Art History

ANTONELLA SBRILLI

The main objective of the course is to deepen the knowledge of some aspects of art from the 19th C. to the present, with advanced historical-critical and technological tools.

Specific objectives:
a) ability to orientate oneself in the critical literature and in the direct knowledge of the phenomena addressed;
b) The ability to analyse the themes addressed, also in view of the production of personal works;
c) acquisition of autonomy of judgement and selection of sources and resources on the course topics.

During both the lectures and the visits to exhibitions, museums, artists' studios and digital repertories, students will be actively involved in order to acquire an advanced knowledge of the main exhibition and research centres related to the course topics.
The topics of the course, as well as the competences and skills that are intended to be developed, are part of the characterising contents of the degree course in Art History.

A good knowledge of the characteristics of digital languages used in the arts, of the major players in research on the topics covered and of the historical roots of some of their characteristics; the ability to critically orient oneself in this field, which is characterized by rapid technological innovation.

Ability to understand critical texts, familiarity with the observation and interpretation of images, good knowledge of art from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, motivation to deepen specific themes, including transversal ones, both from the study of texts and multimedia sources, and from the direct knowledge of works, artists, museums and collections.

From ekphrasis to Text-to-Image: descriptive and creative practices in contemporary art
With the spread of generative Text-to-Image artificial intelligence systems, the practice and reflection on prompts—the textual commands that trigger image generation—have taken on great importance. One particular aspect that has emerged and continues to arouse interest is the analogy between the prompt device, which effectively describes the desired image, and the rhetorical and literary tradition of ekphrasis. Starting from this topic, the course addresses the theme of description, translation, and image generation with examples ranging from the nineteenth century to the contemporary era. Course structure: introduction to ekphrasis; introduction to Text-to-Image systems; presentation of case studies: images between literature and painting; works derived from instructions; generated images.

a)The materials presented during the lessons and an anthology of texts on the themes of ekphrasis, generative systems of images from texts, and works of art derived from sets of instructions, available on the Moodle Sapienza platform at the following address:
Dall'ecfrasi al Text-to-Image. Pratiche creative e descrittive nel contemporaneo. Magistrale 2025-26
https://elearning.uniroma1.it/course/view.php?id=20102
b) two of the following texts, :
- Valentina Tanni, Conversazioni con la macchina. Il dialogo dell’arte con le intelligenze artificiali, Tlon, Roma 2025
- Alice Barale (a cura di), Be My Gan. Arte e intelligenza artificiale, Jaca book, 2020
- Niccolò Monti, Prompting. Poetiche e politiche dell’Intelligenza artificiale, Tlon, Roma 2025
- Paolo De Gasperis, Dialogare con i Large Language Models. Guida alla scrittura del prompt, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma 2025 https://iris.uniroma1.it/handle/11573/1743444
- Antonella Sbrilli, L’incontro tra ecfrasi e Intelligenza digitale, “Engramma”, n. 229, Ecfrasi e Poiesi, novembre 2025

- Digital Ekphrasis, a cura di M. Latini e L. Viglialoro, “Studi di estetica”, anno LII, IV serie, n. 28, 1/2024
https://journals.mimesisedizioni.it/index.php/studi-di-estetica/issue/view/110

The in-depth study of the topics dealt with takes place through the blended study of texts, catalogs, valid web resources and best practices in museums.
Texts proposed offers a historical background, methodological proposals and innovative experiences.

Lessons present the topics with the help of multimedia tools, web links to the websites of museums, artists, ongoing experiments, with meetings - live or online - with protagonists and experts and with moments of interactive cooperation. Lecture-related materials and activities are accessible from the Sapienza Moodle platform.

Attendance is optional, but recommended

Oral exam - Project assessment
The exam is oral, with open-ended questions based on the recommended textbooks and web resources, and begins with a discussion of the in-depth project prepared by the students.
The in-depth study on one of the course topics must be agreed upon with the instructor (in class or during office hours) and carried out in a written and/or multimedia paper, which will be discussed and evaluated during the exam.
The paper should preferably be submitted during the course or, if this is not possible, at least 5 days before the exam.
Characteristics of the paper.
Written paper: essay of 10,000/15,000 characters including spaces, with bibliography, images, and captions (Word format).
Multimedia paper: presentation of 10/15 slides, accompanied by an abstract of 1,000 characters and a bibliography.

The exam begins with a discussion of the in-depth work presented by the students being examined, and then moves on to identifying links with the main topics covered in the course: ekphrasis' tradition, prompting and contemporary artists creative use of IA.