107-032 Venetian Renaissance Painting

A knowledge of Italian language and history is helpful, though not essential.

Usually 12.5 points of first-year art history.

This subject aims to introduce students to the art of 16th century Venice, principally the works of the painters Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian and Lorenzo Lotto. Topics will include devotional painting, narrative painting in confraternities, portraiture and erotic profane painting. Methods and approaches studied will include connoisseurship, iconography, the study of patronage, the history of conservation, the study of materials and techniques, especially Venetian pigments and the impact of feminist studies on the study of Renaissance painting. The primary Renaissance sources for the subject, both visual and written, will be analysed in critical detail and related to comparative modern critical frameworks. Students who complete the subject should have attained a critical understanding of the major personalities and theoretical issues in Venetian Renaissance painting.

• be able to research through the competent use of the library and other information sources, and be able to define areas of inquiry and methods of research in the preparation of essays;

• be able to conceptualise theoretical problems, form judgements and arguments and communicate critically, creatively and theoretically through essay writing, tutorial discussion and presentations;

• be able to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through essay writing and tutorial discussion;

• be able to manage and organise workloads for recommended reading, the completion of essays and assignments and examination revision;

• be able to participate in team work through involvement in syndicate groups and group discussions.

A seminar report of 500 words 15% (due during the semester), an essay of 1500 words 35% (due during the semester), and a take-home exam of 2000 words 50% (during the examination period).

A subject reader will be available.

• P Humfrey, Painting in Renaissance Venice. Yale 1995.