The syllabus begins with an introduction to the ground principles of Art History, followed by a chronological study of the main artistic manifestations of the Western World from Prehistory to the Middle Ages. Special attention will be paid to the Classical Antiquity and the great Medieval styles Romanesque and Gothic.
Presentation of the course: explanation of the teaching guide, the structure of the program, the practical work of the students, the tutoring system.
Topic 1. Introduction
1.1. Definition and purpose of art. Artistic creation and its means of expression. Stylistic trends. Materials, techniques and artistic terminology.
1.2. Introduction to the History of Art: methodology and documentary sources.
Presentation of the Practices:
Work with documentary sources.
Image Commentary
Visits to Museums
Theme 2. Art in the first cultures and civilizations.
2.1. Art in Prehistory. The origins of Art: Paleolithic Art and Neolithic Art.
2.2. The art in Egypt: The architecture.
2.3. The art in Egypt: Sculpture, painting and sumptuary arts.
Theme 3. The Greco-Roman world
3.1. Greek architecture: symmetry and harmony. The perspective naturalis and the creation of architectural orders. The temple and the polis.
3.2. Antecedents of Greek art: Crete and Mycenae.
3.3. Archaic Greek sculpture. Painting in Greek pottery.
3.4. Severe or pre-classical Greek sculpture, from the oriental heritage to the conquest of the canon.
3.5. Roman architecture (I): the development of the arch, the vault and the dome. Architecture at the service of power: public works; the city, from the castrum to the urbe. Marco Vitruvius Polion and the architectural treatise (De Architectura libri decem).
3.6. Greek sculpture: the splendor of the classic.
3.7. Roman architecture (II): the development of the arch, the vault and the dome. Architecture at the service of power: public works; the city, from the castrum to the urbe. Marco Vitruvio Polión and the architectural treatise (De Architectura libri decem).
3.8. Hellenistic art or the overcoming of the canon.
3.9. Roman sculpture. The classical heritage. The Roman portrait. The imperial sculpture. Roman painting: the four styles of Pompeian painting.
Theme 4. Paleochristian and Byzantine art.
4.1. Architecture and funerary art: the catacombs and the cubicula. The Christian temple: from the domus ecclesiae to the basilica.
4.2. The paleochristian painting: the disintegration of the form and the classic canon. The formation of Christian iconography: classical tradition and scriptural sources.
4.3. Byzantine architecture. Churches of centered cupuliform plan and new constructive systems. Analysis of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople.
4.4. The Byzantine mosaic. The aesthetic canon in the time of Justinian and Theodora.
Theme 5. Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque arts.
5.1. Art and architecture in the Europe of the invasions.
5.2. Romanesque architecture. Pilgrimages, Crusades and Monasteries: technical and spatial solutions for an international style.
5.3 Romanesque figurative arts. Romanesque iconography and symbology. Monumental sculpture. Mural painting.
5.4. Islamic Art and Architecture, the splendor of the East.
Theme 6. Gothic Art.
6.1. Gothic painting. Italy: the School of Siena and the School of Florence.
6.2. Gothic architecture. The great technological revolution of the Gothic: the cathedral, construction technique, spatial distribution, light and color on the walls.
6.3. Gothic painting. The international Gothic style.
6.4. Gothic architecture. Typological variations in its expansion throughout Europe: France and Spain.
6.5. Gothic sculpture. Altarpieces, stalls and funerary art.
6.6. Gothic architecture. Typological variations in its expansion throughout Europe: England.
