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S1509 Comparing East and West (Cultures of the World core)

De Rosa Agostino

The course aims at giving students a basic knowledge and a guide to the interpretation of the figurative forms which Western and Eastern (especially Sino-Japanese) cultures have used to represent time and space. Starting from the analysis of the anthropological positions that have historically distinguished the two ethno-cultural fields, the course will provide a close examination of why, despite the development in the West of the conical linear perspective during the Renaissance, the Far East privileged a pseudo-axonometry which quickly became the symbolic form for the complex native philosophical and religious context. The theme of the representation of light and shade in both of the figurative contexts will be particularly underlined, employing materials coming not only from the history of art and of figuration, but also from literature, music and cinema.
Learning outcomes of the course
The expected learning outcome involves the students' development of a comparative approach to the Western and Eastern forms of representation, by means of the analytic observation and the documentary study of some of the figurative milestones. The course aims at encouraging the student to develop her/his own critical capacities through the exegesis of images characterized by a strong geometric and symbolic content, even if distant from an ethnographic point of view, by trying to foreground their common features.