2010-11 academic year

Renaissance and Baroque Art (20018)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 2nd
Term: 2nd
Number of ECTS credits: 6 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 150 hours
Teaching language or languages: Catalan
Teaching Staff: Ida Mauro, Eva March

1. Presentation of the subject

Renaissance and Baroque Art is a basic subject in the Degree in Humanities. It aims to provide students with and approximation of Renaissance and Baroque, a specific period in Art History. It should be noted that this approximation does not intend to cover all the artistic manifestations that were produced between the 15th and 17th centuries. Yet students are expected to obtain enough knowledge to be able to use selected artistic works -which will normally be the most paradigmatic ones, but not always-to understand the defining and fundamental features of the artistic movements mentioned above. Students are expected to understand the importance of the contribution of these works to Art History. 

Students are expected to understand art in its social context, that is, they should not understand it as something isolated, but as a part of the society that has produced it. Thus, this subject will pay special attention to the social history of art and also to social factors, which might be ideological and which will shape the interpretation of artistic production. It should be noted, however, that this subject will also include those features which are most frequently analysed in traditional historiography.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

  1. Analysis and synthesis skills.
  2. Skills in oral presentations.
  3. Analysis, synthesis and management of diverse sources.
  4. Connections between theoretical knowledge and concrete examples.
  5. Capacity to use deductive reasoning, that is, ability to use premises to reach conclusions.
  6. Capacity to use a limited set of data to generalise.
  7. Capacity to structure and reproduce the knowledge acquired both in oral and written language.
  8. Understanding of the connections between literature, history, art and thought.
  9. Capacity to detect implicit ideological and cultural information in texts.
  10. Capacity to express and justify opinions both in oral and written language.
  11. Teamwork skills.
  12. Integration of teamwork into autonomous work.
  13. Interpersonal communication skills in both small and big groups of people.
  14. Analytical reasoning.
  15. Autonomous learning.
  16. Capacity to follow the course, which is based on continuous formation.

  

Specific competences

1. Understanding the meaning of Renaissance and Baroque. That is why students need to know how to differentiate the elements that shape renaissance works of art from the ones belonging to the baroque period.

2. Understanding that Renaissance and Baroque were shaped differently across Europe, that is, that those movements adapted to specific circumstances in each European geographical zone.

3. Analysing how different art centres dialogue with one another. 

4. Establishing concomitances and differences between art centres that create and art centres that receive.

5. Understanding that the artistic element can be analysed from a wide range of perspectives and that this multiplicity may lead to different interpretations.

6. Knowing how to analyse works of art using both traditional historiographical approaches and new interpretative options.

7. Considering different approaches in image analysis. Taking into account that works of art might be interpreted in multiple ways, students need to learn to justify their positions.

8. Knowing how to extract useful information from artistic, literary texts produced during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

3. Contents

1. Art as expression of civil pride: Florence in the Quattrocento. Orsanmichele and the  sculpture in the early Renaissance.
2. Antiquity and Renaissance: reception of classical art models in 1400 Italian art. The Scrovegni chapel, the Brancacci chapel and Brunelleschi's architecture.
3. The Flemish paintings as an alternative model to Italian Renaissance. Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
4. The image of power: art in Italian courts. Urbino, Mantua, Naples and Ferrara.-
5. The moment of perfection: Renaissance art in Rome. Bramante, Rafael and Miquel Angel.
6. Venetia 1500-1530. The poetics and monumentality of Venetian painters.
7. Rome or the birthplace of Baroque. Gian Lorenzo Bernini at the service of the papacy: architecture and sculpture around Saint Peter (the Vatican).
8. The Spanish Golden Age in painting. Sevilla and Madrid: two pictorial models. The assimilation of Caravaggism in Spain. Velázquez.
9. Non-religious baroque: painting of Dutch civil society. Portraits, still life, and landscapes.
10. Historical and allegorical compositions in the baroque Flemish painting: Rubens.

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.

4. Assessment

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5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

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5.2. Complementary bibliography

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5.3. Teaching resources

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6. Metodology

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7. Planning of activities

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