HA3095: RENAISSANCE ART IN FLORENCE AND ROME (2014-2015)

Course Aims:

1. Analyse the main visual artists and art works produced in Florence and Rome in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
2. Understand the defining qualities of central Italian Renaissance art and its place within the principal political, social and religious contexts.
3. Develop team working and presentation skills.
4. Develop and refine skills of inquiry, thought, translation and communication through the study of the History of Art

Main Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the works of art produced by a range of painters and sculptors in Florence and Rome in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic and political conditions that influenced artistic production in these cities
3. Ability to engage critically with the historiography of this period, considering the value of different methodological approaches including formalist, gender/sexuality, identity, social history of art and material culture
4. Informed by preliminary reading contribute to discussion and criticism of primary and secondary sources
5. Organise, deliver and discuss a seminar paper on an artist, image or genre
6. Display knowledge and comprehension of the course through the organisation of answers in a written exam
7. Present a hypothesis and draw conclusions in examination answers which derive from the evidence presented
8. Identify, explain and discuss selected images in a visual examination

Content:

This course focuses on artistic production in the cities of Florence and Rome from c1400 to c1530. Moving from Early Renaissance, to High Renaissance, and concluding with the beginnings of Mannerism, the course will discuss the work of some of the most famous Italian artists, including Ghiberti, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Tracking the formal changes that can be seen in painting and sculpture during the period, students will relate these to specific religious, political and social contexts. Seminars will concentrate on specific artists, works or genres, and analyse these in relation to major themes such as humanism, theology, historiography, gender, sexuality, patronage, identity and self-fashioning. The course will to interrogate the traditional narrative of central Italian Renaissance art, and critique the idea that Florence and Rome in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed the birth of modern society and individualism.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

View HA3095 Timetable

More Information about Week Numbers

1st Attempt:
Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution
A 2 hour written examination (30%)
A 1 hour visual test (20%)
Two essays of 2000 words (40%)
Class Contribution based on seminar presentation (10%)

Resit:
Re-sit exam (100%) NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative feedback takes place during the seminars. The questions addressed by the presentation will be discussed with the tutor during the seminars and will contain feedback.

Via written tutor responses to coursework essays and presentations, and also less formally through tutor interaction with students through the duration of the course. Peer feedback takes place through the student presentation / respondent sessions, as also throughout the course in the seminar context.

None.