristiana, a cura di F. Bisconti, Città del Vaticano 2000, pp. 13-86 (Introduzione).
E. Panofsky, Introduzione. La storia dell’arte come disciplina umanistica, in Il significato nelle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi 1999, pp. 5-28.
Idem., Iconografia e Iconologia. Introduzione allo studio dell’arte del Rinascimento, in Il significato nelle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi 1999, pp. 29-57.
A. Warburg, Mnemosyne. L'Atlante delle immagini. Introduzione, in A. Warburg, Opere, II, La rinascita del paganesimo antico e altri scritti (1917-1929), a cura di M. Ghelardi, Torino 2008, pp. 817-828.
E. Panofsky, Introduzione. La storia dell’arte come disciplina umanistica, in Il significato nelle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi 1999, pp. 5-28.
Idem., Iconografia e Iconologia. Introduzione allo studio dell’arte del Rinascimento, in Il significato nelle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi 1999, pp. 29-57.

Section II, themes
L. Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini. Predicazione in volgare dalle origini a Bernardino da Siena, Torino, Einaudi, cap. 2, Allegorie e immagini della memoria, pp. 47-101.
D. Boquet, P. Nagy, Una storia diversa delle emozioni, in Rivista storica italiana, 128, 2, 2016, pp. 481-520.
C. Frugoni, La voce delle immagini, Torino, 2010, pp. 49-114 (cap. 2 Il linguaggio del dolore, i gesti della parola)
M. Pastoureau, I Bestiari nel Medioevo, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 3-54.
A. Petrucci, La scrittura. Ideologia e rappresentazione, Torino, Einaudi 1986, pp. XVII-XXV.
S. Riccioni, L’Epiconografia: l’opera d’arte come sintesi visiva di scrittura e immagine, in Medioevo: Arte e storia, Atti del X Convegno internazionale di studi (Parma, 18-22 sett. 2007), Milano. Electa, 2008, pp. 465-480.

Optional readings
A. Belting, Image, medium, Body: a New Approach to Iconology, in Critical Inquiry, 31 (2004-2005), 2, pp. 302-309.
D. Freedberg, Il potere delle immagini: il mondo delle figure, Torino, Einaudi, 1993 (ed. or. Chicago 1989), capitolo 7, L’immagine votiva: invocazione di favori e rendimento di grazie, pp. 210-245.
C. Frugoni, La voce delle immagini, Torino, 2010, pp. 3-48 (cap. 1 Dominare e subire)
A. Grabar, Le vie dell’iconografia cristiana. Antichità e medioevo, a cura di M. della Valle, Milano 2011, pp. 11-58 (capp. 1-2)
H.L. Kessler, Corporeal Texts, Spiritual Paintings, and the Mind’s Eye, in Reading Images and Texts: Medieval Images and Texts as Forms of Communication, eds. M. Hageman and M. Mostert, Turnhout, 2002 (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 8) [ora anche in H.L. Kessler, Old St. Peter and Church decoration in Medieval Italy, Spoleto, CISAM, 2002, pp. 159-178].
Introduzione ad Aby Warburg e all'Atlante della memoria, a cura di M. Centanni, Milano 2002.

The bibliography may be updated depending on the topics discussed in class, in such cases specific readings will be provid

Classroom Lecture: Presentation with Power Point (or other image viewer), 15 minutes. Participation (20%)
• Original research paper (30%)
• The paper must be delivered to the professor no later than 15 days before the examination. Text max 20 pages (excluding Footnotes, Bibliography and Illustrations), times new roman 12; Space 1.5. Footnotes according to thesis standards. Illustrations at the end of the text, with list illustrations. Final Bibliography: Sources; Studies, in alphabetical order
• Oral examination on the general bibliography and specific readings for lessons

Lectures with projected images; tutorials on iconography and medieval texts reading; papers and discussions. Students will present in class a research that will be the subject of collegial discussion. The research will be delivered to the teacher and it will be part of the final evaluation process.

Italian

Given the nature of the course, attendance is strongly recommended. Students not attending, shall agree the syllabus with the teacher (by appointment).

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