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, work to set deadlines, perform under exam 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.
- 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.
- the ability 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 artists and architects.
Indicative Module Content:
Classes 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 characteristics of Venetian painting
- the role of sculpture
- the decline of Venice in the eighteenth century