HISTORY OF CHINESE ART 2

This is one of the electives courses within the Cina curriculum of the Corso di Laurea in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea"(indirizzo umanistico). The aim of the course is to provide students with a general knowledge of Chinese art history from the Five Dynasties period (907-960) to the present. The course, included among correlated or supplementary ones, faces the development of Chinese art history 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, figurative styles, artists and consumers. Students will also learn basic knowledge in iconography, iconology and art criticism.

By attending classes and individual studying of the texts listed in the bibliography, students will be able to achieve the following results:
Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowledge of the basic Chinese art-historical terminology;
- knowledge of works of art, artists, figurative styles, movements/tendencies, 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 movement/tendency by placing them in their correct chronological and cultural dimension;
- ability to connect works of art, artists, movements 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.

- Investigating reality: the art of the Song dynasty
- Religious syncretism and loyalists: the arts during the Mongol period
- The official, personal and urban spheres of the arts in the Ming dynasty
- The arts at the Qing court, in the city and among loyalist artists.
- Decorative arts: ceramics, lacquer, cloisonné, hardwood furniture
- Cultural interaction and exchange between the Opium Wars and Mao Zedong’s death
- Chinese contemporary art: from unofficial to international to global art

Mandatory
- R.L. THORP e R. E. VINOGRAD, Chinese art and culture, New York, Harry N.Abrams, 2001, capitoli 6-10.
- N. CELLI, "Arte e Archeologia", in M. SABATTINI and M. SCARPARI (eds), La Cina II. L'eta imperiale dai Tre Regni ai Qing, Torino, Einaudi, 2010, pp. 788-865.
- DAL LAGO, Francesca, «Politica, cultura e società nell’arte cinese dalle Guerre dell’Oppio all’inizio del XXI Secolo», in M. Sabattini e M. Scarpari (a cura di), La Cina, vol. III: L’età imperiale dai Tre Regni ai Qing, Einaudi, Torino
- Images and documentaries showed during classes and uploaded on the Moodle platform.

Subsidiary
ANDREWS Julia F., SHEN Kuiyi, The art of modern China, The Ahmanson Foundation, University of California Press, 2012.

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).
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.

Italian

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

written