HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ART
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- ALESSANDRO IPPOLITI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- L-ART/01
Training objectives
- The course aims to teach the student a specialized knowledge of the main themes of medieval architecture and the recognition of the historical phases, of the technical and constructive progress, of the chronology of buildings and of decorative apparatus. Furthermore, the student will have to acquire a specific vocabulary and a critical method in reading medieval architecture.
Prerequisites
- The required prerequisites concern the basic knowledge of history and the main architectural works starting from the classical world.
Course programme
- The course in the history of medieval architecture analyzes the evolution of architectural language through the analysis of the cultural context, over the centuries, and through the critical reading of specific examples. The linguistic and constructive characteristics of the architecture, from the 4th to the 13th century, will be studied through a specialized method of analysis.
STUDY PLAN
I. EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE (IV-VI century)
Analysis of the distinctive features of Roman, Ravenna and Byzantine architecture with particular reference to the spread of Constantinian basilicas and subsequent architectural types.
II. HIGH MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE (VIII-IX century)
Analysis of the Carolingian period and diffusion of abbeys in Italy.
III. FROM ROMANIC TO GOTHIC (late X-XIII century)
Analysis of the construction characteristics, the organization of construction sites and architectural decorations in Italy around the year 1000.
Analysis of monastic reforms: Cluniacs, Carthusians and Cistercians and of the mendicant orders.
Analysis of the structural and formal innovations of Gothic architecture in Italy and Europe.
IV. FERRARA
Distinctive features of religious and civil architecture in Ferrara.
Case studies: Ferrara Cathedral from the founding phase to subsequent transformations and Palazzo Schifanoia.
V. THE THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE
The development of the architectural order from ancient architecture to the Middle Ages and the transformation of the figure of the intellectual and the artist. Didactic methods
- Frontal lessons with powerpoint projections.
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam will be oral with questions that verify general knowledge of the chronological phases and the reading of architecture in particular.
The methods of conducting the oral exam will be communicated from time to time by the teacher, also as a consequence of the Covid situation. Reference texts
- R. Krautheimer, Architettura paleocristiana e bizantina, Einaudi, Torino 1986.
R. Bonelli, C. Bozzoni, V. Fianchetti Pardo, Storia dell'architettura medievale, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1997.
Suggested bibliography:
C. Bozzoni, V. Fianchetti Pardo, G. Ortolani, A. Viscogliosi, L’architettura del mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006.
C. Tosco, Il castello, la casa, la chiesa. Architettura e società nel Medioevo, Einaudi, Torino 2003.
G. Coppola, L’edilizia nel Medioevo, Carocci, Roma 2015.
C. Tosco, L’architettura medievale in Italia (600-1200), Il Mulino, Bologna 2016.
C. Tosco, Andare per le abbazie cistercensi, Il Mulino, Bologna 2017.
Further bibliographical details will be provided during the course.
