Course teached as: B006313 - STORIA DELL'ARTE MEDIEVALE (MINIATURA) Second Cycle Degree in HISTORY OF ART
Teaching Language
italian
Course Content
The course aims to offer a wide view of the peculiar aspects of the study of the miniature from the Middle Ages to the full Renaissance. Diacronically, aspects of technique, sources, tipology, transmission of models, and relation with monumental arts will be discussed.
BIBLIOGRAFIA DI RIFERIMENTO (LA BIBLIOGRAFIA PER L'ESAME SARA' FORNITA ALL'INIZIO DEL CORSO)
O. Pächt, La miniatura medioevale, Torino, 1987 (o ristampe successive), pp. 45-95 (L’iniziale), 129-153 (L'illustrazione della Bibbia) (ed. or. in lingua tedesca O. Pächt, Buchmalerei des Mittelalters. Eine Einführung, a cura di D. Thoss e U. Jenni, München 1984).
J. Alexander, Aspetti tecnici della miniatura dei manoscritti, in J. Alexander, I miniatori medievali e il loro metodo di lavoro, Modena, 1992 (2a ed. 2003), pp. 55-81 (ed. or. in lingua inglese J. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work, New Haven, 1993).
G. Zanichelli, I soggetti dei libri liturgici miniati (VI-XIII), in L’arte medievale nel contesto (300-1300), a cura di P. Piva, A. Cadei, Milano, 2006, pp. 245-276.
Learning Objectives
The course aims to provide a first level preparation on technical and methodological aspects of the research concerning Italian illumination.
Prerequisites
none
Teaching Methods
The topics of the course will be presented in frontal lectures accompanied by presentations in Power Point. Students are invited to participate actively with questions and requests for clarification. Three meetings will be held in the form of exercises intended to enhance skills in the descriptive language for painting and illumination and in their proper classification as concerns authorship, place and date.
Further information
First lesson: Wednesday, september 12, 2018, via G. Capponi 9, room 5, from 1 to 3pm.
Type of Assessment
Discussion on the images presented during the lessons, that will be made available on Moodle.
The exam program includes the individual study of an illuminated manuscript of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, which will be assigned at the beginning of the course. The description will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the Manuscritti Datati d'Italia and on the basis of specific instructions given by the teacher. This will be the first part of the final discussion
Course program
Topics (part A)
• The history of the illumination as an autonomous discipline: criticism and some reflections on the method.
• The interdisciplinary vocation of the illuminated manuscript book: materials, writing, text and painting.
• Illuminated initials between text and decoration.
• Types of manuscripts(books for liturgy, books for study).
• Tutorials: description, analysis and comment on illuminated pages and cuttings.
• Biblical cycles: sources and tradition.
• The books for the liturgy of monastic orders and friars.
• Texts and Illustrative Programs for Laws.
• Books for Study: Places and Methods of Production (Monastic scrptoria and Universities).
• Books for Private Devotion: Books of Hours.
• Travel books: libraries between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
• The illuminated book and the invention of the press.
• Collecting and preservation of the illuminated book in public libraries.
• Sources, techniques and diagnostic investigations for the study of the illumination.
Topics (part B)
• The history of the illumination in Florence during the 14th century: critical fortune and misfortune.
• Genres and themes: liturgical chorales (in particular the series of Santa Maria dell'Impruneta and Santa Maria degli Angeli) and laudari (in particular Laudario di Santo Spirito and the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese al Carmine); illumination for vernacular literature (illustrations of the Dante Alighieri’s Commedia); books for study.
• The artists: Maestro del Laudario, Pacino di Bonaguida, Master of the San Giorgio Codex, Master of the Dominican Effigies, "Ser Monte", Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Don Simone Camaldolese, Lorenzo Monaco.