HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ART II

The course is included among the characterizing training activities of the Master's Degree “History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage" (programme: Medieval and Byzantine"). The course aims to examine the phenomenon of artistic plurilingualism in the Middle Ages, through the analysis of Norman-Swabian heritage (12th-13th centuries), where formal expressions of Byzantine, Islamic and Western roots cohabit and interact with each other.

- 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 course is aimed at the knowledge of one of the most original and fertile artistic seasons of the Middle Ages, that of the Norman-Swabian kingdom of Sicily (12th-13th century), characterized by the presence of Byzantine, Islamic and Western workers, gravitating around the Palermo court. During the lessons will be examined monumental evidences (architecture, marble and porphyry sculpture, opus sectile, wall painting, wall mosaics, wooden ceilings) and museum objects (goldsmith’s art, ivory, textiles, rock crystals, icons), of undisputed level qualitative, expression of the intertwining of the different cultural traditions operating on the island. This heritage, thanks to the satisfactory state of conservation, to the existence of numerous documentary sources and to the wealth of historiographical contributions, will provide the opportunity to reflect, methodologically, on the analysis of the many aspects concerning the production process of the work of art : from the conception to the realization, from the client to the fruition, passing through the material components, the technical-executive modalities, the iconographic contents, the symbolic implications and the aesthetic values.

MANDATORY READINGS:

- As for the architecture:
• Bellafiore, Giuseppe, Architettura in Sicilia nell’età islamica e normanna (827-1194), Milano, Arnaldo Lombardi Editore, 1990, pp. 108-124, 126-128, 130-132, 136-137, 142-146, 149-151, 154-155.

- As for the wall mosaics:
• Kitzinger, Ernst, I mosaici del periodo normanno in Sicilia, fasc. 1 (La Cappella Palatina di Palermo: i mosaici del presbiterio), Palermo, Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti, 1992; fasc. 2 (La Cappella Palatina di Palermo: i mosaici delle navate), Palermo, Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti, 1993; fasc. 3 (Il Duomo di Monreale: i mosaici dell’abside, della solea e delle cappelle laterali), Palermo, Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti, 1994; fasc. 4 (Il Duomo di Monreale: i mosaici del transetto), Palermo, Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti, 1995; fasc. 5 (Il Duomo di Monreale: i mosaici delle navate), Palermo, Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, 1996; fasc. 6 (La cattedrale di Cefalù, la cattedrale di Palermo e il Museo diocesano, mosaici profani), Palermo, Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, 2000.

- Regarding goldsmithing and sumptuary arts:
• Nobiles officinae. Perle, filigrane e trame di seta dal Palazzo Reale di Palermo, catalogo della mostra, Palermo-Vienna, 2003-2004, a cura di Maria Andaloro, Catania, Maimone, 2006 (ed. bilingue, in italiano e inglese), vol. 1: pp. 29-37, 45-78, 120-124, 128-133, 216-217, 222-237, 261-263, 280-287, 298-301, 321-347, 370-377, 390-393, 428-431, 498-509, 542-544, 558-564; vol. 2: pp. 171-181, 195-199, 201-215, 219-229.

- As for Islamic wood painting:
• Grube, Ernst, La pittura islamica nella Sicilia normanna, in “La Pittura in Italia. L'Altomedioevo”, a cura di C. Bertelli, Milano, Electa, 1994, pp. 416-431.

- And, also, an essay chosen from the following:
• Andaloro, Maria, 'I mosaici dipinti di Cefalù', in "Una vita per il patrimonio artistico: contributi in onore di Vincenzo Scuderi", a cura di E. D’Amico, Palermo 2013, pp. 21-23.
• Longo, Ruggero, 'Bāb al-abnā, Sant’Andrea in Kemonia e l’ingresso normanno del Palazzo Reale di Palermo', "L'officina dello sguardo: scritti in onore di Maria Andaloro", a c. di G. Bordi et Alii, Roma 2014, vol. I, pp. 91-96.
• Lovino, Francesco, 'Considerazioni sopra due manoscritti della Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia (Homerus Venetus A e Marc. gr. 539), alla luce della politica artistica nella Palermo normanna', in "Convivium", I, 2014, 1, pp. 152-163.
• Piazza, Simone, 'La "Madonna del Castello" a Lentini: un'icona-palladio dalla Sicilia federiciana, fra storia, memoria e leggenda", in "Arte cristiana", CX, 932, 2022, pp. 360-369.
• Tranchina, Antonino, 'Pictura demonstrat: discorso storico e tenore giuridico nelle immagini perdute presso la Porta dei Re della cattedrale di Cefalù', in "Federico II e l’architettura sacra tra regno e impero", a cura di F. Gangemi e T. Michalsky, Cinisello Balsamo 2021, pp. 115-129.


OPTIONAL TEXTS USEFUL FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND / OR CONSULTATION:

• Brenk, Beat, a cura di, La Cappella Palatina, 4 voll. (voll. 1-2: testi; voll. 3-4: Atlante), Modena, Panini, 2010-2012 (ed. bilingue, in italiano e inglese)
• Demus, Otto, The mosaics of Norman Sicily, Londra, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949 (rist. anast. New York 1988).
• Kitzinger, Ernst, I Mosaici di Monreale, Palermo, Flaccovio, 1960.
• Kitzinger, Ernst, I mosaici di Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio a Palermo, Bologna, Nuova Alfa, 1990.
• Tronzo, William, The cultures of his kingdom: Roger II and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Princeton NJ, Princeton Univ. Press, 1997.

For specific themes and works of art, other bibliographic references can be reported during the lessons. The texts cited that should be untraceable will be provided in pdf format.

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.

Italian

Course attendance is strongly recommended.

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