Art History

ALESSANDRO TADDEI

The main objective of the Course is to provide art-historic knowledge of a single topic, i.e. a fundamental case study in Byzantine Art History.
Among the specific objectives are refining the ability to read and to frame the Byzantine artistic production on the base of an in-depth historiographical and critical approach.
To this end, during the course a Seminar will be held for students who will be motivated to acquire more advanced critical categories and a more articulated methodological approach to research by group and individual work.
A parallel objective will be also the development of an adequate awareness about artistic heritage and its valorization.
The topics of the course, such as the competencies and abilities to learn, are part of the core curriculum of the Study Programme in Art History Masters Degree.

Regular attendance to the course does not depends upon the attainment of preparatory credits or exams.

The Role of sacred images in Byzantine art and the Iconoclastic Crisis (7th-9th Centuries)

The course will be expressly devoted to the study of the artistic production in Constantinople and the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire during the long interlude of the so-called "iconoclasm", the debate about the nature of sacred images and their public and private veneration. The influence of iconoclasm on the art of the period in its various forms will be investigated also by considering the theological, political and cultural context.
Unit I of the course (6 hours) will introduce the problem of the debate on images and its contextualisation in the socio-political framework of the Empire at the end of the seventh century.
Unit II (30 hours) will get to the heart of the matter through an overview of the theological background and its impact on the artistic production of Constantinople and the provinces between the 8th and 9th centuries.
Unit III (6 hours) will be devoted to exercises on specific case studies.

1. Leslie Brubaker, L’invenzione dell’iconoclasmo bizantino, traduzione a cura di Maria Cristina Carile, Roma: Viella, 2015 (to be purchased from Viella libreria Editrice, via delle Alpi, 32, 00198 Roma; e-mail info@viella.it).

2.

1. Auzépy, Marie-France, Les Isauriens et l’espace sacré. L’église et les reliques, in Kaplan, Michel (sous la direction de), Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace à Byzance et en Occident. Études comparées, Centre de Recherches d’Histoire et de Civilisation Byzantines, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne (Byzantina Sorbonensia, 18), pp. 13-24.

2. Auzépy, Marie-France, L’hagiographie et l’iconoclasme byzantin. Le cas de la Vie d’Étienne le Jeune, Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman monographs, 5).

3. Barber, Charles, Theotokos and “Logos”. The interpretation and reinterpretation of the sanctuary programme of the Koimesis Church, Nicaea, in Vassilaki, Maria (ed.), Images of the Mother of God. Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, pp. 51-59.

4. Brubaker, Leslie, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca. 680 - 850): the sources. An annotated survey, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman monographs, 7).

5. Brubaker, Leslie & Haldon, John, Byzantium in the iconoclast era c. 680-850. A history, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011.

6. Brubaker, Leslie, Ernst Kitzinger and the invention of iconoclasm, in Felicity Harley-McGowan, F. & H., Ernst Kitzinger and the making of medieval art history, London: Warburg Institute (Warburg Institute colloquia, 30), pp. 143-152.

7. Campagnolo, Matteo, Magdalino, Paul, Martiniani-Reber, Marielle, Rey, André-Louis (sous la direction de), L’aniconisme dans l’art religieux byzantin. Actes du colloque de Genève (1-3 octobre 2009), Genève: La Pomme d’or, 2014.

8. Humphreys, M.T.G., Law, power, and imperial ideology in the Iconoclast era c.680-850, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. 2015.

9. Noble, Thomas F.X., Images, iconoclasm, and the Carolingians, Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

10. Price, Richard, Icons before and during Iconoclasm: https://www.academia.edu/20430402/Icons_before_and_during_Iconoclasm?auto=download&campaign=weekly_digest

The course will develop through lectures with the aid of power-point projections and other illustrative material. In-depth seminars and the drafting of short written texts will enable students to directly compare case studies of architectural contexts and individual objects of artistic production. This is consistent with the educational objectives and aim at implementing knowledge.

Class attendance is highly recommended.

The final (oral) exam is based on assigned readings in textbooks and in lecture notes. The course does not imply any sort of midterm test.
In order to pass the exam, a final grade corresponding to 18 points out of 30 is needed. Students are expected to be acquainted with the basic notions of the subject and, more precisely, they should demonstrate to have attained a proper knowledge of the development of Byzantine art through the centuries together with the relevant geo-political, historical and cultural frame.
To pass the exam with full marks - 30 points out of 30 cum laude - students must show a high proficiency in all the learning outcomes and a full understanding of the issues that were dealt with during classes. They are requested to be able to work out in a logical and coherent way the data and information they have acquired.