HISTORY OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART (MOD.1)

This is one of the mandatory courses for third year students attending the "Ancient Civilizations for the Contemporary World" degree. The course is constituted of two parts, each running in consecutive semesters: the first semester will cover China, while the second one will cover Japan. This course cannot be attended as a single course, students will need to attend both semesters to pass the course exam.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a general knowledge of Chinese art and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the Tang Dynasty. Subsequent periods will be briefly analysed in relation to long-distance Eurasian connections, as well as the influence that artistic production had on modern Chinese art and culture.

Students will gain a general knowledge of the development of Chinese Art History and Archaeology from the Neolithic to the Tang Dynasty.

Students will develop a foundational knowledge of
- art and archaeology terminology specific to China;
- major Chinese works of art, artists and artistic styles from the periods studied;
- key archaeological sites and the production techniques related to Chinese material culture.

The course will emphasise the contextualization of the artistic production system: by re-placing objects in their original context, students will acquire adequate tools to understand why they were made, for whom, and by whom. This will allow students to understand, recognize and contextualize in time and space works of art, sites, styles, artists and consumers.

None, but students are strongly encouraged to read about Chinese History so to better understand the historical context of the production of the objects under study. Information on each historical period and additional readings (non mandatory) will be provided at the beginning of each class. The professor is available to suggest introductory readings.

- Prehistorical Art and Neolithic Cultures of China
- Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Chinese Dynasties
- The search of immortality and artistic production in Early Imperial China
- Buddhist Art in China
- Cosmopolitism and Opulence: Sui and Tang Dynasties
- Song antiquarianism and the practice of Archaeology in China
- Recent archaeological discoveries in modern museums and collections

Thorp, R.L., & Vinograd, R.E., 2001. Chinese Art & Culture. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Selected parts of chapters 1-6. PDFs will be uploaded on Moodle.

Students will be referred to specific chapters for each lecture and mandatory and additional (not mandatory) readings for each topic will be available as PDF on Moodle before each class.

Written test.

The test will be a 30-minute written exam consisting of three parts:
1- A set of multiple-choice questions (with four answer options per question)
2- A set of short-answer questions
3- A critical analysis of one work of art (students will choose from among four works of art that will be shown during exam).

More specifically, the test will weigh:
a) knowledge of the fundamental notions on Chinese art and archaeology, included the basis terminology;
b) ability to describe formally a work of art;
c) ability to analyse stylistically a work of art;
d) ability to comment in critical-historical way a work of art.

written

The final mark (min 18/30, max 30/30) will be determined by the sum of the scores obtained in the 3 different sections in which the test is divided.

Lectures with powerpoint presentations and analysis of works of art during class.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development