Italian

Students must have attained the equivalent of A2 Italian language level as a prerequisite. This course is graded pass/no pass only.

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. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. 

At the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of the theoretical and critical reflections on the performing arts in Italy from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a particular focus on mise-en-scène and dance. Students will be capable of autonomously analyzing critical, theoretical, and poetic texts regarding the performing arts and will have acquired a series of tools for understanding pertinent iconographic and video documents.

What is performance? How is it related to its cultural and historical context? Which tools does its study provide to read the Italian contemporary culture? The course provides an answer to these questions in regard to the history of the Italian Performance Scene since the Sixties. After a methodological introduction on diverse concepts and theories of performance, the course focuses on the most relevant case studies of New Theatre with a focus on the most engaged forms of theatre, which allow for an introduction to the cultural, social, and political changes that shaped the Italian history in between the Sixties and Seventies. The course then focuses on relevant case studies in Applied and Social Theatre (theatre in prison, in health centers, and with vulnerable communities).

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students acquire an updated knowledge about the main phenomena characterising the archaeology of settlements and environment of the Middle Ages. They will be familiar with the main methodological approaches of contemporary research, as well as be able to assess the reliability of the data presented and to highlight their limits. The students acquire a general knowledge about the main aspects of the settlement patterns evolution and the transformations of the environment during the Middle Ages in several geographic contexts. By knowing the different methodological approaches adopted by the contemporary research, the students gain the skills that they need to plan by themselves further studies or fieldwork itself, starting with the best methodological approach and the right research questions.

The course presents a series of research topics and processes through which the history and archaeology of Italian medieval landscapes are explored and compared with those of other areas in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. To address this subject effectively, the course also delves into key methods and strategies in the archaeology and history of landscapes. The topics covered include: Archaeology, history, and medieval landscapes: methods and strategies; Fortifications and castles; Villages and other rural settlements; Uncultivated and agrarian landscapes; Urban landscapes; New towns and secondary settlements; Churches, monastic landscapes, and deserta; Archaeology of rural lords and peasant communities; The end of the Roman period; Italy: comparative landscapes of the north, center, and south; Italy in comparison with the eastern and western Mediterranean and northern and southern Europe.