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Syllabus
Gli Artisti
Gli Umanisti
I Papi
Le Città
La Galleria
SYLLABUS
23 gennaio
Introduzione al corso: che cos’è il Rinascimento?
28 gennaio
Petrarca, Padre della Patria? Canzoni politiche
Brown: 1-23; Burckhardt: The State as a Work of Art 1-39
30 gennaio
Pio II: il Papa umanista (Pinturicchio, Libreria Piccolomini, Siena)
Commentarii (estratti): il conclave, il viaggio verso Mantova
4 febbraio
Gli umanisti e il mito di Firenze (Benozzo
Gozzoli, Cappella Medici)
Brown: 24-29; 47-52; Burckhardt: The State as a Work of Art: 40-80
6: Lecture in the Olin Special Collections Room: Brown 30-46; 70-78;
87-90
11-13 febbraio
Alberti, Ritratti di famiglia e Storie dipinte (Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi,
Mantova)
Della famiglia (libro II, estratti) e Della Pittura (libro II,
estratti)
Burckhardt: The Development of the Individual 81-103; Grafton, Master Builder,
cap. I
18-20 febbraio
Cornazzano, Eros e Thanatos a Milano (Pollaiolo, Ritratto di Galeazzo
Sforza, Firenze)
Novella ducale e Capitolo su Galeazzo
25-27 febbraio
Masuccio, L’oro di Napoli (Laurana, Busti di Ippolita
Sforza, Frick
Collection, NY)
Novellino (Dedica, Novella 3 e Novella 15)
Hersey: Laurana Busts
2 marzo: Field trip to NY (Frick Collection and Renaissance Art section
at the Met)
3 marzo: Screening Non ci resta che piangere (Benigni-Troisi)
4 marzo
Pulci, Satira e Simbolo: Novella (Filippo Lippi, Ritratto di
Pulci, Firenze)
6 marzo: MIDTERM QUIZ
VACANZE DI PRIMAVERA
25-27 marzo
Poliziano, Pazzia e tragedia: Fabula di Orfeo (Ghirlandaio, Ritratto di
Poliziano, Firenze)
Mazzotta: Cosmopoiesis, cap. I; Brown: 62-69
1-3 aprile
Machiavelli, Cospirazione e guerra (Rosso Fiorentino, Ritratto di Machiavelli,
Firenze)
Istorie fiorentine VIII; Discorsi III, 6
8-10 aprile
Il Principe (estratti)
Mattingly: Political Science or Political Satire?
15-17 aprile
Bandello, Novelle (dedicatoria su Machiavelli a Giovanni delle Bande
Nere)
Aretino, lettera sulla morte di Giovanni delle Bande Nere
21 aprile: Screening Il mestiere delle armi (Olmi)
22-24 aprile
Aretino, La corte e la morte
(Michelangelo, autoritratto nella Cappella Sistina,
Roma)
lettera a Michelangelo; Sonetti lussuriosi; Sei giornate (estratti)
Vasari, estratto dalla Vita di Raffaello
(sullo stile di Michelangelo)
Brown: 53-61
29 aprile-1 maggio
Castiglione, La corte e l’amore
(ritratti di Raffaello e Rubens)
Il Cortegiano (Dedica e inizio libro I)
6 maggio
Conclusioni e discussione.
Brown: 79-86; 91-100
Further Readings:
Art in Renaissance Italy, John C. Paoletti & Gary M.
Radke, Prentice Hall, 1997 (ON RESERVE)
Images of Quattrocento Florence: selected writings in literature,
history, and art / edited by Stefano Ugo Baldassarri and Arielle Saiber. New
Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2000.
Kent, D. V., Cosimo de' Medici and the Florentine Renaissance: the
patron's oeuvre, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Welch, Evelyn S., Art and authority in Renaissance Milan, New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1995.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: It is a well-known fact that the
recuperation of classical models was fundamental for the early modern cultural
movements that we identify by the terms “Humanism” and “Renaissance”.
Students today are perhaps less aware that politics rivaled aesthetics as a
central concern of this age. Conspiracies, war, and other forms of
violence their causes, manifestations, and consequences are as crucial as any
reflection on notions of the classical for understanding the culture and
cultural phenomena of Italy during the 15th-16th centuries.
In this course we will focus on the conversation that emerges along these lines,
between aesthetics and politics, in the literature and visual arts of the
period. We will give special attention to the relationship between covert
and overt modes of communication by analyzing how secret language unfolds
in opposition the obvious public forms of address. Our inquiry will
involve a wide variety of genres and styles: private epistles and public
orations; dialogues, diaries, dramas; epic and lyric poems; treatises and
novellas, coded diplomatic letters, historiographic and autobiographic
recollections. We will study as well pertinent works of art by the prominent
painters, sculptors, and architects of Renaissance Italy.
MAJOR READINGS: Works by
Petrarca, Piccolomini (Pio II), Alberti, Cornazzano, Masuccio, Pulci, Poliziano,
Machiavelli, Bandello, Aretino, Castiglione.
Works of art by: Pinturicchio, Pollaiolo, Mantegna, Laurana, Piero della
Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raffaello, Giulio Romano,
Rosso Fiorentino.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
Weekly readings in
Italian (primary texts) and in English (secondary literature).
One midterm quiz; two oral in-class presentations; one final paper (10-15 pages)
OR an oral exam Italian University style (half-hour discussion). Both final
paper or exam require critical bibliography to be discussed in advance with the
instructor.
Honor Code Statement:
Students are expected to observe the Honor Code as outlined in the Blue Book.
Unless directed otherwise, all students should complete assignments on their
own. Please submit a typed, and signed statement at the second class session
indicating your intention to comply. This statement will be valid for the entire
semester.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS: The
course is an advanced seminar, conducted in Italian. All primary readings,
writing assignments, discussion, and in-class presentations are to be done in
Italian. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or
communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be
dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed
Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.
The criteria for grading are as follows:
|
Midterm Quiz |
25% |
| Mini-presentations |
25% |
| Qu
ality Participation |
20% |
| Final Paper OR Oral Exam |
30% |
Texts:
- Alison Brown, The Renaissance: Longman, London and New York 1999
(Second Edition) (available at Atticus)
- Reader available at Pip Printing (179 Main Street)