Italian medieval art
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
J Gregory
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: Two visual arts subjects at first-year level
After a selective treatment of aspects of late antiquity and the earlier Middle Ages (with special emphasis on Rome and Ravenna), the course will concentrate on the period c. 1100 - 1350. Topics to be considered will include the art of Norman Sicily and Frederick II's kingdom in south Italy; developments in Rome during the period; and the evolution of `proto-renaissance' painting and sculpture in central Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially in the work of the Pisani, Giotto and his predecessors and contemporaries, and Sienese painting. The question of the survival/revival of the so-called classical tradition will be addressed critically, as will matters of terminology and definition (`Romanesque,' `Gothic,' `Byzantine,' `proto-renaissance,' etc). Relevant socio-political conditions will be considered throughout the course.
Assessment
Written (4500 words): 75% * Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%
Prescribed texts
Cook W and Herzman R The medieval world view OUP, 1983
Holmes G Florence, Rome and the origins of the Renaissance OUP, 1986