The course aims to educate students in the understanding and use of images within the interweaving of art, theatre, fashion, and advertising—elements that animate the visual and media culture of our time, yet have gradually developed since the seventeenth century, with an acceleration during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Special attention will be given to the reflection of changing tastes and the perception of artworks in contemporary society, focusing on the interconnectedness of artistic languages within the media society system, between art, fashion, and advertising.

Understanding the contexts—both original and their transformations over time up to the present day—will be essential. Recognizing style, therefore, means understanding the development of art history and its cultural position in our society, within the broader and more complex world of contemporary production: design, fashion, advertising, and media expression. These cannot be separated from a knowledge and use of artistic language, which has been variously transformed and even distorted.

A significant section of the course will be dedicated to the impact of multimedia functionalities and digital humanities on the art-historical field. This will include examples and case studies from projects by Uniurb's InArtS Centre, directed by Professor Ambrosini Massari, which is specifically focused on the use of such media and technological practices applied to the humanities.

The program of the course will be based on the reading of some images of particular importance, with comparisons between works and artists and the deepening of the most varied aspects of the birth of the work, of the context, commissioning, sources and documents, philological reading and reception of the operates over time, up to our days.

Case studies will be illustrated through media projects based on digital humanities, along with related programs and potential career opportunities in the art-historical field.

Essential topics of the course:

1. What is the style in the work of art but also in its broader expressive reflections in the images.

2. Stylistic courses and appeals: from prehistoric times to the present day, examples and comparisons.

3. Context and aspects of the understanding of the works.

4. History of Art and Digital Humanities.

5. The work in contemporary society and in the system of media culture.

Historical-artistic disciplines' area, media and culture.

1. Knowledge and understanding: master's students must achieve specialized knowledge and understanding of the reading of images and the historical and contextual processes of their formation. They will have to reach the mastery of the basic knowledge related to the identification of works and artists in their time, school, territory, knowing how to evaluate quality and relationships, comparisons with similar and different works, finally reach a mature ability to read the works, characterizing the context .

Students acquire this knowledge through the attendance of lectures,  classroom exercises led by the teacher and through the study of the exam texts, as well as through participation in seminars and, if possible, visits to exhibitions and museums.

2. Apply knowledge and understanding: master's students must be able to apply the methodologies of historical-artistic study and to apply the knowledge and the ability to understand the processes of birth, growth and decline of historical-artistic phenomena, in their relationship with society and contexts, coming to read similarities and differences between different expressions of style and history of art in time and space.

Students acquire this knowledge by attending lectures, conducting classroom exercises led by the teacher and by studying the exam texts, as well as through participation in seminars and, if possible, visits to exhibitions and museums.

3. Judgment skills: master's students must achieve critical judgment skills on works, artists, movements, on their meanings and on the relationship with the public, as well as with the variation of taste that entails changes in the reception of works in different periods, with particular attention to the connection and to the changes linked to contemporaneity.

Students acquire these skills through classroom discussions with the teacher and colleagues during lessons, exercises and group work, and in preparing for the final exam.

4. Communication skills: students must possess written and oral communication skills in Italian, expression skills and competence in the use of the specialized language of the discipline.

Students acquire these skills by interacting in the classroom through questions, answers to the teacher's requests, exchanges with fellow students, making public presentations of exercises and group work, writing a report on the research work carried out in the field of the course, seminars, final exam.

5. Learning skills: The student will have to show an understanding of the concepts and will have to provide examples based on the models learned, in recognizing and comparing the works, be able to identify the geographical area, chronology and quality of the works even at a first reading of they, in addition to connote those studied with further comparisons and historical-critical evaluations also in view of further studies. The student will have to acquire a mature historical-philological profile.

Students acquire these skills through classroom discussion, comparison with classmates during lessons and exercises, argumentation of the answers to the teacher's questions during lessons, presentation of group work and during the exam.

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

Any further teaching material in addition to the texts recommended by the teacher can be found on the Moodle› blended.uniurb.it platform.

Teaching

Lectures (front lesssons), always with images projection and visits to Museums and public or private collection.

Innovative teaching methods

Debate

Flipped classroom

Attendance

Attendance is strongly recommended and to be an attendant student you should attend at least  75% of the whole course (to check attendance you have the "Frequency Recognition Module").

See above where you find Course books.

Course books

C. Occhipinti, I cloni di Leonardo, Roma, editrica Dei Meriangoli 2020 ( https://deimerangoli.it/shop/cloni-di-leonardo/ )

Texts and PowerPoint presentations provided by the lecturer on the Blended platform.

Use and selection of materials and texts for attending students will be specified during lessons. It will be possible a targeted selection of materials and texts and the proposal of an individual program.

Assessment

Oral exam. Verification of learning will take place through an individual oral interview based on the reference texts for the exam, aimed at evaluating both the learning of the contents by the student and his / her ability to elaborate and argue.

It is possible to present a written paper on a theme agreed with the teacher.

They will give rise to evaluations of excellence: the possession by the student of good critical and in-depth skills; knowing how to connect the main issues addressed in the course; the use of an appropriate language with respect to the specificity of the discipline.

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.

Course books

C. Occhipinti, I cloni di Leonardo, Roma, editrica Dei Meriangoli 2020 ( https://deimerangoli.it/shop/cloni-di-leonardo/ )

Texts and PowerPoint presentations provided by the lecturer on the Blended platform.

G.C. Sciolla, Studiare l'arte. Metodo, analisi e interpretazione delle opere e degli artisti, Torino, UTET 2001 (con varie ristampe).

Assessment

Oral exam. Verification of learning will take place through an individual oral interview based on the reference texts for the exam, aimed at evaluating both the learning of the contents by the student and his / her ability to elaborate and argue.

It is possible to present a written paper on a theme agreed with the teacher.

They will give rise to evaluations of excellence: the possession by the student of good critical and in-depth skills; knowing how to connect the main issues addressed in the course; the use of an appropriate language with respect to the specificity of the discipline.

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.