ICONOGRAPHY AND ICONOLOGY

Iconography and Iconology [FM0101] is a 6-credit course proposed as one of the core educational activities of the Master's Degree Programme in History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage. The course aims to provide a solid preparation set on an underlying theme, with a focus on the European Renaissance, structured on the basis of a series of cases that will enable the acquisition of advanced knowledge and analytical tools, as well as the development of transversal critical skills useful for an in-depth reflection on artistic processes, on the indispensable links to be established between image production and society, also in order to better address today's challenges involving our cultural heritage.

- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and ability to understand the topics developed during lectures, namely, to know the outstanding figures of artists, advisors and patrons who distinguished themselves in the field of inventing peculiar iconographies and iconographic programs, and also to understand the social, anthropological and theoretical implications of the construction, and then the reception, of the meanings of works of art;
- To be able to apply the acquired knowledge and understanding in a different context and in a new situation, and to problematise using the tools of study and analysis acquired during lectures;
- To acquire a learning ability and an autonomy of judgement such as to be able to develop in a coherent and original way a personal reflection on the question of iconographic invention and norms, also extended to an interdisciplinary context;
- To be able to communicate clearly, using the appropriate terminology relating to the work of art, its meanings and its context, to relate to teachers and peers through constructive dialogue and a collaborative attitude, as well as to demonstrate ability in the exposition of complex reasoning relating to the themes dealt with in the lessons.

Consolidated knowledge of the history of art from the 15th to 18th centuries acquired during the Bachelor’s Degree Programme is desirable.

The course deals with the issue of Inventio, or Invention, a fundamental term in the system of art since Leon Battista Alberti. According to Lodovico Dolce, "The invention is the fable or history, which the painter elects by himself or is set for him by others as the subject matter of what he has to produce," while Francesco Milizia summarizes at the end of the eighteenth century, specifying: "it is not a discovery, but a choice that the artist makes of the objects convenient to his subject." Through the analysis and commentary of a selection of paradigmatic cases, with particular attention to sixteenth-century artistic production, recalling some of the essays that have marked art history studies, but taking into account more recent research, we will observe the multiple aspects and factors that contribute to the genesis of the meanings of a work of art, to the evolution of the signs, symbols and figures that form its syntax, to the choices carried out to make a work of art eloquent, whether in the codification and normalization of a visual language understandable by most or, conversely, in the sophisticated complexity devised within exclusive contexts. The examples covered during the lectures will serve to nurture a cross-cutting reflection on the relationship between the artist and the public, between the work and its context, and between image and text, as well as a broad reflection on visual communication, in the past and present, and related receptive and interpretive processes.

Besides the personal lecture notes, the following texts should be studied to prepare for the exam:
- Michael Baxandall, Forme dell’intenzione. Sulla spiegazione storica delle opere d’arte, con una nota di Enrico Castelnuovo, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 2000.
- Claudia Cieri Via, Nei dettagli nascosto. Per una storia del pensiero iconologico, Roma, Carocci, 2009.
- Ernst Gombrich, Immagini simboliche. Studi sull’arte del Rinascimento, trad. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1978
- Erwin Panofsky, Il significato delle arti visive, introduzione di Enrico Castelnuovo e Maurizio Ghelardi, Torino, Einaudi, 1996.
- Émilie Passignat, Il Cinquecento. Le Fonti per la storia dell’arte, Roma, Carocci, 2017, cap. IV.
- Reverse engineering. Un nuovo approccio allo studio dei grandi cicli rinascimentali, edited by Émilie Passignat and Antonio Pinelli, Roma, Carocci («Ricerche di Storia dell’arte»: 91-92), 2007.
- Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, a cura di Sonia Maffei, testo stabilito da Paolo Procaccioli, Torino, Einaudi, 2012, Introduzione.
- Marco Ruffini, Pittura e soggetto: il caso della "Tempesta" di Giorgione, Roma, Campisano Editore, 2022.
Further bibliographical references and reading suggestions will be provided during the lectures.

The course includes two complementary ways of assessing learning. In view of the seminar activity of the course, students will be asked to choose a topic to study and present in the classroom that will allow them to feed and continue the group reflection, focusing according to their own affinities on an iconographic motif, on a single work or a decorative cycle, on an artist or on an author indicated in the specific bibliography communicated at the beginning of the lessons. Students will be asked to provide the teacher, at least one week before the day of the oral final exam, with a short written paper presenting this personal research, following the instructions given at the beginning of the course. In the overall assessment, this personal research paper accounts for 40% of the total mark. The oral examination will consist of the discussion of this paper (20%), supplemented by two questions on the content of the lectures (40%).

In addition to the lectures, there will be seminar sessions in which students, in groups or individually, will present a short paper on a topic agreed with the lecturer at the beginning of the course. Possible external visits and interventions will be proposed.

Italian

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