FA 46B High and Late Renaissance in Italy

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FA 46b High and Late Renaissance in Italy

Block J: T/F 12:30pm - 1:50pm

Professor Jonathan Unglaub Office: 211 Mandel Center Ext. 6-2665

Office hours: T: 9-11

Scope and Format:

This course examines the major works of art produced in Italy in the sixteenth century. It focuses on the principal centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice, with a brief consideration of pictorial cycles for the Courts of Ferrara and Mantua. The principal artists of the age, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, receive in-depth coverage. We will study as well important works by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, Cellini, Bronzino, Correggio, Giorgione, Tintoretto, and Veronese. There is an emphasis on painting, with the obvious exception of Michelangelo’s and Cellini’s sculptures.

The High Renaissance marks the first instance of historical self-consciousness in the History of Art. By the middle of the Sixteenth century, when Giorgio Vasari wrote his Lives of the Artists, it was evident that a pinnacle of artistic achievement had been attained. Works produced in its wake after the 1520s have come to be designated as “Late Renaissance,” or “Mannerist.” This course evaluates the definitive forms and styles produced during the fervent decades of the High Renaissance, and how this legacy challenged the artists throughout the remainder of the century. It also considers the social institutions, both ecclesiastical and civic, that furnished the patronage opportunities and promoted the ideas that occasioned, even demanded, new artistic forms of grace and harmony, energy and torsion. During this period, artists exhibited a renewed appreciation of the classical past and re-animated this artistic inheritance through an unprecedented technical mastery of design, pictorial space, anatomy, movement, light and shade, and color. In its representational and expressive aims, art aspired to science and poetry alike. All this made the world of the imagination, of pictorial invention, more immediate to the spectator than ever before. As we shall discover, the masterpieces of High and Late Renaissance Art conveyed, with unrivaled directness and eloquence, human dignity, political ambition, carnal desire, spiritual ideals, and the longing for redemption.

The course is will be a slide lecture, but every effort will be made to generate discussion. You should feel welcome to ask questions at any point during my presentations.

Readings:

Required and recommended* texts (available at bookstore):

Hughes, Anthony, Michelangelo (London: Phaidon, 1997).

Goffen, Rona, Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian (New Haven: Yale, 2002).*

Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Artists, transl. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella

(Oxford University Press, 1991).*

Additional Readings:

Additional course readings are posted on LATTE. They should be read carefully, and reflectively, since they have been selected to stimulate class discussion. These readings should be prepared for the class date under which they are listed on the syllabus.

Museum trip:

Amuseum trip is planned to view sixteenth-century Italian Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The Gardner/ MFA trip is a mandatory component of the class, since there we will see what are arguably the most important Florentine (Rosso’s Dead Christ) and Venetian (Titian’s Rape of Europa) sixteenth-century paintings in America. During this trip, time will also be set aside to work on your final paper, which will be based on works in these collections. I can arrange several visits in order to accommodate varying schedules.

Study Guides and LATTE:

Study guides will be distributed concurrent with the presentation of material in class. These will list the images, names, terms, and information you are required to know for the exams. They will also be posted on the course LATTE site, along with paper assignments and the syllabus.

Images and ARTSTOR:Images correlated to the Study guides will be posted under a separate module on LATTE. These files will be ARTSTOR off-line image viewer OIV presentations. To open and view these files you will have to download the free OIV software. Instructions are posted on LATTE.

Requirements:

There will be midterm and final exams on the dates indicated in the syllabus. Their format will include slide identifications with short-answer questions, and longer essays based on slide comparisons.

There will be two papers. One is a reading report (5 pages) to be written in preparation for the class devoted to Pontormo’s Entombment. There will also be a longer paper (7-8 pages) based on works at the Museums, as well as some basic research.

Grade distribution:

Midterm Exam25%Friday, October 10

Reading Report 15 %Tuesday, October 21

Museum Paper30%Tuesday, November 24

Final Exam30% Wednesday, December 17

Attendance (After 1 unexcused absence, 2 points will be deducted from one’s overall

average for each additional absence, religious holidays excepted)

If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability you should contact me, and present your letter of accommodation as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations you should contact Beth Rogers Kay in Academic Affairs (). Letters of should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.

Schedule of Classes:

Week of August 25

F: Course Overview and Florence

Week of September 1

T: Florence in the 1470s and the Young Leonardo da Vinci.

Alberti, Leon Battista, On Painting, transl. Cecil Grayson (London1991), 72-81, 87-96.

Vasari, "Preface to Part Two," "Preface to Part Three," 47-58, 277-83.

Goffen, 31-40.

F: Leonardo in Milan: Mastery of Space, Atmosphere, and Expression

Vasari, “Life of Leonardo da Vinci,” 284-93

Leo Steinberg, Leonardo’s Incessant Last Supper, (New York, 2001), 19-44, 52-73, 139-51.

Leonardo Da Vinci, On Painting, transl. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker (New Haven: Yale

UP, 1989), 20-46, 76-81, 130-33, 144-50, 199-202, 220-33, 251-3.

Week of September 8

T: The Young Michelangelo

Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” 414-26.

Hughes, Chapters 1 and 2, 10-62.

Goffen, 69-119.

F: Clash of Titans: Leonardo and Michelangelo in Florence

Vasari, “Life of Leonardo da Vinci,” 293-8; “Life of Michelangelo,” 426-32.

Hughes, Chapter 3, 65-102.

Goffen, 119-170.

Week of September 15

T: Raphael: Prodigy and Magpie

Vasari, “The Life of Raphael,” 305-312, 330-35.

Goffen, 171-89, 194-213.

Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, tr. G. Bull (New York, 1967), 65-70, 86-102.

F: Julian Rome and the Sistine Chapel

Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” 433-51.

Hughes, Chapter 4, 105-144.

Leo Steinberg, "Who's Who in Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam': A Chronology of the Picture's

Reluctant Self-Revelation." Art Bulletin 74 (1992): 552-66.

Week of September 22

no class

T: Brandeis Thursday

F: Rosh Hashanah

Week of September 29

T: Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura

Vasari, “Life of Raphael,” 312-317.

Heinrich Wölfflin, “IV: Raphael,” in Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance

(London, 1994), 87-100.

Ingrid Rowland, “The Vatican Stanze,” in The Cambride Companion to Raphael, ed. Marcia Hall

(Cambridge, 2005), pp. 95-111.

Rec. Jonathan Unglaub, “Bernardo Accolti, Raphael’s Parnassus and a New Portrait by

Andrea Del Sarto,” Burlington Magazine CXLIX (January 2007): 14-22.

F: Papacy Triumphant: Raphael’s Works for Julius II and Leo X and Rivalry with Michelangelo

Vasari, “Life of Raphael,” 318-38.

Goffen, 227-64.

Week of October 6

T: Catch up or Make up; Midterm Review

F: Midterm Exam, Friday October 10, in class

Week of October 13

T: Florentine Elegance: Fra Bartolomeo and Andrea Del Sarto

Heinrich Wölfflin, “V: Fra Bartolomeo," "VI: Andrea del Sarto,” in Classic Art: An

Introduction to the Italian Renaissance, (London, 1994): 140-50, 171-82.

F: Rosso Fiorentino and Parmigianino

Vasari, “Life of Rosso,” 345-58.

John Shearman, Mannerism (New York, 1967), 15-22, 30-70.

Regina Stefaniak, "Amazing Grace: Parmigianino's Vision of Saint Jerome," Zeitschrift für

Kunstgeschichte 58 (1995): 105-115.

Week of October 20

T: Pontormo

Leo Steinberg, “Pontormo’s Capponi Chapel,” Art Bulletin 56 (1974): 385-99.

John Shearman, Only Connect...Art and Spectator in the Italian Renaissance

(Princeton, 1992), 79-94.

Jack Wasserman, “Pontormo in the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicità in Florence,” Mitteilungen

des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz 53 (2009): 35-72.

Tuesday, October 21 Reading Report due in class

F: Michelangelo’s Tombs and Neo-Platonic Aesthetic

Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” 451-57.

Hughes, Chapter 6, 145-227.

Michelangelo, “Selected Poems” from The Poetry of Michelangelo, transl. James

Saslow (New Haven: 1991), 147-155.

Erwin Panofsky, “The NeoPlatonic Movement and Michelangelo,” in Studies in

Iconology (New York, 1972), 171-218.

Week of October 27

T: Later Michelangelo: Universal Judgment and Private Devotion

Vasari, “Life of Michelangelo,” 459-65, 470-82.

Hughes, Chapter 7, 231-54, 283-88,

Leo Steinberg, “Michelangelo’s Last Judgment as Merciful Heresy,” Art in America 63

(1975): 49-65.

F: Grand Ducal Florence: Bronzino and Medici Propaganda

Margaret Healey, "Bronzino's London Allegory and the Art of Syphilis," Oxford Art Journal 20

(1997), 1-10.

Week of November 3

T: Cellini: A Bloody Rival

Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography, transl. George Bull (New York, 1998), 314-22, 338-

53, 366-71.

Michael Cole, “Cellini’s Blood,” Art Bulletin 81 (1999): 215-35.

F: Art and Venetian Culture

David Rosand, “Conditions of Painting in Renaissance Venice,” in Painting in Sixteenth-Century

Venice: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese (Cambridge, 1997), 1-34.

Week of November 10

T: Giorgione and Pastoral Painting

Vasari, “Life of Giorgione,” 299-304.

Jonathan Unglaub, “The Concert Champêtre: The Crises of History and the Limits of Pastoral,” Arion V no.1 (1997): 46-96.

F: Titian: The Great Altarpieces

David Rosand, “Titian and the Frari,” Art Bulletin 53 (1971): 196-213.

* Museum visit to MFA/ Gardner (to consult works for papers) scheduled on Thursday, November 13th, 6:30pm, via Brandeis shuttle).

Week of November 17

T: Titian and Correggio: Painting Myth and Rivaling the Ancients

Vasari, “Life of Titian,” 489-94.

Rona Goffen, “Paragon and the Goddess: The Poesie for Alfonso d’Este,” in Titian’s Women

(New Haven, 1997), 107-126.

F: The Venus of Urbino and Interpreting Erotic Painting in Renaissance Venice

Erwin Panofsky, “ Reflections on Love and Beauty,” in Problems in Titian, Mostly

Iconographic (New York, 1969), 109-25.

Rona Goffen, “Sex, Space, and Social History in Titian’s Venus of Urbino,” Titian’s

“Venus of Urbino,” ed. Rona Goffen (Cambridge, 1997), 63-90.

Week of November 24

T: Desire and Piety Transfigured into Paint: Titian’s Late Paintings

Vasari, “Life of Titian,” 500-508.

Thomas Puttfarken, Titian and Tragic Painting (New Haven, 2005), pp. 155-96.

Tuesday, November 24, Museum Paper due in class

Week of December 1

T: Tintoretto

David Rosand, “Action and Piety in Tintoretto’s Religious pictures,” in Painting in

Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese (Cambridge, 1997), 134-64.

F: Veronese

David Rosand, “Theatre and Structure in the Art of Paolo Veronese,” Art Bulletin 55

(1973): 217-39.

Elizabeth Holt, ed. “Council of Trent and Religious Art, Paolo Veronese before the Tribunal,” In

A Documentary History of Art, Volume II, (Garden City, 1958), 62-70.

FINAL EXAM:Wednesday, December 17th, 1:30-4:30 pm