The course aims at making students aware and understand the peculiarities of the culture of Italian courts that, starting from the Quattrocento, plays a paramount role in the developing of Renaissance art in several fields, from literature to music, from painting to sculpture and architecture. The city becomes the privileged environment for little and great patrons to commission new architectural structures and decorative endeavors which transform and renew its aspect while showing the commissioners’ prestige. The figure of the court artist profiles as a key player of this cultural season and gains awareness of his own value. Presenting fresco cycles which, from North to South, decorate the castles and palaces where the Signori owing them live, the course intends to illustrate the different figurative languages adopted in those decades, and to investigate the scenarios that determined the choice of artists and subjects represented, along with the circumstances and times those endeavors were realized.   

A first part of the program will be focused on outlining the background knowledge necessary to contextualize not only the figurative culture, but also the role played by literature, music and theater within the Quattrocento Italian courts, providing a summary of the social and geo-political framework. A second, more substantial part of the course will proceed - North to South - following a path that touches the entire peninsula and focuses on smaller and bigger Italian courts and the decorative cycles that still today testimony such endeavors, explaining what stands beyond the choice of artists involved and subjects represented. Among the cycles that will be taken into account there are the frescoes of the Castello della Manta in Piedmont, the Sforzesco Castle in Milan, the Ducal Palace in Mantua, the Schifanoia Palace in Ferrara, the Magi Chapel in the Medici Riccardi Palace of Florence, the Hall of the Uomini illustri in the Urbino Ducal Palace and in the Orsini Odescalchi Castle of Bracciano, along with other cycles more or less known.

Knowledge and comprehension

Knowledge and comprehension of the several aspects pertaining to the Italian courts culture in the XV and XVI century, form literature to music, from painting to sculpture and architecture.

Knowledge and comprehension of the fresco cycles realized in the castles and palaces of the Italian courts, and understanding of the dynamics which determined the choice of artists and subjects portrayed, and the circumstances and times they were realized.

Applying knowledge and comprehension

Knowledge and comprehension of the paramount concepts and decorative contexts examined during the course.

Ability to elaborate and discuss the several aspects pertaining the culture of the Italian courts approached during the course and the dynamics which determined the choice of artists and subjects portrayed, along with the circumstances and times the decorative frescoes taken into account were realized in the castles and palaces.

Making judgments

Ability to identify research tools and methods relevant to the contents of the course.

Ability to evaluate topics liable to further research and to carry research activities relevant to the course.

Communication skills

Ability to understand the contents and the results of the course.

Ability to illustrate the contents analyzed during the course using a suitable and specific terminology.

Learning skills

Ability to evaluate the artistic context presented during the course in a critical and autonomous way.

Trace and find historiographical and bibliographic sources needed to deepen studies and carry research.   

Use the research tools chosen in a correct way from a methodological point of view.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Study visits to public art collections, lectures by field experts.

Teaching

Lectures

Lectures by field experts on specific topics

Study visits

Course books

…

Ppts with the images discussed during the lessons (Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it).

Attendance

Students who want to take the exam as attending students are invited to participate in study visits and the lectures by field experts

Course books

Corti italiane del Rinascimento. Arti, cultura e politica 1395-1530, a cura di M. Folin, Milano, Officina libraria, 2010, pp. 7-31; 93-400.

Ppts with the images discussed during the lessons (Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it).

Assessment

Learning outcomes will be evaluated by an oral exam aiming at determining the understanding capabilities of the concepts discussed during the course and the ability to summarize and coordinate the answers, demonstrating to be endowed with appropriate expressive and communication abilities and the acquaintance with an adequate language. Evaluation criteria are based on a 4-level scale and will take into account the knowledge command degree, the answers articulation level, language suitability, critical and to-argue abilities. The exam grade will be expressed with a scale out of thirty (18/30).

Students are kindly requested to attend the opening of the exam session.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Attendance

Students have to attend the study visits and the lectures by field experts.

Course books

Corti italiane del Rinascimento. Arti, cultura e politica 1395-1530, a cura di M. Folin, Milano, Officina libraria, 2010.

L. Cassanelli, Le corti rinascimentali committenti e artisti, Roma, sinnos editrice, 2004, pp. 51-224.

Ppts with the images discussed during the lessons (Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it).

Assessment

Oral exam evaluating the knowledge level of the course topics, the answers’ articulation and the use of a suitable and specific language.

Students are kindly requested to attend the opening of the exam session.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Students who want to attend the exam in English are kindly required to make contact with the lecturer.