PURPOSE

This course is organized as part of a three course sequence on the interrelated subjects of architecture, urban design, painting, and sculpture in Classical Greece and Italy. Aimed primarily at undergraduate students in disciplines other than architecture, but open to architecture students as well, its purpose is to provide an intensive on site investigation of the role that the arts have played in the development of the Greco-Roman and Italian civilization, and by extension the influence of this civilization on the historical development of the visual arts in the western world. This course is distinguished from the first and second in the sequence by its emphasis on the late medieval, renaissance, and baroque Italian periods. This course has Institute approval for humanities credit.

FORMAT

This course is organized around a two and a half week residence period based in Rome, Florence and Venice. On site lectures are given Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM. This schedule will vary, depending upon the site and the subject.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

In addition to the on-site lectures, students are required to conduct directed research of an assigned building, its paintings and sculpture and to make a presentation of their research to the class. This constitutes thirty percent of the grade for the course.  In addition to the presentation, students are required to maintain field notes during lectures and a final journal that consists of a conversion of all their daily notes along with commentary, historical data as well as other media including photographs, drawings, sketches, memorabilia and so forth.  Both the field notes and the johrnal consitute fifty percent of the grade. A final exam in the end of class constitutes a twenty percent of the grade. Details about all three requiremetns follow below.

Field notes/Journal
(50 %)

Each student is required to turn in:

• a notebook with field notes; and
• a final journal.

The notebook consists of field notes made on site during the lectures and include a daily description of notes from lectures, notes from student presentations, as well as museum studies of individual art pieces. Daily notes should record information covered by the professors as well as brief sketches and diagrams made onsite. For Architecture majors, recording of design information including dimensions, materials, color, etc. is extremely important. Additionally, museum collections - and they are many! - should be looked at constructively; a minimum of two pieces (sculpture, painting, porcelain, furniture, illuminated manuscript, etc.) should be selected during the course and properly described and analyzed on site in the notebook. For example, if the piece is a painting, then the analysis should dicsuss the composition of the painting, geometric organization, theme, symbolism, material, artist, etc. Finally, at the end of each day's entry a section titled "reflections" should include student's own thoughts on the information they are learning. For example you may relate information on the Roman plan of Florence with the plans of Rome and Ostia or its relationship to a city in the United States. Alternatively, if this is the first Baroque church you have visited then how does the design differ from an Early Renaissance or Medieval church you have seen?

The journal consists of a conversion of the field notes in a formal presentation including original text, commentary, general historical data, reflections, as well as digital or scanned photos, diagrams, sketches, drawings, and other media if appropriate. Both the notebook and the journal are turned in at the end of the semester and are graded for completeness, comprehensiveness, understanding of the material, and critical commentary on sites visited.  Students' background, i.e. - major, grad, undergrad -will be taken into consideration when reviewing the field-notes notebook as well as the journal.

Presentation
(30%)

Each student is required to give one fifteen-minute presentation, on site, of particular buildings or works of art or specific topics relevant to the program selected by the faculty. Students may combine presentations for one or more of the courses in the study abroad program and may work in teams for more ambitious projects; in all cases the requirements of each presentation will increase proportionally in modules of fifteen minutes each.  Presentations may vary in length for particular buildings and may include all painting and sculpture contained within. Typical cases are outstanding churches from Baroque periods, though other important buildings and sites will be included. Presentations may also include topics pertaining to the history and culture of the classical world that created the architecture and art that is the focus of this program: these topics may include aspects of culture and myths, history of science, history of religion, and so on.

Examination
(20%)

A final test/or brief written essay is given in the end of the course.

SCHEDULE

READINGS

Selections from several texts are required for this course. These include:

H. W. Janson, History of Art, 2nd ed., Abrams, New York, 1977.

Peter Burke, The Italian Renaissance, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1987.

Georgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, Penguin Classics, New York, 1987.

These texts will be supplemented by readings from Alta MacAdam, The Blue Guide to Rome, W.W. Norton, New York, 1995 edition and MacAdam, The Blue Guide to Florence, W.W. Norton, New York, 1991 edition. The Blue guides are the best general purpose source for guided study of the art and architecture of Florence and Rome, as well a s many other cities in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Unlike most guide books, they do not contain information on hotels and restaurants, etc. Rather, their emphasis is almost entirely on the art and architecture of the various towns and cities in the series. They contain excellent maps as well as historical summaries, lists of emperors and popes, as well as detailed descriptions of the entire body of works contained in all major churches and museums.