Images and words in late medieval political communication (14th-15th century) (Ordinario)

Images and words - Paraphrasing the title of a Gombrich’s famous essay, the course aims to encourage students to question themselves on the cultural and political conditioning that the artist and the work of art leak. Some now classic studies on the levels of reading of the image and the relationship between image and context will be read.

Vices and virtues - The course will focus on the gradual emergence of the septenary in iconographic representations of the deadly sins. Until the 14th century, the septenary of sins plays a secondary role in monumental art and literature. In the first decades of the 14th century, however, something changes in relation to the new social and political context.

Supplementary teaching - The course will be taught by Prof.ssa Cengarle and Dr Freschi, 13-27 May 2026