Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module, students should be able to demonstrate the following:
- an ability to regularly and punctually engage with classes, subject to social distancing rules, in person and online, work to set deadlines, perform under test conditions without class notes, and submit original, non-plagiarised work in accordance with the standards expected at university.
- familiarity and understanding of a range of recommended texts and critical/ theoretical sources relevant to the course, and be able to work under test/ exam conditions without reliance on supplementary notes or other learning aids.
- a historical appreciation of Venice, its history, culture and artistic development particularly with regard to painting, and the position of Venetian art within a wider Italian, and occasionally European, context.
- an understanding of how Venice's artistic development relates to its environmental, social and geo-political situation.
- be able to articulate an appreciation of the particular technical characteristics of the art of Venice, and identify, date, and critically analyse the work of its leading practitioners.
- further develop connoisseurial skills vital to a competency in the history of art, and with particular relevance to prominent Venetian painters.
Indicative Module Content:
Lectures will cover the following topics:
- the myth of Venice as an ideal city
- the corporate ethos of the city as reflected through art patronage
- the iconography of the Virgin and St Mark as civic mascots
- the portrayal of the Venetian cityscape in paintings and prints
- the architectural development of Venice
- artistic portrayals of the sociopolitical situation in sixteenth-century Venice, including representations of poverty and disease
- the rise of villa culture and the work of Andrea Palladio
- the careers of Titian and his immediate rivals
- the particular technical characteristcs of Venetian painting
- the role of sculpture
- the decline of Venice in the eighteenth century