Course description
The Italian city was the crucible for the creativity that forged the Renaissance. To this day, Italy is defined by sharp contrasts and distinctions between cities and regions. Local pride and identity is wrapped up in these distinctions and even has a name, campanilismo – pride in your bell-tower, your home town. Taking Venice as its focus, this course looks at the period (c. 1400-1580) in which the cultural variety of Italian cities really took shape and came to be expressed in visual and verbal terms.

The poet and scholar Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) described Venice as mundus alter (another world), and there is little doubt that the city’s unique character was expressed visually through art and architecture. Venice forms the central case study for this course. We will also explore through comparison to such centres as Florence, Siena and Rome how the Serenissima’s distinctive character was forged through reaction to, and assimilation of, innovations in urban form, architecture, paintings and ritual events that combined to shape identities of place. With a focus on architecture and urbanism, the course explores how through the Renaissance period diverse traditions – from the Byzantine East, from classical and humanist Rome – alongside innovations developed in Florence, contributed to the city’s artistic development.

Throughout the course, paintings and sculptures will be analysed in their contexts, with consideration given to civic, religious, domestic and public space. The structure is thematic, as opposed to chronological, in part to make the material more accessible to a wider range of students, although the focus remains the history of art and architecture of this remarkable city.

Syllabus
Renaissance and Renaissances in Italy: Ideal Cities?
Mundus alter. Local identity and the fashioning of urban image.
Urban armature: infrastructure and urban form
Civic and collective identities
Commercial vocations: mobility and trade
Neighbourhood and community: parish churches
Private identity and the urban élite: palaces and the Grand Canal
Guilds, charity and poor relief: institutional and collective duty
Outsiders, mobility and assimilation
Venice reborn: Sansovino and Roman classicism
Andrea Palladio and a new architecture
Renaissance Reloaded: rethinking the city today through politics, entertainment and tourism.

Please note that I have listed visits here, and will review/confirm these when I finalise the programme and add bibliography. Visit plans may also be affected by some schedule changes I have asked permission for from the Dean.

1. Renaissance and Renaissances in Italy: Ideal Cities?
Visit: San Marco, church and museum
2. Mundus alter. Local identity and the fashioning of urban image.
Visit: Museo Correr
3. Civic and collective identities
Visit: piazza San Marco
4. Commercial vocations: mobility and trade
Visit: Rialto
5. Urban armature: infrastructure and urban form
Visit: Arsenale and Grand Canal
6. Neighbourhood and community: parish churches
Visit: San Zaccaria and San Giorgio degli Schiavoni
7. Private identity and the urban élite: palaces and the Grand Canal
Visit: Ca’ d’Oro and San Giovanni Crisostomo
8. Guilds, charity and poor relief: institutional and collective duty
Visit: Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Scuola Grande di San Marco
9. Outsiders, mobility and assimilation
Visit: Accademia
10.Venice reborn: Sansovino and Roman classicism
Visit: the Ghetto
11. Andrea Palladio and a new architecture
Visit: Churches of il Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore
12. Renaissance Reloaded: rethinking the city today through politics, entertainment and tourism.

Additional visit (co-curricular): Palladio in the Veneto: villa Malcontenta, Villa Emo at Fanzolo and/or Villa Barbaro at Maser
Option to join day trip to Ravenna

James Ackerman, Palladio, Pelican, 1966, chapter 2, ‘Villas’, 36-80
Link

Site visits
Site visits are integral to this course and will include: Piazza San Marco, the churches of San Zaccaria, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and San Giorgio Maggiore, Ca’ d’Oro, the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Scuola Grande di San Marco, and the Gallerie dell’Accademia, and guided walks to selected parts of the city.

The half day visit (4 hour co-curricular) will be to one or more villas designed by Andrea Palladio, including Villa Foscari (la Malcontenta) and Villa Emo or Villa Barbaro at Maser.

Teaching method
Lectures structured around illustrated presentations, for which students are assigned weekly reading tasks
Site visits including small group presentations
Students are expected to take part in class discussion on themed topics and will produce both individual and group research work.

The course will be delivered through a combination of lectures and site visits.
Site visits should be understood to be classes ‘on location’ and are not optional. A number will include small group presentations.
Students are expected to take part in class discussion on themed topics and will produce both individual and group research work.

Listed under ‘syllabus’ are the main themes for each week. As there are two classes per week, the structure for classes will be:
Class 1: There is one lecture each week, which will have a relatively open and interactive format, intended to respond to queries and issues as we go along. The final 30 minutes will be a structured discussion based on one assigned reading.
Class 2: There are 10 site visit classes; again a brief reading will be required as preparation. 5 of these classes include small group presentations on case examples related to class themes. One co-curricular visit is included in the course delivery.
In addition to class contribution, each student will agree (in discussion with the professor) a research topic for the final research paper. A preparative piece of work will be produced in the week following the reading week to define this topic.

Learning outcomes
Students will be able to
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the art and architectural history of Renaissance Italian cities, and Venice in particular.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of urban/cultural identity and choices.
3. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the key recent debates and issues that underlie the study of Italian Renaissance urban culture.
4. Demonstrate familiarity with the history of various forms of cultural expression in the context of Renaissance Venice.
5. Recognize and operate basic art-historical terminology and concepts
6. Show a detailed knowledge of the places, buildings and artworks examined in class
7. Produce and present a research paper involving visual analysis, reading of scholarly publications, and critical thinking

No prior knowledge is required for this course, although some preparatory reading from the list that follows is recommended.

Evaluation method
The final grade will be based on:
- Attendance, contribution to discussions and the course activities (20%)
- In-class group presentation, with short individual written submission (feedback provided; 30%)
- Final research paper: short class presentation during the exam week and written version to be handed in the week before (50%).

Bibliography/Recommended Reading
(note that specific readings are provided in the weekly lecture listing, below)

BROWN, PATRICIA FORTINI, Art and Life in Renaissance Venice, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1997.
BURKE, PETER, The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy, Cambridge: Polity, 2013.
HOWARD, DEBORAH, The Architectural History of Venice, New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 2002.
NICHOLS, TOM, Renaissance Art in Venice: From Tradition to Individualism, London: Laurence King, 2016.
WELCH, EVELYN, Art and Society in Italy, 1350-1500, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1997.