S1302 Art and Architecture in Renaissance Venice

The aim of this course is to look at Venice as an early example of globalized art and architecture. Since its origins, Venice has been in relationship with people of different nations and cultures, who provided new approaches, suggestions and improvements to its art and architecture.
This was even more clear during Early Modern age, when Venice was “at the centre of the world”. Its relation with  the Middle East (Byzantium, Egypt, the Turks), but also with Northern Europe (Germany, the Flanders, the Low Countries), Central Italy (Florence, Rome) and other Italian cities (Padua, Ferrara, Milan) offered, throughout the centuries, extraordinary occasions for the creation of a unique language, open to a wide range of influences and inputs.

Starting from St Mark’s square as a study case, the Course focuses on history of Venetian art and architecture during Renaissance age exploring relevant topics: religious and public buildings with their decoration (as masterpieces of architecture and art); foreign hosting structures and areas for an international centre of trade; buildings for assistance (“Scuole”, “ospedali”: charitable and social institutions). Playing an important role in the civic and religious ritual of Venice, they were the source of an important and characteristic type of patronage, by commissioning works of art from the major artists of the period, such as Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Titian, Tintoretto and Palladio among others.

This Course aims to provide students with a deep understanding of Renaissance Venice through an interdisciplinary approach to its cultural complexity in relation to its wider historical and cultural context.

Venice between West and East
As a first step, lectures will concern method and language issues regarding “history of architecture” by differentiating it from “history of art” as well as the development of the Venetian pictorial and architectural language. Information will be given on documents (written and iconographical), on physical elements forming the city, with particular attention to problems of urban transformation processes. In this step the Course aims to provide students with the tools to know the town's structure and to understand projects and transformations of urban spaces and buildings.

International  Masters
The second step will be characterized by a more applicative approach. We will "enter the buildings" and focus on the way Venetian people used to communicate with their foreign guests (both political or religious leaders and intellectuals or merchants) through visual arts and architecture. In this perspective a correct approach will be offered to the interpretation of the works of art using a wide range of sources, historical and literary, trying also to compare Venice to the other European centers of power and business, such as Florence and Rome, but also Paris, Madrid or London. This will concern to analyze some key episodes and selected Renaissance works, as well as the most famous painters and architects in relations to their patrons: Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio,Titian (the painter to whom the highest international patronage and fame were granted), Giorgione, Tintoretto and Veronese in relation to the buildings which hosted their works (from Jacopo Sansovino to Andrea Palladio). If Carpaccio put in place a wonderful narrative painting and Titian has to be recognized as a starting point for European "state portraiture", Palladio created a new “systematic and communicable” way of designing buildings which influenced the development of architecture in Northern Europe, and later in North America.

The course consists in classroom lectures and site visits (plus day trips) aimed to improve the student's historical and critical capacities, thanks to the direct analysis of the works. The students will have the unique opportunity to gain first hand knowledge of works of architecture and art in their environmental context.

Expected Learning Outcomes/Course Objectives
Throughout the final oral exam, the students will have to demonstrate of being capable to analyze and communicate an architectural work by allocating it in the relevant historical and urban context; of being capable to outline the space and time references and to work out the biographical ones of the single artists and patrons, of having a basic knowledge of the reading list of the course, as well as a detailed knowledge of the topics illustrated during the lectures.
Other than the knowledge of the topics as shown in the program, the capability of describing and analyzing works, also by means of sketches, photos, and the like, is required.
Students will acquire and use the specific language of art history and architecture to communicate and interact in class. They will be able to give a presentation according to the guidelines offered by the instructor and write short texts/essays about specific artworks or artists considering them from an interdisciplinary point of view.

Evaluation Methods
Students will be required to take a midterm written exam (essay questions based on slides: they will be asked to identify, compare and contrast some slides; this is not a memory test, but a test to verify their ability to contextualise and compare works), give a on-site seminar presentation (during site visits too) and a final paper. Students will be required to make presentations which require outside research and will further explore the themes presented in class. The topics will be discussed and assigned by the instructor.
Attendance of all scheduled activities is compulsory/mandatory (please sign the attendance roster).

Grade breakdown
Intellectual engagement and participation in class:
- Contribution to group work
-Asking questions when something is not clear
-Using and expanding on the new vocabulary
-Active engagement in class discussions of key texts and works in relation to the weekly themes.

Written submission & seminar presentation:
This category includes two tests (on dates indicated on the syllabus) (25% each).
1. Mid-term exam (essay questions/in-class tests)
2. Individual on-site seminar presentation or in-class presentation on a specific subject discussed and agreed with the instructor exploring it with outside personal research. By offering a presentation of 10-15 minutes, students will summarize the topic. All the students are expected to participate in the debate.

Final paper:
A short paper on a specific topic agreed with the instructor is due as final project.