Art History

The course focuses on the study of the non-Western European artistic and political scene from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. It analyzes and discusses the notions of national and artistic identity through specific examples. At the same time, the course also studies the challenges of globalization.

This course examines the interactions between aesthetics, art theory, and art law. It discusses legal notions of originality, authorship, plagiarism, copying, and transformation. Contemporary art case studies include: Marina Abramović, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince, and Joseph Beuys. 

This is a general education optional course. The students will have a systematic understanding of the achievements of the east and west fine arts.

This course addresses the meaning, expression, material, and technique of Japanese visual art masterpieces.  It teaches the skills to appreciate fundamental and diverse characteristics of Japanese visual art from the ancient times to the contemporary.

This course explores the literary and artistic foundations that contribute to the construction of the cultural space and the politics we inhabit. It examines how sources are managed, interpreted, and renewed over time; the architecture and art they inspired; and how they have been adapted to the religious and political installation of Christianity; all of which have informed our unique identity today. The French model is at the center of these lineaments of cultural anthropology. The artistic representations (literary, pictorial, architectural) that endure over time reveal how people in the Middle Ages viewed the world and will influence the identity of future European nations over time.

This course explores the emergence and key concepts of the global market for art from the 18th to the 21st centuries through a discussion of its history, disruptions, and innovations. The course takes a thematic approach delivered via specific case studies to map the key concepts, individuals and institutions, and the various business models, and ethical and legal considerations that underpin the contemporary market. Students gain an understanding of the globalized art market economy through a comparative study of different geographical market regions across time, including the emergence of new global art market centers and the rise of the millennial collector. Throughout, the auction house and the unique behind-the-scenes access afforded to students of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, provides a detailed and practical case study of the history, development, and future of this market.

The course combines the theoretical agenda with new media art activities to showcase influential new media artists and their artistic achievements around the world, and aims to make students aware of many research directions and topics in new media art.The course will appreciate and discuss representative works of new media art, so as to improve students' aesthetic appreciation ability of various new media art works, cultivate independent observation habit and interdisciplinary collaborative thinking.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. Students develop the critical and historical tools to appreciate the link between art and social engagement, particularly but not exclusively, in relation to the politics of representation and around the role of contemporary art practices in activating processes of gathering, assembling, and communing. The course matures the skills to analyze and contextualize the main artistic currents within visual and conceptual art, both within the western context and regarding wider decolonial processes. Students are also able to critically assess artistic practices, carry out independent research, and activate their knowledge in the urban context, in critical dialogue with existing cultural and social institutions.

This course is an exploration of Italian art – painting and sculpture - from c.1300 to c.1700 in the major centers of Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples, and Milan. The era is distinguished by a revived interest in Italy’s classical past and the emergence of humanist philosophies. The evolution of religious subject matter is analyzed via a number of different typologies – the fresco cycle, the altarpiece, the sculpted figure. The emergence and development of secular themes, including representations of classical mythology, are considered. The course examines evolving stylistic debates around the values of naturalism and classicism over time, and the ways in which artists reflected on the very concept of the “Renaissance” in different artistic centers. The role of patronage, both civic and private, and the rising status of the artist feature prominently, and particular attention is paid to artistic processes and means of production. The “long” of the title of the course touches on the idea of the iteration and reiteration of the themes summarized here over an extended timeline.

A distinctive feature of Japanese cultural tradition is an aesthetic that favors the subtle, the condensed, the pure, and the ephemeral. This contrasts with the West, which finds beauty ideals in things that are large, rich, powerful, and rationally ordered. From bonsai to figurine, it is said that this characteristic has been passed down through repeated exchanges with China in ancient times and with the West in modern times.　

This course considers the factors behind Japan's unique sense of beauty, centered on plastic arts, and what the results were, through comparison with those of the West and China. Taking advantage of the geographical advantage of studying in Kyoto, which has nurtured Japanese aesthetic traditions and produced excellent art, the course also includes a tour.