Introductory description

The module introduces students to the rich visual culture of the Italian towns in their most successful period of economic growth and social change, c.1215-c.1400.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Historical overview of medieval Italy
Siena: City of the Virgin
The development of the altarpiece
Painting the Commune: Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegories of Government
Art in the Sienese contado
Florence: City of the Baptist
Giotto and his school
Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death
Padua under the Carrara: Urban growth and humanism

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of painting, sculpture and architecture in late medieval Italy
• Compare the different civic identities of the different Italian urban centres as articulated in art and architecture
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of religious change and renewal on the use and reception of images
• Initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidenc
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Sophisticated visual analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

Louise Bourdua, The Franciscans and Art Patronage in Late Medieval Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
William M. Bowsky, A Medieval Italian Commune: Siena under the Nine, 1287-1355 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981)
Joanna Cannon and Andre Vauchez, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti: Sienese Art and the Cult of a Holy Woman in Medieval Tuscany (University Park, PA: Pennsylvannia State University Press, 1999)
Timothy Hyman, Sienese Painting: The Art of a City-Republic (1278-1477) (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003)
Benjamin Kohl, Padua under the Carrara, 1318-1405 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998)
Andrew Martindale, Simone Martini (Oxford: Phaidon, 1988)
Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951)
Diana Norman ed., Siena, Florence, and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280-1400, vol. 1, Interpretative Essays; vol. 2, Case Studies (New Haven: Yale University Press and the Open University, 1995)
Henk Van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 1215-1460: Form, Content, Function, vol. 1, 1215-1344 (Groningen: Bouma’s Boekhuis, 1984)
John Richards, Altichiero: An Artist and his Patrons in the Italian Trecento (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
John White, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250 to 1400 (London: Penguin, 1966, and later editions)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• demonstrate a broad knowledge of painting, sculpture and architecture in late medieval Italy
• compare the different civic identities of the different Italian urban centres as articulated in art and architecture
• demonstrate knowledge of the impact of religious change and renewal on the use and reception of images
• sophisticated visual analysis
• critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• bibliographical skills at an appropriate level