HISTORY OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2018/2019
- Teacher
- RENATA SAMPERI
- Credits
- 9
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
Training objectives
- Knowledge.
The course aims to provide a historical knowledge and a study methodology for ancient and medieval architecture, as well as the basic knowledge for the historical-critical analysis of art from the archaic Greek to the late Medieval. In order to approach the study of this extended timeline, the different periods will be dealt with in a general way through connecting themes. Within this framework, significant themes, figures, works, and contexts will be selected for each period. Particular attention will be given to the building process, from the commissioning to planning and construction, by considering architecture in a broader physical, historical, and cultural context, referring to critical and theoretical ideas connected to architectural practice.
Skills.
The course aims to provide students with an ability to analyze, understand, and assess past architecture and art in their development process, by considering different historical-critical points of view and using drawing as the architect’s primary operative and cognitive tool. Prerequisites
- A knowledge, even general, of the historical and geographical context of the topics considered in the syllabus is necessary.
Course programme
- The course consists of an Architectural History module (70 hours) and an Art History module (20 hours).
Architectural History module:
The module will begin with an introduction on the methods of architectural historiography. The introduction will be followed by survey lectures on building systems and techniques from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and on the morphology and syntax of architectural orders.
The treatment of the topics will develop according to the following chronological sections:
Greek architecture: the origins of the temple; birth and development of the Ionic order (the great temples of Ionia and the experiences in the Cyclades); the Panhellenic sanctuaries of Olympia and Delphi; the temples of Magna Graecia (Syracuse, Selinunte, Agrigento, Paestum); Athens and classical architecture (the buildings of the Acropolis and the agora); developments of the late Classical in the Peloponnese and in Ionia; the Hellenism.
Roman architecture: the architecture of the late Republican in Rome and Pompei and the great sanctuaries of Latium; the Imperial age from Augustus to the Severan dynasty (forums, temples, thermae, palaces, theaters, triumphal arches); residential types (domus, insula and villa); late Antiquity and the architecture under Diocletian, Maxentius and Constantine.
Early Christian and Byzantine architecture: the birth of Christian architecture and the buildings under Constantine in Rome; the Christian architecture after Constantine; the Byzantine architecture in Ravenna and Constantinople.
Early Middle Age and Romanesque architecture: the Carolingian Age; the churches of pilgrimage and the organization of Romanesque architecture in France, England, Italy and Germany; the Cistercian architecture in France and Italy.
Gothic architecture: the early Gothic architecture in northern France; the late Gothic and the 'rayonnant' in France; the Gothic in England and Germany; the architecture in Italy (the churches of the mendicant orders, the great cathedrals, the public buildings).
Art History module:
The treatment of the topics will develop according to the following chronological sections:
Greek art: the Geometric period; the Archaic age; the Classical and late Classical period; and Hellenism.
Roman art: the wall painting styles; the sculpture and the portraiture; the plebeian reliefs; the historical and narrative reliefs.
Early Christian and Byzantine art: the mosaics and the sculpture in Rome, Milan, Ravenna, and Constantinople.
Early Middle Age and Romanesque art: the Carolingian renascence; the Romanesque painting.
Gothic art: painting and sculpture in France and Italy. Didactic methods
- The didactic organization provides for the giving of classroom and field lessons. During class time and field trips, students will be asked to make annotated sketches of the studied architectural works. Drawings must be recorded using plain paper sketchbooks. Additionally, the course includes seminar activities for the presentation of short research projects to be carried out optionally by the students on specific architectural subjects.
Learning assessment procedures
- The achievement of the training objectives mentioned above will be verified through one oral exam pertaining to the topics of both modules.
As for the Architectural History module, the positive outcome of the research project will exonerate the student from the study of a portion of the topics of the syllabus and will be considered as part of the final assessment.
During the interview, the candidate is required to talk about the topics of the syllabus and about a theme studied through the supplemental readings suggested throughout the course. The carrying out of sketches of the most significant works will be also required during the exam. Additionally,
the students’ sketchbooks must be submitted and will be discussed and assessed.
The final grade obtained by the candidate is the result of the outcomes of the parts pertaining the two modules. Reference texts
- C. BOZZONI, V. FRANCHETTI PARDO, G. ORTOLANI, A. VISCOGLIOSI, L’architettura del mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006.
R. BONELLI, C. BOZZONI, V. FRANCHETTI PARDO, Storia dell’architettura medievale, Roma-Bari, Laterza 1997.
G. CRICCO, F.P. DI TEODORO, Itinerario nell’arte. Dalla preistoria all’età gotica, Bologna, Zanichelli 2010.
Additional supplemental readings will be suggested throughout the course.
Particular attention to the topics contained in the syllabus should be given in the reading of the indicated texts.
