ART HISTORY SYLLABUS

Instructor: Lisa Schultz

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this course students will study the interaction of art, politics and religion in Rome through outstanding representative monuments that show both continuity and change over the major epochs of the city’s history. Specifically, we will examine how art and architecture functioned as a tool of propaganda to advance the goals of the state, the church, and the individual in Rome. By studying the works of art and architecture in their original settings we will gain a deeper understanding of their place in art history and the history of civilization in Italy.

The students will take an active role in presenting key monuments to the class based on advance preparation and research begun in Seattle.


REQUIREMENTS:
1. Each participant in the seminar will present one topic/monument/site to the group. This will be a fairly specific research topic that you will define and begin working on long before you arrive in Rome. It can be something chosen from/related to the list I will provide, or something else within the theme of the course that interests you: a specific painting, sculpture, building, object, or site. You will work with me to refine your particular angle, sources, research questions, etc, before presenting your results to the group on site.

2. Students will create a written version of their presentation. This paper will follow a specific outline and may include images, photographs, maps, drawings, diagrams, etc. This must be completed within 4 days of the student’s on-site presentation.

3. Renaissance Florence was the center of a true flowering of art and culture and produced some of the world’s greatest artists; Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, to name but a few. The city becomes our classroom as we explore the paintings and sculptures, churches and palaces, streets and piazzas. In lieu of on-site presentations students will participate in (and be graded on) “The Quest”. The Quest is a creative writing assignment covering matters of history, culture, art, literature, local color and obscure facts, which is handed out daily, and is to be turned in on the last day in Florence. It requires students to pay close attention when they're on their walks with the group, and to be engaged as they explore Florence on their own.

4. Participation in discussion and on-site group exercises.

APPROXIMATE GRADING PERCENTAGES

Main Presentation 40
Written paper 20
The Quest 10
Participation 30


READINGS (subject to change):
Required:
*A course reading packet will be available at Ram’s Copy Shop on the Ave. approximately one month before the program begins.
*Artwise Rome; city map

In addition, these texts are highly recommended for advance reading.
* Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King