Art History

MICHELINA DI CESARE

In consistency with the educational purposes of the whole teaching course, aim of the teaching unit is to give students knowledge and comprehension skills in the field of "Archeologia islamica", that complete and/or reinforce those acquired in the first grade of studies. Moreover, it will make the students able to approach orginal themes in a research context, making more complex judgments, communicating knowledge and its process, and studying the subject in an independent and self-educational way.

After attending the course, students will have acquired: knowledge of the problems and research prospects concerning the origins and development of the architectural genre of the mosque and its typologies; the ability to analyse, from an archaeological, architectural and artistic perspective, the buildings belonging to this genre and to insert them into their chronological, geographical and cultural contexts. They will have developed the capacity to pursue research in the field of Islamic Archaeology and History of Architecture, and communicate its results.

None. --------------------------------------

The course will focus on the mosque as an architectural typology. The theories on its origins, its function, planimetric developments, constructive materials and techniques, decoration, relationships to the urban context will be explored.

R. Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning, Edinburgh 1994, pp. 31-128;
K. A. C. Creswell – J. W. Allan, A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture, Aldershot 1989, pp. 43-72; 359-365; 367-373; 315-330; 391-406; 291-302; 345-346; 348-357;
D. Behrens Abuseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, Cairo 1998, pp. 58- 67;
R. Ettinghausen – O. Grabar –M. Jenkins Medina, Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250, New Haven-London 2001, pp. 105-107; 139-145.

R. Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning, Edinburgh 1994
K. A. C. Creswell – J. W. Allan, A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture, Aldershot 1989
D. Behrens Abuseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, Cairo 1998,
R. Ettinghausen – O. Grabar –M. Jenkins Medina, Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250, New Haven-London 2001

Lectures and discussions.

Recommended.

Attending students: 40% attendance (75% of the course at least); 60 % oral exam.
Non-attending students: 100% oral exam.

Most recurring topics:
The house-mosque of the Prophet in Medina; minbar, qibla, and mihrab; the mosque-palace complex.

• Historical and cultural
  setting 
  • Books: Notes taken in the classroom


• The mosque as a concept and architectural genre
  • Books: Hillenbrand; Notes taken in the classroom


• Origin, typologies, and models
  • Books: Hillenbrand; Notes taken in the classroom


• The mosque from the Hijra to the Umayyad period
  • Books: Hillenbrand; Creswell-Allan; Notes taken in the classroom


• The mosque in the early Abbasid period
  • Books: Hillenbrand; Creswell-Allan; Notes taken in the classroom


• The mosque during the territorial fragmentation
  • Books: Hillenbrand; Creswell-Allan; Behrens Abuseif; Ettinghausen– Grabar–
    
    Jenkins Madina; Notes taken in the classroom