Workshop: Iconology and Iconography
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
In an influential essay on the nature of the humanities written in 1940, Erwin Panofsky pithily described art history as the discipline whose "primary material has come down to us in the form of works of art." This definition is deceptively straightforward: what does it mean to approach artifacts as "primary materials" for the investigation of the past? And, conversely, what particular narratives emerge from the scrutiny of artworks? Designed as a "looking laboratory" and organized as a series of in-depth case studies, this laboratory will introduce students to the dual nature of artifacts as objects and agents of history. In this spirit, it will provide them with the foundations of knowledge and the critical and analytical tools to describe and interpret artifacts; it will explore how the material, aesthetic and functional properties of artifacts both encode and contribute to shape the cultural, social and political contexts within which they are produced, viewed and used; and it will introduce the specific opportunities and challenges that arise from investigating the past through (wordless) images and objects. Finally, the laboratory will introduce some recent methodological debates and critical issues: the complex relationship between primary and secondary contexts of production, use and display; the potential and limits of a "global approach" to premodern objects; and gendered "ways of seeing".
Expected learning outcomes
1)Knowledge and Understanding:
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Interact and engage critically with a wide range of artworks, artistic media and techniques.
- Situate them against their specific contexts of production, patronage and viewing.
- Approach artifacts beyond their aesthetic appeal, and examine them in relation to their cultural, social and political milieu.
2)Applying knowledge and understanding
- Speak and write articulately about a variety of artworks, as well as about a range of theoretical issues underpinning the study of the visual arts.
- Articulate the significance of the visual arts and of artistic knowledge for our understanding of past and present societies and cultures, in a global perspective.
- Apply such knowledge and skills to different areas of historical research.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Interact and engage critically with a wide range of artworks, artistic media and techniques.
- Situate them against their specific contexts of production, patronage and viewing.
- Approach artifacts beyond their aesthetic appeal, and examine them in relation to their cultural, social and political milieu.
2)Applying knowledge and understanding
- Speak and write articulately about a variety of artworks, as well as about a range of theoretical issues underpinning the study of the visual arts.
- Articulate the significance of the visual arts and of artistic knowledge for our understanding of past and present societies and cultures, in a global perspective.
- Apply such knowledge and skills to different areas of historical research.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Giudizio di approvazione
Assessment result: superato/non superato
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course is structured as a series of in-depth case studies, and considers specific monuments and artifacts in a range of different media and techniques (mosaic, painting, sculpture, metalwork, textile, ivory, hardstones, etc) as they relate to broad art historical categories. It primarily focuses on monuments and artefacts created in the Mediterranean area from antiquity to early modern times, and examines them in their original contexts. However, it pays special attention to how the social and cultural value of individual artefacts and whole categories of goods was transformed through circulation, mobility and reuse. And how, in turn, artifacts worked as powerful cultural intermediaries across the pre and early modern world.
First Block: Description/Interpretation.
1) Iconography and Iconology: artifacts in context
2) Tales Things Tell: artifacts without context
Second Block: Looking Lab
3) Style I
Case study: Before and After Giotto
4) Style II: Museum Visit: Pinacoteca di Brera
5) The Power of Things
Case study: Relics and their Reliquaries
6) Meaning in Motion I
Case study: Moveable Buildings - The Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem
7) Ivory and Gold: The Semantics of Materials
Case study: Extracting and Transforming Gold, from Europe to the Swahili Coast (and back)
8) Meaning in Motion II
Case study: East and West? The pala d'oro in San Marco, Venice.
Third Block: Ways of seeing.
9) Gendered Ways of Seeing:
Case study: Women Artists, 'Womanly' Arts: The Biography of Properzia de' Rossi in Vasari's Lives
10) Displaying Cultures
Museum visit: MUDEC
First Block: Description/Interpretation.
1) Iconography and Iconology: artifacts in context
2) Tales Things Tell: artifacts without context
Second Block: Looking Lab
3) Style I
Case study: Before and After Giotto
4) Style II: Museum Visit: Pinacoteca di Brera
5) The Power of Things
Case study: Relics and their Reliquaries
6) Meaning in Motion I
Case study: Moveable Buildings - The Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem
7) Ivory and Gold: The Semantics of Materials
Case study: Extracting and Transforming Gold, from Europe to the Swahili Coast (and back)
8) Meaning in Motion II
Case study: East and West? The pala d'oro in San Marco, Venice.
Third Block: Ways of seeing.
9) Gendered Ways of Seeing:
Case study: Women Artists, 'Womanly' Arts: The Biography of Properzia de' Rossi in Vasari's Lives
10) Displaying Cultures
Museum visit: MUDEC
Prerequisites for admission
There are no specific prerequisites other than those required for admission to the Master's degree.
Teaching methods
Each session will consist of a frontal lecture led by the course instructor, and a practicum led by students. The lecture will provide a critical framework of analysis, introducing the topic and materials under discussion, as well as key scholarship on that theme. The practicum will offer students a chance to engage directly with visual works and key readings, through a variety of activities: class debates, writing of labels and catalogue entries; virtual exhibitions, object biographies, critical reviews of literature, etc. On-site visits to relevant art collections, institutions and/or exhibitions will also represent a fundamental component of this course, which will be taught in the presence of objects whenever possible.
This course combines traditional frontal teaching (lectures) with student-led activities (class debates; virtual exhibitions; critical review of scholarly articles; etc) and on-site visits. Visual analysis and critical thinking play a central role: image or text-based exercises are assigned throughout the course. Students are expected to participate in class discussions.
This course combines traditional frontal teaching (lectures) with student-led activities (class debates; virtual exhibitions; critical review of scholarly articles; etc) and on-site visits. Visual analysis and critical thinking play a central role: image or text-based exercises are assigned throughout the course. Students are expected to participate in class discussions.
Teaching Resources
A detailed reading list for each class will be circulated at the beginning of the course. The following texts offer a methodological roadmap to its contents:
· E. Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts, New York 1955 (or any subsequent reprint).
· F.B. Flood, B. Fricke, Tales Things Tell, Princeton 2024.
· R. Nelson and R. Schiff, eds., Critical Terms for Art History, Chicago 1996 (and subsequent editions)
· C. S. Wood, A History of Art History, Princeton 2021.
· E. H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance, London 1972, (or any subsequent reprint), especially the opening essay, 'Aims and Limits of Iconology' (pp. 1-25)
· M. Baxandall, Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style, Oxford 1988 (and subsequent editions).
For useful overviews of Medieval and Renaissance (especially Italian) art:
Caskey, Jill, Adam S. Cohen, and Linda Safran. Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages: Exploring a Connected World, Cornell University Press, 2022.
E. S. Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500, Oxford 2000.
Students who opt not to attend classes should supplement their reading with these additional texts:
· Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European hegemony: the world system AD 1250-1350. Oxford University Press, 1989.
· Kris E., and Kurz, O., Legend, Myth and Magic in the Image of the Artist, New Haven, 1979.
· Burke, Jill. The Italian Renaissance Nude. Yale University Press, 2018.
· R. Nelson and R. Schiff, eds., Critical Terms for Art History, Chicago 1996 (and subsequent editions)
· E. H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance, London 1972, (or any subsequent reprint), especially the opening essay, 'Aims and Limits of Iconology' (pp. 1-25)
· M. Baxandall, Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style, Oxford 1988 (and subsequent editions).
· E. Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts, New York 1955 (or any subsequent reprint).
· F.B. Flood, B. Fricke, Tales Things Tell, Princeton 2024.
· R. Nelson and R. Schiff, eds., Critical Terms for Art History, Chicago 1996 (and subsequent editions)
· C. S. Wood, A History of Art History, Princeton 2021.
· E. H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance, London 1972, (or any subsequent reprint), especially the opening essay, 'Aims and Limits of Iconology' (pp. 1-25)
· M. Baxandall, Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style, Oxford 1988 (and subsequent editions).
For useful overviews of Medieval and Renaissance (especially Italian) art:
Caskey, Jill, Adam S. Cohen, and Linda Safran. Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages: Exploring a Connected World, Cornell University Press, 2022.
E. S. Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500, Oxford 2000.
Students who opt not to attend classes should supplement their reading with these additional texts:
· Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European hegemony: the world system AD 1250-1350. Oxford University Press, 1989.
· Kris E., and Kurz, O., Legend, Myth and Magic in the Image of the Artist, New Haven, 1979.
· Burke, Jill. The Italian Renaissance Nude. Yale University Press, 2018.
· R. Nelson and R. Schiff, eds., Critical Terms for Art History, Chicago 1996 (and subsequent editions)
· E. H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance, London 1972, (or any subsequent reprint), especially the opening essay, 'Aims and Limits of Iconology' (pp. 1-25)
· M. Baxandall, Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style, Oxford 1988 (and subsequent editions).
Assessment methods and Criteria
- Method: assessment at the end of the activity.
- Type of examination: each student will be asked to participate actively in class and to submit a short, 3 minutes podcast (voice recording + one image) centred on an artifact of their choice. The podcast will aim to provide an accessible yet critically informed introduction to the selected object and the cultural questions that it provokes.
- Evaluation criteria: participation in class, ability to use and develop specific skills, ability to reflect critically on acquired knowledge, competence in the use of the vocabulary of the discipline.
- Type of evaluation: approval with recognition of 3 CFUs.
Testing arrangements for students with disabilities and/or DSAs must be agreed with the lecturer and the relevant office.
- Type of examination: each student will be asked to participate actively in class and to submit a short, 3 minutes podcast (voice recording + one image) centred on an artifact of their choice. The podcast will aim to provide an accessible yet critically informed introduction to the selected object and the cultural questions that it provokes.
- Evaluation criteria: participation in class, ability to use and develop specific skills, ability to reflect critically on acquired knowledge, competence in the use of the vocabulary of the discipline.
- Type of evaluation: approval with recognition of 3 CFUs.
Testing arrangements for students with disabilities and/or DSAs must be agreed with the lecturer and the relevant office.
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