Course syllabus
ARTHIST 224
Power and Piety: the Baroque
SEMESTER 2, 2018
15 points
Course Convenor and Teacher:
Associate Professor Erin Griffey
Arts 1, room 747
Course delivery format
Lectures: Monday: 10am -12noon
(Timetable and room details can be viewed on Student Services Online)
Course Description
This course, designed as a ‘Grand Tour’, explores the exceptionally rich visual culture of Western Europe in the seventeenth century. This visual culture encompasses paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, buildings and decorative arts. With a strong historical background, this course discusses how the production, patronage and reception of art was shaped by powerful political, religious, social and cultural factors.
The course covers several significant centres of power: the cities of Rome, Madrid, Paris (Versailles), Antwerp, Amsterdam and London. Palaces, churches, portraiture and the broader apparatus of magnificence feature prominently.
Amidst this contextual backdrop, you will become closely acquainted with the celebrated artists of the period: Annibale Carracci, Caravaggio and Bernini in Rome; Velazquez in Madrid; Mansart and Le Brun at Versailles; Rubens in Antwerp; Rembrandt in Amsterdam; and Van Dyck, Inigo Jones, and Christopher Wren in London.
In addition to a broader historical and art historical knowledge of the period, you will become conversant with the vocabulary used to describe art and architecture. Assessments endeavor to develop strong skills in visual analysis, critical reading and thinking. There is a traditional essay assignment as well as an assignment based on an artwork in the Auckland Art Gallery aimed at refining skills in art writing and connoisseurship. The exam includes both traditional essays as well as image-focused analysis.
COURSE OUTCOMES
- acquire knowledge of Baroque art and seventeenth-century European cultural, political and religious history
- develop skills in research, writing and visual analysis
- understand a range of methodological approaches to art history and apply them
- engage in practical connoisseurship with an assignment focused on an artwork in the Auckland Art Gallery
ASSESSMENT
15% connoisseurship assignment
35% essay
50% exam
LECTURE PROGRAMME
1 16 July Introduction to Power and Piety: The Baroque
ROME Papal Rome Circa 1600
2 23 July Annibale Carracci: The Farnese Ceiling
Caravaggio’s Mythological Works
3 30 July The Roman Church and Caravaggio’s Religious Paintings
The Pontificate of Urban VIII and Bernini
MADRID
4 6 August The Madrid of Philip IV
5 13 August Velazquez’s Bodegones and Genre Painting in the South
Philip IV and the Legacy of Habsburg Court Portraiture
PARIS
6 20 August Early Seventeenth-Century Paris and the Marie de Medici Cycle
***ESSAY DUE***
August 27 and September 3: NO CLASS MID-SEMESTER BREAK
7 10 September The Satellite Court: Louis XIV and Versailles
ANTWERP The Spiritual City: Churches and Religious Art in Counter-Reformation Antwerp
8 17 September Rubens: Art for the Courts
Rubens: Art for the Burghers
AMSTERDAM
9 24 September The City of Burghers: Amsterdam
Art for the Burghers: Portraits, Landscapes, Genre Painting
***CONNOISSEURSHIP ASSIGNMENT DUE***
10 1 October Rembrandt’s Public Commissions
Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits
LONDON
11 8 October The Tudor Legacy and the Jacobean Court
Art and Dynasty: The Example of Charles I
12 15 October Fashioning Power: Van Dyck’s Portraits of the Stuart Court
‘London in Flames, London in Glory’: Architecture and City Planning post 1666
TUTORIAL PROGRAMME
Tutorials begin in week 2 of the semester (there is no tutorial the first week of class). For tutorial summaries, reading assignments and worksheets that must be completed for each tutorial, see 'Tutorial programme and worksheets' under 'Files'.
24/26 July Workshop Practice and Notions of Authorship
31 July/2 August Caravaggio and Homo-Erotica
7/9 August Female Artists: Artemisia Gentileschi and Judith Leyster
14/16 August Competition and the Art of Emulation
21/23 August Style and Connoisseurship I: Paintings at the Auckland Art Gallery
BREAK
11/13 September The Mythology of Rembrandt
18/20 September Still-Life Painting
25/27 September Style and Connoisseurship II: Prints
2/4 October NO TUTORIALS
9/11 October Material Culture and the Politics of Conspicuous Consumption
16/18 October Exam Review
TEXTBOOK
Ann Sutherland Harris, Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture (London: Laurence King). There are copies on Short Loan at the Fine Arts Library.
AIMS OF THE COURSE
In addition to a broader cultural and more specifically art historical knowledge of the period, you will become conversant with the vocabulary used to describe art and architecture. You will also be able to provide thoughtful and engaging analyses of artworks.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology used in this class is heavily indebted to Michael Baxandall’s notion of the “period eye”, as employed in his groundbreaking book, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy. It is an approach that insists on the importance of the way an artwork functioned in its original context, for its assumed viewership. This course is constructed along these same lines; it attempts to situate objects in terms of patronage, display and function.
You will get a lot more out of your readings if you are aware of the approach the author is taking. For this purpose, I highly recommend that you learn more about different methodologies employed by art historians. See for example: Laurie Schneider Adams, The Methodologies of Art: An Introduction.
GRADING
A+ 90+ C+ 60-64
A 85-89 C 55-59
A- 80-84 C- 50-54
B+ 75-79 D+ 45-49
B 70-74 D 40-44
B- 65-69 D- under 40
THEMES
Please make sure you are conversant with these themes for your coursework and final exam:
- The different audiences for art: courtly, religious, secular
- The development of the art market
- Workshop practice
- Materials and methods: be able to identify an engraving, etching, drypoint and drawing
- The different ‘genres’ of art and their varying functions
- The relationship between display and function/meaning—be able to illustrate this with specific examples
- The function and significance of drawings
- The function and significance of prints
- Women as artists and patrons
- Civic rituals: royal and religious processions
And be familiar with the patronage of the following rulers:
- Urban VIII, Innocent X
- Henry IV, Marie de Medici, Louis XIII, Louis XIV
- Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV
- Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I
- Albert and Isabella
- The House of Orange
- The burgomasters of Amsterdam
TERMINOLOGY
Please be acquainted with the proper use of these terms:
pentimenti
impasto
realism
genre painting
bodegone
burgher
bozzetto
modello
still-life
momento mori
fresco
concetto
usus
naer het leven
chiaroscuro
tenebroso
quadri ripartati
di sotto in su
alla prima
TUTORIAL WORKSHEETS
Tutorials begin in week 2 of the semester. Please note that a worksheet is included here under 'Files' that relates to each week’s tutorial. These worksheets should be used in conjunction with the assigned reading for the tutorial – that is, you need to do the reading in advance of the tutorial. Please bring the completed worksheet to the tutorial with you.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS
Late papers will be penalized 5 points for every week late. The exception is for medical emergencies, for which I need to be contacted within a week of the doctor’s note. If you are experiencing difficulty with an assignment, please contact me well in advance of the due date (at least a week) and I can help and may arrange an extension. No papers will be accepted two weeks after the due date except for pre-approved cases.
Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework
The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.
Course summary:
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