Introductory description

The module focuses on 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
Miracle-working panel paintings in Florence and Siena
Two Madonnas in Majesty in Siena
Peace, War, Tyranny, Justice: Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoes
Painting for Bankers & Merchants
Giotto's commissions for the Bardi and Scrovegni families (Florence and Padua)
Dante's Comedy and Its Influence on Artistic Production
The Age of Pandemics. Disasters' Effects on Artistic Production
Padua under the Carrara: Urban growth and humanism
The Italian City-States and the World

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate a critical knowledge and understanding of the function of painting, sculpture and architecture in late medieval Italian cities.
• Compare the different civic identities of a selection of Italian urban centres as articulated in art and architecture .
• Discuss the impact of religious change and renewal on the use and reception of images.
• Apply visual analysis skills to assess buildings and imagery of Italian medieval cities.

Indicative reading list

Maureen C. Miller, "The Saint Zenobius Dossal by the Master of the Bigallo and the Cathedral Chapter of Florence", The Haskins Society Journal 19, 2007, pp. 65-81.
Jessamyn Conrad, "Picturing power in Trecento Siena: Duccio’s and Simone’s "Maestàs", in Languages of Power in Italy (1300-1600), eds Daniel Bornstein, Laura Gaffuri, Brian Jeffrey Maxson, Leiden, 2017, pp. 77-93.
Rubinstein, Nicolai. “Political Ideas in Sienese Art: The Frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo Pubblico,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 21.3–4 (1958), pp. 179–207.
Quentin Skinner, "Ambrogio Lorenzetti: the artist as political philosopher, Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 72: 1986, pp. 1-56.
William M. Bowsky, A Medieval Italian Commune: Siena under the Nine, 1287-1355 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981)
Timothy Hyman, Sienese Painting: The Art of a City-Republic (1278-1477) (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003)
Janet Robson, 'The Arts in Florence before the Black Death’ in Florence, ed. Francis Ames-Lewis, Cambridge, 2012, , pp.35-78.
Louise Bourdua, 'The Arts in Florence after the Black Death’ in Florence, ed. Francis Ames-Lewis, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 70-118.
Julian Gardner, Giotto and his Publics, Cambridge Ma, 2011.
L. Bourdua, "Illumination, Painting and Sculpture", in Dante in Context, eds Zygmunt G. Barański and Lino Pertile, Cambridge, 2015.
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).
Louise Marshall. 'Confraternity and Community: Mobilizing the Sacred in Times of Plague', in Confraternities and the Visual Arts in the Italian Renaissance. Ritual, Spectacle, Image, eds B. Wisch and D. Cole Ahl, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 20-45.
Roxann Prazniak, 'Siena on the Silk Roads: Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the Mongol Global Century, 1250–1350', Journal of World History, Volume 21, Number 2, June 2010, pp. 177-217.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• broad knowledge of painting, sculpture and architecture in late medieval Italy
• knowledge of different civic identities as articulated in art and architecture
• 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