Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Introduction to Byzantine Art History

COURSE PROGRAMME

Introduction to Byzantine Art History (4th-15th century)

This module aims to provide some basic knowledge about Byzantine Art History, from the foundation of Constantinople to the fall of the Empire (330-1453 AD). Lessons will be focused on trends, artists, works and buildings, whose relations to the Mediterranean creative and social context will be particularly investigated.

Notes

The course is reserved to whose surnames’ initial letters are between A and D.

PREREQUISITES           

Taking the exam of Medieval Art History is necessary before attending the course.

Course Articulation:

Lessons 1-6: Constitutive characters of Byzantium history and artistic civilization. The Early Byzantine age, from the foundation of Constantinople to the end of the Theodosian dynasty (4th-5th century): urban planning and monuments of the capital; architectures, sculptures and mosaics in Thessalonica; Byzantine Syria.

Lessons 7-12: From Justinian to the end of Iconoclasm (6th-9th century): imperial patronage in the 6th century; Hagia Sophia of Anthemius and Isidorus; luxury arts; the Sinai monastery and the oldest Christian icons; the fight for holy images and the church of the Dormition in Nicaea.

Lessons 13-21: The Middle and Late Byzantine age (9th-15th century): the renovatio of arts in the Macedonian age; new architectural typologies; illuminations, ivories, enamels and jewelry; Cappadocia and Armenia in Middle Byzantine Age; monasteries and cathedrals in the 11th century, from Greece to Rus’; Constantinople, Macedonia and Cyprus in the Comnenian age; the Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire age; the Empire of Trebisonda, the Despotate of Epirus and the Kingdom of Serbia; the Palaiologan age, from the reconquest of Constantinople to its fall.

ASSESSMENT

The exam will be oral and it will take place at the end of the course (intermediate tests will not be held).

The oral exam will be focused on the topics of the programme (by using pictures) in order to verify:

1) the depth and breadth of the acquired knowledge;

2) the specific vocabulary;

3) the ability to link themes and problems critically.

TEXT BOOKS

- Andrea Paribeni (a cura di), Architettura bizantina, Electa, Milano 2009 (available at Centro Stampa Chioschi Gialli, P.le Aldo Moro 5, Città Universitaria, ph. 06-89873441 or 06-90209041 - e-mail: centrostampa@nuovacultura.it);

- Introduzione all’arte bizantina (IV-XV secolo), dispense a cura di C. Barsanti, M. della Valle, R. Flaminio, A. Guiglia, A. Iacobini, A. Paribeni, S. Pasi, S. Pedone, A. Taddei (available at Centro Stampa Chioschi Gialli, P.le Aldo Moro 5, Città Universitaria, ph. 06-89873441 or 06-90209041 - e-mail: centrostampa@nuovacultura.it).

In addition to the above-listed contributions, Non-attending students are encouraged to read one extra text selected among the following ones:

- Enrico Zanini, Introduzione all’archeologia bizantina, Carocci, Roma 1994.

- Ernst Kitzinger, Alle origini dell’arte bizantina. Correnti stilistiche nel mondo mediterraneo dal III al VII secolo, a cura di M. Andaloro e P. Cesaretti, Jaca Book, Milano 2005.

- Enrico Zanini, Costantinopoli, Carocci, Roma 2022.

- Fernanda de’ Maffei, Bisanzio e l’ideologia delle immagini, a cura di C. Barsanti, A. Guiglia, A. Iacobini, A. Paribeni, M. della Valle, Liguori Editore, Napoli 2011, pp. 55-84; 107-117; 229-301; 349-371.

- Antonio Iacobini, Visioni dipinte. Immagini della contemplazione negli affreschi di Bawit, Viella, Roma 2000.

- Livia Bevilacqua, Arte e aristocrazia a Bisanzio nell'età dei Macedoni. Costantinopoli, la Grecia e l'Asia Minore, Campisano Editore, Roma 2013.

- Simona Moretti, Roma bizantina. Opere d'arte dall'impero di Costantinopoli nelle collezioni romane, Campisano Editore, Roma 2014.

- Giovanni Gasbarri, Riscoprire Bisanzio. Lo studio dell'arte bizantina a Roma e in Italia tra Ottocento e Novecento, Viella, Roma 2015.

LESSONS / TIMETABLE:

Tuesday, h. 16:00-18:00, Aula I Venturi

Thursday, h. 10:00-12:00, Aula di Archeologia.

COURSE START: Tuesday 3 October 2023.

OFFICE HOURS:

1^st Semester: Wednesday, h. 16:00-17:00; Thursday, h. 12:00-13:00,

Dipartimento SARAS – Sezione Storia dell’Arte, Room 20.

BYZANTINE THESSALONICA

COURSE PROGRAMME

Byzantine Thessalonica

This module aims to provide a general framework for art history in Byzantine Thessalonica (4th-15th century). Lessons will be focused on monumental complexes, artworks and artists investigated in their relations with Constantinople, Greece and the Balkans.

Course articulation:

Lessons 1-5: Thessalonica: history and urban planning from the Hellenistic age to the end of the Byzantine age; the Ottoman city. The agora in the Roman and Byzantine age; the imperial Palatium of Galerius. Christian buildings between the 5th and 6th century; the extra moenia necropolises; the city walls. The Rotunda of St. George and its mosaics.

Lesson 6: Seminar.

Lessons 7-10: The Acheiropoietos basilica and the oratory of Hosios David. Origin and development of Saint Demetrius’ cult: his shrine from the 5th to the 7th century. The crisis of Thessalonica between 7th and 8th century. The cathedral of Hagia Sophia: architectural novelties and decorative programme. Frescoes in the Rotunda of St. George.

Lessons 11: Seminar.

Lessons 12-14: The renaissance after the first Millennium: the Panaghìa ton Chalkeon and its patron. Wall paintings in Macedonian and Comnenian age: the narthex of Hagia Sophia and the cycle of Hosios David. Thessalonica after the Fourth Crusade.

Lesson 15: Seminar.

Lessons 16-19: The Palaiologan renaissance (13th-14th century): the parekklesion of St. Euthymius; the baths of Kulé Kafé; the churches of St. Pantaleimon and St. Catherine. The St. Apostles, from patriarch Niphon to abbot Paul. Luxury arts. St. Nicholas Orphanos and the irradiation of Thessalonica painting in Serbia. Prophet Elijah: the last great church of Thessalonica and empress Anna Palaiologina.

Lesson 20-21: Seminar.

Moreover, students will also have to attend a seminar and to present an individual brief – oral and written, whose topic must be previously agreed upon with the professor – at the end of the course.

ASSESSMENT

The exam will be oral and it will take place at the end of the course (intermediate tests will not be held).

The oral exam will be focused on the topics of the programme (by using pictures) in order to verify:

1) the depth and breadth of the acquired knowledge;

2) the specific vocabulary;

3) the ability to link themes and problems critically.

TEXT BOOKS

Tessalonica bizantina, dispense a cura di C. Barsanti, M. della Valle, R. Flaminio, A. Guiglia, A. Paribeni, A. Taddei (available at Centro Stampa Chioschi Gialli, P.le Aldo Moro 5, Città Universitaria, ph. 06-89873441 or 06-90209041 - e-mail: centrostampa@nuovacultura.it)

In addition to the above-mentioned volume, Non-attending students are encouraged to read the following essays:

La Sapienza bizantina. Un secolo di ricerche sulla civiltà di Bisanzio all’Università di Roma, a cura di A. Acconcia Longo, G. Cavallo, A. Guiglia, A. Iacobini, Campisano Editore, Roma 2012, pp. 153-244; 295-314:

- Alessandro Taddei, Il mosaico parietale aniconico da Tessalonica a Costantinopoli.

- Livia Bevilacqua, Basilio ‘parakoimomenos’, l’aristocrazia e la passione per le arti sotto i Macedoni.

- Silvia Pedone, Il colore scolpito. Raffinatezze cromatiche nella scultura a incrostazione del Medioevo mediterraneo.

- Simona Moretti, Viaggio di un trittico eburneo da Costantinopoli a Roma.

- Giovanni Gasbarri, Immagini eloquenti. Nuove osservazioni sul codice Atheniensis gr. 211 con le Omelie di Giovanni Crisostomo.

LESSONS / TIMETABLE:

Tuesday, h. 10:00-12:00, Aula III Carlotta Nobile

Wednesday, h. 14:00-16:00, Aula III Carlotta Nobile.

COURSE START: Tuesday 3 October 2023.

OFFICE HOURS:

1^st Semester: Wednesday, h. 16:00-17:00; Thursday, h. 12:00-13:00,

Dipartimento SARAS – Sezione Storia dell’Arte, Room 20.

BYZANTIUM AND ITALY: PATRONS, MASTERS AND ARTISTIC CIRCULATION, 11TH-13TH CENTURIES

COURSE PROGRAMME

Byzantium and Italy: patrons, masters and artistic circulation, 11th-13th centuries

This course will investigate the artistic contacts between Byzantium and Italy in the Comnenian era, through paintings and other works of art directly imported from Constantinople, together with the great mosaics executed by byzantine masters in Italy between the 11th and the 13th centuries. After an historical introduction dedicated to the political, cultural and religious relations between the byzantine Empire, the Papacy and the Italian powers from the East-West Schism (1054) to the Fourth Crusade (1204), a particular attention will be devoted to the following aspects: the presence of byzantine masters in Montecassino and Rome; the arrival of byzantine bronze doors in Italy from Constantinople; the mosaics in Sicily under the Normans; the mosaics in Venice and in Northern Adriatic area until the latin conquest of Constantinople.

Course articulation:

Lessons 1-4: Course presentation. Three emblematic patrons: Arnulfus II of Milan, Oddo of Novara, and Gerhard of Siponto. Byzantine mosaics as "colonial art". Methods and techniques of Byzantine wall mosaics. The reconstruction of the Montecassino Abbey and Leo Marsicanus' "Chronica". Desiderius' basilica: the architecture of the Gregorian Reform and the ideology of reuse. Liturgical furniture, mosaic decoration, and "tituli". Montecassino bronze door: Desiderius, Maurus de Comite Maurone, and Oderisius II.

Lesson 5: Seminar.

Lesson 6: Amalfi's bronze door and Byzantine bronze doors in Italy: art, artists, patrons, and inscriptions.

Lesson 7: Seminar.

Lessons 8-11: Byzantine bronze doors: their modular design, the agemina technique, and the issue of its origins. Montecassino and Rome: San Clemente and its apse mosaic. The “Renovatio Ecclesiae primitivae formae” and the revival of early Christian visual models. Normans in Italy: an historical introduction. Palermo under the reign of Roger II and the Cappella Palatina, its architecture and decoration. The cathedral of Cefalù: French-Norman architecture and Byzantine mosaics. George of Antioch and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio.

Lesson 12: Seminar.

Lessons 13-16: The architecture and secular decoration in Palermo after Roger II. William II and the cathedral of Monreale, its architecture and its late-Komnenian mosaics. Venice and Byzantium in the eleventh century: an historical introduction. The cathedral of Torcello, its architecture, liturgical furniture, and wall mosaics. The Last Judgement in Byzantine iconography. Contarini's San Marco and the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

Lesson 17: Field trip.

Lessons 18-19: San Marco, its mosaic decoration, and its development (11th-13^th centuries). The dissemination of the Sicilian mosaic style in southern and central Italy: the frescoes in the narthex of Sant’Angelo in Formis and the mosaics in the cathedral of Salerno. Grottaferrata and Rome under Innocentius III.

Lessons 20-21: Seminar.

Moreover, students will also have to attend a seminar and to present an individual brief – oral and written, whose topic must be previously agreed upon with the professor – at the end of the course.

ASSESSMENT

The exam will be oral and it will take place at the end of the course (intermediate tests will not be held).

The oral exam will be focused on the topics of the programme (by using pictures) in order to verify:

1) the depth and breadth of the acquired knowledge;

2) the specific vocabulary;

3) a more advanced ability to link themes and problems critically.

TEXT BOOKS

- Mara Bonfioli, Antonio Iacobini, Enrico Zanini, I Bizantini in Italia, «ArcheoDossier», 97, 1993, pp. 54-111;

- Otto Demus, «Arte coloniale», in L’arte bizantina e l’Occidente, a cura di F. Crivello, Einaudi, Torino 2008, capitolo IV, pp. 133-177;

- Antonio Iacobini, Il mosaico in Italia dall’XI all’inizio del XIII secolo: spazio, immagini, ideologia, in L’arte medievale nel contesto (300-1300). Funzioni, iconografia, tecniche, a cura di Paolo Piva, Jaca Book, Milano 2006, pp. 463-499;

- Antonio Iacobini, Le porte bronzee bizantine in Italia: arte e tecnologia nel Mediterraneo medievale, in Le porte del Paradiso. Arte e tecnologia bizantina tra Italia e Mediterraneo, a cura di Antonio Iacobini, Campisano Editore, Roma 2009 (Milion. Studi e ricerche d’arte bizantina, 7), pp. 13-52;

- Maria Andaloro, Montecassino: memoria di una fabbrica perduta, in Cantieri medievali, a cura di Roberto Cassanelli, Jaca Book, Milano 1995, pp. 51-69;

- Antonio Iacobini, Immagini, ideologie, storiografia: il mosaico absidale del duomo di Salerno e l’arte della Riforma gregoriana, in Medioevo: immagini e ideologie, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 23-27 settembre 2002, a cura di Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Electa, Milano 2005, pp. 288-301;

- Antonio Iacobini, Roma anno 1200: pittura e mosaico al tempo della IV Crociata, in Venezia, la IV Crociata e le arti, Atti del Convegno, Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 3-4 maggio 2004 = “Saggi e memorie di Storia dell’Arte”, 28 (2004) [2006], pp. 33-62;

- Per Jonas Nordhagen, s.v. Mosaico, in Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale, VIII, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma 1997, pp. 563-574.

Notes: the pdf of the texts will be made available on Classroom (Codice: cwak7gv).

Students who have never attended a course on Byzantine Art History are required to read and study the following works:

- Introduzione all’arte bizantina, Dispense, volume unico (available at Centro Stampa Chioschi Gialli, P.le Aldo Moro 5, Città Universitaria, ph. 06-89873441 or 06-90209041 - e-mail: centrostampa@nuovacultura.it);

- Antonio Iacobini, Il mosaico in Italia dall’XI all’inizio del XIII secolo: spazio, immagini, ideologia, in L’arte medievale nel contesto (300-1300). Funzioni, iconografia, tecniche, a cura di Paolo Piva, Jaca Book, Milano 2006, pp. 463-499;

- Antonio Iacobini, Le porte bronzee bizantine in Italia: arte e tecnologia nel Mediterraneo medievale, in Le porte del Paradiso. Arte e tecnologia bizantina tra Italia e Mediterraneo, a cura di Antonio Iacobini, Campisano Editore, Roma 2009 (Milion. Studi e ricerche d’arte bizantina, 7), pp. 13-52;

- Per Jonas Nordhagen, s.v. Mosaico, in Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale, VIII, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma 1997, pp. 563-574.

Notes: the pdf of these texts will be made available on Classroom (Codice: cwak7gv).

In addition to the over-listed contributions, Non-attending students are encouraged to read the following book:

- Otto Demus, L’arte bizantina e l’Occidente, a cura di F. Crivello, Einaudi, Torino 2008.

LESSONS / TIMETABLE: Tuesday 10:00-12:00 (Dip. SARAS, Sez. Storia dell'Arte, Aula 2 Toesca)

                                          Thursday 14:00-16:00 (Dip. SARAS, Sez. Storia dell'Arte, Aula 3 Nobile)

COURSE START: Tuesday 27 February 2024

OFFICE HOURS: Thursday 16:00-17:00 (Dip. SARAS, Sez. Storia dell'Arte, room 20)