Art History

This course explores art and politics in France from the revolution to the present. Through a multimedia approach including sculptures, paintings, prints, commemorative monuments, architecture, street art, and photographs, it retraces the changing forms that some of the most salient political messages have taken in modern French art. The course follows a chronological progression from Revolution to Empire, followed by the rise and fall of the Second Empire and the resulting thirst for revenge. It then broaches the 20th century, including the politics of the avant-garde, the art of colonialism, and the varied aesthetic responses to the rise of totalitarianism on display at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and evident in the art of collaboration and resistance produced in Occupied and Vichy France during the Second World War. The art of 1960s countercultural contestation (anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, feminist, etc.) is then studied, before examining recent initiatives in the realm of commemorative art and cultural display that approach issues facing contemporary French society today, such as terrorism and constructively confronting its colonial legacy. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits to museums and monuments throughout the city.

Students research a self-chosen topic and develop an extended research essay under the direct tutelage of an appointed mentor. Students engage in conversation with teachers who are experts in the subject being studied. These tutorials allow students to develop their own ideas under the direct supervision of a tutor.

The course provides a complete picture of museum science, and covers various themes related to current domestic and foreign museum circles. Course topics include the philosophy and practice of the international museum circle, including museum history, mission and purpose, etc.; the status quo, problems and prospects of the development of Chinese museum circles; planning and production of museum exhibitions; planning and implementation of museum education activities; development and operation of museum cultural products and services; and museum construction and management. The course includes museum visits.

This course explores the place of food in art in France, with a focus on the modern and contemporary periods. Throughout the course, representations of food are studied as a means to survey the evolution of French art within a global context, and as significant markers of social, ethnic, and cultural identity. The analysis of these depictions provides the opportunity to learn about dietary and dining customs, habits, and beliefs prevalent in France from the early modern period to the present. The course begins by decoding the archetypal representations of succulent food in the still life and genre painting of 16th-17th-century Holland, which established the conventions of the genre for centuries to come. It then examines how the rise of these previously minor artistic genres in 18th-century France coincided with the birth of French gastronomy. Frivolous depictions of aristocrats wining, dining, and indulging in exotic beverages like coffee and hot chocolate then give way in post-Revolutionary France to visions of austerity and “real life,” featuring potato-eating peasants. The focus then shifts to representations of food and dining in the age of modernity, when Paris was the undisputed capital of art, luxury, haute cuisine, and innovation. The course analyzes how Impressionist picnics and café scenes transgress social and artistic codes. Building on their momentum, Paul Cézanne launches an aesthetic revolution with an apple. Paul Gauguin’s depictions of mangos and guavas speak to his quest for new, “exotic” sources of inspiration, and allow discussion of questions of race, gender, and French colonialist discourse. Drawing from these pictorial and social innovations, the course subsequently observes the place of food and dining themes in the avant-garde movements of early 20th-century Paris, whose defiance of conventional society and art leads them to transform previously comforting themes into troubling ones.  It questions the place of food—or its absence—in art to capture the suffering and violence of upheavals like the Second World War and consider the place of food and dining in contemporary art: from the Pop Art movement’s calling into question postwar consumer society through its representations of mass-produced food; to contemporary creators in a plural and globalized art scene who use these traditional themes to challenge the status and roles of the artist, the spectator, and the work of art itself; to how depictions of food in visual art grapple with multiculturalism in France today.

This course introduces the development of Chinese calligraphy from its origin to the present, enabling students to have a basic understanding of the style and tradition of Chinese calligraphy and the cultural significance behind it. In addition to analyzing the development of various calligraphy styles, styles and artistic expressions according to the evolution of the times, we will pay special attention to the roles played by historical, cultural, and social factors. Important topics include "the establishment and transformation of calligraphy paradigms", "calligraphy and religion ", "Calligraphy and Painting", "Modern and Traditional", etc.

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 acquire the fundamental knowledge in history of Medieval art and develop the necessary skills to familiarize themselves with the artistic production of the period. Students analyze some of the main works of the history of Medieval art using specific methodologies and compare these appropriately. The first part of the course focuses on the study of artistic phenomena and their development with particular attention to the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians). Attention is paid to the material aspects, techniques, form, and function of the works of art (architecture, paintings, frescoes, illuminated books) in relation to the liturgy, architecture, accesses, and pilgrimage routes. The second part of the course focuses on monographic terms of the spatial and decorative restitution of one of the most significant European monuments: the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.

From illegally spray-painted stencils to secret exhibitions in abandoned warehouses to exclusive multi-million dollar art fairs, this course explores the rise of street art in the contemporary city. The course examines the diversity of artists, materials, and political impulses that drive street art and graffiti and its shift from an illicit subculture to a mainstream practice. Using examples from Melbourne and other key cities such as New York, Rome, and Berlin, the course investigates how the meaning and impact of street art derive from spatial and social contexts and how street art can provide new ways of understanding a city. It also covers broader debates about art, public space, and urban development. Students develop skills in identifying, mapping, and designing street art in Melbourne’s laneways.