Does a "history of art" exist in the ancient world?
Prerequisiti
This introductory class is mainly devoted to undergraduate students; no prerequisites are requested.
Programma
Does a "history of art" exist in the ancient world? What kind of information and in which narrative contexts do literary sources provide with? How was this set of information on artists' biography and anecdotes and their works interpreted? The class provides a survey of classical archaeology, through the lens of the most eminent scholars, the theoretical approaches and its methods, analyzing the crucial turning points from a historiographic point of view. The introductory session is dedicated to the theory of art in the ancient world as attested in the literary and philosophical sources (for instance, Plato, Poseidippos, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian), the reception of ancient authors in modern times and the creation of a "history" of art, and will investigate some of the most eminent scholars and their contributions to the discipline - pottery, architecture, sculpture -, starting from J.J. Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (Dresden 1764) up to the most important archaeologists, not only Italian, of the past century. The second part of the course is dedicated to the role of the agency in the Greek and Roman world: in a contextual and diachronic perspective, some paradigmatic cases of monuments and offerings will be analyzed in order to emphasize the dialogic relationship between sculptors, architects, painters and the public and private agents.
Supplementary activity will be held by Prof. Emanuele Papi, Director of the Archaeological Italian School at Athens.
Obiettivi formativi
Definition of the discipline, its history and the main scholars; methodology and theoretical approaches; technical lexicon (from architecture to pottery); definition of chronology and artistic periods in the ancient world
Riferimenti bibliografici
G. Adornato (a cura di), Il catalogo del mondo: Plinio e la Storia della Natura, Milano 2024.
S.E. Alcock - R. Osborne (eds.), Classical Archaeology, Malden (MA) 2007.
P.E. Arias, Quattro archeologi del nostro secolo: Paolo Orsi, Biagio Pace, Alessandro della Seta, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Pisa 1976.
M. Barbanera, L’archeologia degli italiani, Roma 1998.
P.C. Bol (Hg.), Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst, I-IV, Mainz 2002-2010.
M. Cometa, Il romanzo dell’architettura. La Sicilia e il Grand Tour nell’età di Goethe, Roma-Bari 1999.
S. Kansteiner, K. Hallof, L. Lehmann, B. Seidensticker, K. Stemmer, Der Neue Overbeck. Die antiken Schriftquellen zu den bildenden Künsten der Griechen, Berlin 2022 (rev. ed.).
V. Naas, Anecdotes artistiques chez Pline l'Ancien. La constitution d'un discours romain sur l'art, Paris 2023.
J.J. Pollitt, The ancient view of Greek Art. Criticism, History, and Terminology, New Haven-London 1974.
J. Whitley, Agency in Greek Art, in T.J. Smith - D. Plantzos (eds.), A Companion to Greek Art, Malden, MA, 579-595.
Moduli
| Modulo | Ore | CFU | Docenti |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modulo 1: Introduzione: Esiste una ""storia dell'arte"" nel mondo antico? (per ordinari) | 20 | 3 | Gianfranco Adornato |
| Modulo 2: Artisti e committenza (per ordinari e PhD) | 20 | 3 | Gianfranco Adornato |
| Ciclo di Seminari - Atene e la scoperta della Grecia | 8 | 0 |