HISTORY OF BYZANTINE ART (ADVANCED COURSE)

The course of History of Byzantine Art is scheduled among the characterizing activities of the Master's Degree “History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage” (program: " Medieval and Byzantine”), and among the the similar and integrative training activities of the Master's Degree “Italian Philology and Literature” (program: Medieval/Renaissance"). The course examines the diffusion of Byzantine art in Eastern and Western Europe, investigating two case studies. A comparison will be made between the architectural originals of Constantinople and the versions created in the 11th century at the same time in Kiev and Venice. The subsequent history of these interventions in the Old Russian and Venetian contexts will also be studied. Revealing the difference between the art of the Byzantine capital and the new cultural centers, we will consider the context of their emergence, and thus the fate and intertwining of the Byzantine artistic-cultural contributions in the development of Venetian and Russian art.

- Knowledge and understanding: assimilation of the notions, reflections and concepts transmitted during the lessons;
- Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: to be able to bring back the works of art and the artistic phenomena treated in class in the socio-cultural and spatial-temporal areas of belonging;
- Ability to judge: to be able to grasp the most significant aspects of each work of art, whether they belong to the formal, iconographic, iconological, symbolic, socio-cultural, aesthetic fields;
- Communication skills: knowing how to describe works of art and artistic phenomena treated in class using the specific terminology of the discipline; be able to express clearly, and grammatically correct, notions, reflections and concepts acquired during the lessons;
- Learning skills: at the end of the course the student must be able to provide a reading at the same time analytical and critical of the works of art and artistic phenomena treated, integrating the knowledge acquired during the lessons to read the texts indicated.

No prerequisite is required.

The aim of the course is to show the reception and transformation of Byzantine art in different cultural contexts. The copies of Justinian's main edifices, built in Venice and Kiev with an interval of a few decades, show how the new artistic, technological and ideological contexts influence the transformation of the ideas expressed in the originals, to then begin to live independently in the local cultural traditions. Indeed, in the architecture of Venice in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the spatial model of the Byzantine church was used to create a peculiar type of Renaissance central-plan temple, which gave rise to a scientific controversy over the concept of "neobizantino" and the so-called renovatio Marciana. For the Russian architecture of the Late Middle Ages, which had reached an undoubted artistic and technological impasse, the arrival of the Venetian architects proved to be a true panacea: to a large extent, the artistic innovations and alien Renaissance forms were assumed with success by virtue of the remote Byzantine language.
During the course will be studied the main volumetric and urban planning solutions of Byzantine architecture, as well as their Venetian and Ancient Russian transformations. Iconographic and stylistic aspects relating to mosaics, frescoes, icons and applied arts will also be touched upon, which make the parallels between these three worlds more clear. The course includes two study trips to Venice.

MANDATORY readings for exam:

Contextualization

Belting H. Bisanzio a Venezia non è Bisanzio a Bisanzio // Il Trecento adriatico. Paolo Veneziano e la pittura tra Oriente e Occidente / A cura di F. Flores D’Arcais. Milano, 2002. P. 71-79.
Grabar A. Byzance et Venise // Venezia e l’Europa. Venezia, 1956. P. 45-55.
Batalov A., Rossi F., Švidkovskij D. Mille anni di architettura italiana in Russia / A cura di D. Švidkovskij. Torino [etc.] : Allemandi, 2013.
Concina E. Venezia e la tradizione artistica di Bisanzio // Cristiani d'Oriente. Spiritualità, arte e potere nell'Europa post bizantina / A cura di G. Arbore. Milano, 1999. P. 87-93.

Basilica San Marco and its prototype

Zuliani F. San Marco // Veneto romanico / A cura di F. Zuliani. Milano, 2008. P. 35-66.
The Holy Apostles: Visualizing a Lost Monument. The Underwood Drawings from the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives. Washington, D.C. 2015.

Cathedrals of Hagia Sophia in Kiev, Novgorod, Polack and its prototype

Krautheimer, Richard. Architettura paleocristiana e bizantina. Torino : Einaudi, 1986.
Mainstone, Rowland J. Hagia Sophia: architecture, structure and liturgy of Justinians's great church. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1988. Сh. 10 “The sixth-century achievement and its sequels”, pp. 237-259.

The architecture of the Venetian Renaissance and the Byzantine legacy. Renovatio Marciana

Timofiewitsch W. Genesi e struttura della chiesa del Rinascimento veneziano // Bolletino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio”. VI (1964), parte 2. P. 271-282.
Wolters W. San Marco e l'architettura del Rinascimento veneziano // Storia dell'arte marciana: l’architettura / A cura di R. Polacco. Venezia: Marsilio, 1997.
Concina E. San Marco, Costantinopoli e il primo Rinascimento veneziano: "traditio magnificentiae" // Storia dell'arte marciana : l’architettura / A cura di R. Polacco. Venezia : Marsilio, 1997. P. 15-38.

The architecture of the Venetian Renaissance and its influence on the Russian architecture of the Late Middle Ages

Podjapolskij S.S. Le fonti veneziane dell'architettura della Cattedrale dell'Arcangelo Michele di Mosca // Arte Lombarda, Nuova Serie, No. 44/45 (1976). P. 188–190.
Beljaev L. Italian artists in the Moscow Rus' from the late 15th to the middle of the 16th century: architectural concepts of the early Orientalism in the Renaissance period // L'artista a Bisanzio e nel mondo cristiano-orientale / A cura di M. Bacci. Pisa, 2007. P. 269-299.
Bettini S. L’architetto Alevis Novyj in Russia // Bolletino del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura “Andrea Palladio”. VI (1964), parte 2. P. 159-180.
Petrov A. The Church at Jurkino as a Synthesis of Venetian and Russian Architectural Traditions // Les chrétientés orthodoxes post-byzantines face à l’Europe de la Réforme et des Temps Modernes (1450-1700)". Rome, Campisano Editore, 2023.

Testi CONSIGLIATI per consultazione e/o approfondimenti:

Nicol D.M. Venezia e Bisanzio. Milano, 1990.
Ravegnani G. Bisanzio e Venezia. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2006.
Pertusi A. Venezia e Bisanzio: 1000-1204 // Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Jan 1, 1979, Vol.33.
Constantine of Rhodes, on Constantinople and the Church of the Holy Apostles. Ed. by Liz James. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012.
Tafuri M. Venezia e il Rinascimento. Religione, scienza, architettura. Torino, Einaudi, 1985.
McAndrew J. Sant’Andrea alla Certosa // The Art Bulletin, 1969. P. 15-28.
Wolters W. "Al modo veneziano" und nicht "alla moderna": zu den Anfängen der venezianischen Renaissancebaukunst // Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana vol. 38 (2007/08) (2010) p. 205-229

For specific themes and works of art, other bibliographic references can be reported during the lessons.

The oral exam will focus on the contents of the lessons and compulsory texts (see above, "Reference texts").

Classroom-taught with PowerPoint projection containing documentary and illustrative material, specially prepared by the teacher.
Use of the Moodle multimedia platform, for the provision of documentary and illustrative materials in pdf format.

If, for health reasons, distance lessons become mandatory, the course will be delivered via Zoom, always with the support of documentary and illustrative material in Power Point (access can take place both in real time and through video-audio recordings).

Italian

Frequency of the course, either face-to-face or remotely, is highly recommended.

Ca 'Foscari applies the Italian law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) for support and accommodation services available to students with disabilities or with specific learning disabilities. If you have a motor, visual, hearing or other disability (Law 17/1999) or a specific learning disorder (Law 170/2010) and request support (assistance in the classroom, technological aids for carrying out exams or exams individualized, accessible format material, notes retrieval, specialized tutoring to support the study, interpreters or other) contact the Disability and SLD office disabling@unive.it.

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