Art History

This section of the course focuses on art and fascism: critical debate and operational choices. The course investigates the ways in which, in an increasingly pervasive way, the fascist regime influenced artistic production and exhibition policies, increasingly eroding the margins of autonomy of artists. The course provides critical and methodological tools to address the analysis of the relationship between art and fascism; enables students to grasp and verify the changes in the critical fortune of artists and works along a diachronic axis; and encourages the identification of autonomous paths of study, applying the knowledge and method acquired to personal research, which are shared through a seminar-type comparison. This course is taught in Italian and is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree.

The course develops a chronological vision of the evolution of the costume, from antiquity to the present day, in light of the development of techniques that allowed this evolution and historical events that inspired its aesthetics in different periods. Focused mainly - although not exclusively - on the textile universe of Western clothing from the time of anonymous artisans of the ancient world to the emergence of the contemporary designer/artist.

This course considers how artists, filmmakers, and photographers have reacted against and dealt with the presence of the audience, focusing on post 1960s art, photography, and art film up to our present days. Video and performances of Bruce Nauman, happenings of Allan Kaprow, participatory art of Marina Abramovic, video work by Rineke Dijkstra, photography of Thomas Struth, and relational aesthetics are examined. Theories and ideas that deal with the presence of (mass) audiences, reception aesthetics, and the educational turn are reviewed. The course consists out of lectures, excursions, guest lectures, student experiments on the reception of art and so on. This course includes excursions. This could possibly involve costs (travel expenses and museum admission). Art history students are advised to purchase a museum year card or an ICOM pass (https://icom.nl/nl/lidmaatschap/individueel-lidmaatschap). The latter pass allows you to visit museums at home and abroad free of charge. Other students should take into account that extra costs are possible. 

This course introduces students to the visual arts and to the questions and knowledge that they generate. Looking at a variety of artwork across different periods and media (painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography and film, digital arts, video, etc.), and discussing some key themes/questions pertinent to artistic research and practice, this course advocates an understanding of the visual arts as a specific way of thinking about the world, knowing reality and acting upon it. This course encourages students to critically investigate a set of key issues, including: the status of the image and of representation; the nature of artistic creativity; the significance and implications of critical analysis; interpretation of the visual, particularly in relation to modernity. The course requires students to engage with a diverse range of secondary literature (historical and critical essays, biographies, literary texts, philosophical essays, etc.). This course combines traditional frontal teaching (lectures) with seminar-based activities. When possible, the course will also comprise on–site visits to relevant art collections, institutions and/or exhibitions. Visual analysis and critical thinking play a central role: image or text–based exercises are assigned throughout the course. Students are expected to participate in class discussions.

This course provides a detailed, vivid introduction to the origin and distinctive artistic features of Chinese traditional culture, namely, the culture of RITES and MUSIC. Arranged in fifteen lectures, the course will first trace the culture foundation imbedded in archeological artifacts (bronzeware, musical instruments, etc.) as well as in Confucian canons. The course will then dive into three perfections of traditional Chinese arts (calligraphy, painting, and poetry) to analyze those “suggestive but not articulate” features in specific artworks. It will also explain the philosophical ideas, aesthetic interests and humanistic values of Chinese culture.

The course offers an introduction to the Italian Renaissance through an overall examination of the artistic development evolving between the 15th and 16th centuries in the main courts and cities of the Italian peninsula. Within this broad overview, a selected group of particularly significant works of art are analyzed more in detail, taking into consideration not only material and stylistic aspects, but also social and cultural issues, with a particular attention towards patronage and collecting (female patrons and collectors will be privileged among others).
 

By the end of the course, students will have acquired new tools, methodologies, and skills to develop, outline and clearly express a critically assessed thought on the following aspects:
1. geography and history of the Renaissance (definition of Renaissance, 'centers' of development and diffusion of Renaissance style, the notion of Italian Renaissance in the modern and contemporary critical debate);
2. artistic practices and workshops (the role of 'disegno'; the apprenticeship, training, and progressive emancipation of the artist; traveling artists and exchanges between 'center' and 'periphery')
3. materiality (techniques, style, and display; the renovation of the altarpiece; the oil technique)
4. interpretation of images in relation to texts (iconographic analysis, exchanges between artists and humanists or ‘literati’, with a particular attention for portraits; secular subjects and literary sources)
5. patronage, collecting and society (with a particular attention toward the role of women and the circulation of objects in different networks)

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. 

In academic year 2024-2025, this course is one of the modules of the exam "Digital Heritage and Multimedia". There is a second module (Museology, Museography and Virtual Environments).

Interaction Media Design focuses on the design of interactive applications in the humanities and specifically in the domain of Cultural Heritage. During the course, media are treated (images, audio, video, 3d, etc.), together with their acquisition and processing. Main design principles are discussed in relation with CH and cognitive sciences. The course is divided in 6 areas:

• Cognitive-Emotional goals of Interactive Media Design
• Human Computer Interaction for Cultural Heritage
• Digital Images and Digital Photography
• Beyond Multimedia: from digital images to virtual experiences
• Interactive Media Design principles and Tools
• Hands-on: the Design Process

At the end of the course students are put in touch with the intangible cultural heritage mediated by computer science and expressed under the form of practices, representations and skills that the multimedia research community recognizes as part of its identity. Students are able to reflect upon and manipulate a variety of digital instruments, including objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces, manifested through interactive multimedia signs and actions.

The course is divided into two sections. The main themes and methodologies of Medieval Archaeology in Italy and Europe are presented during the first section. The lessons therefore address the ways of city dwelling and farming the countryside since the Early Middle Ages to the Modern age (5th-15th c.); Archaeology of craftsman, production and building techniques; the evolution of funerary practices and ritual. The second section focuses on a number of specific insights about the material culture in different European regions. By the end of the course, students have a basic knowledge of archaeology and the history of medieval art from the 5th-6th to roughly the 12th century. From specific cases, they are able to describe the cultural encounters and understand multicultural contexts on the basis of surviving artworks and products of material culture. They learn to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and learn to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course focuses on interpretative views applied to premodern art history in thought-provoking/groundbreaking exhibitions and catalogues. Students thus familiarize themselves with the major perspectives and challenging topics that have engaged curators and specialists in the last decades, dealing with a sensitive plurality of contexts and cultural geographies. Through discussions and case studies, students can prove different critical paths, going beyond stylistic influence and center/periphery paradigms through artistic circulation to connected and rhizomatic histories. The course considers how ideologies, authoritative canons, racialization/stigmatization, imperialism, and colonialism have been the core forces behind collecting, trade, and the acknowledgment of aesthetic value, as well as museums’ storytelling and catalogs narratives.

The course explores the Mediterranean Renaissance and Global Renaissance/Baroque art by offering insights into intertwining key thematic issues: Global Catholicism, propaganda, power strategies, transformation of models, distributed agency, artistic migration, borderlands/disconnected paths, constellations/networks, wars anxiety, climate crisis, religious changes, political sovereignty, moral authority, and social emotions. Through the study of specific exhibitions, catalogues, and seminal essays/research projects, the course reframes curatorial practices, considering paintings but also prints, early modern illustrated books, devotional objects, maps, folding screens, and other pivotal materials in Europe and the Americas.

Students learn to interpret premodern and early modern art between the 14th and 18th centuries using methodological tools that question the "Global Renaissance." Beyond Eurocentric approaches, the course focuses on the challenges and applications of methods, theories, and concepts, connecting art histories through global perspectives and addressing cultural transformations and diverse historiographical approaches in curatorial practices.

This course examines some of the wealth of artistic production in the Netherlands in the 17th century. The course is based around the study of Rembrandt and Vermeer as contrasting and complementary figures who represent some of the diverse tendencies of the time. This entails the study of the development of individual styles and subject matter ranging from history painting to portraiture, landscape, and genre painting. The distinct artistic character associated with centers of production, even ones that were geographically close, is assessed with an emphasis on Amsterdam, Delft, and Utrecht. The final block of the course looks at the posthumous reputations of Rembrandt and Vermeer, examining questions of attribution, authenticity, canonicity, and rediscovery.