EUROPEAN ART HISTORY

MCI MANAGEMENT CENTER, INNSBRUCK May 24-28, 2009

Instructor: Cassandra Sciortino

email: [email protected]

I. Course objectives, description, and grading rational

Objectives
This course is designed to enable students to identify the characteristics of the major styles of European art from the Early
Middle Ages to the early 20th century. While identification of style is the principle objective, some attention will be paid to
how stylistic characteristics of European art relate to the historical circumstances in which they were created. Since lectures
are four consecutive six hour days, students are expected to study their lecture notes for exam preparation and will not be
tested on recommended reading. Images which students need to study are listed in the chronological sequence of the course
below.

Description
The class is an introductory survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe from the 12th century to the early 20 th
century. Attention will be paid to developing students’ understanding of the historical place of the objects studied, how they
relate to one another and to the culture in which they were created. Students will also be taught the language of art, that is,
how to analyze and discuss works of art in terms of their formal values (i.e. use of light, line, color, etc.)

Grading Rational
30% on classroom participation (attendance, in-class participation, and attending group field trip)
70% on a written final exam delivered at the end of the course.

II Final exam – format, expectations, and study questions

Format



20% Stylistic identification from images


20% Short answer definitions


60% Image comparisons
+ 5% Extra credit unknown identification

Stylistic identification
For stylistic identification 5 works of art discussed in class will be shown. While title and date of work of art are not
required, students will need to identify the stylistic period to which the work belongs and be able to list at least three
characteristic of the work that are representative of its style. Credit will also be given for remarks relating style to historical
context of image. Slides will be shown for 5 minutes each.

Short answer definitions

For the short answer definitions students will be given a list of ten terms used in the class and which are included on the term
study list. Students must choose five from the list and give a brief definition of each.

Image comparison
5 sets of image comparisons will be shown. Students will need to discuss similarities and differences between the two works.
Attention can also be paid to a discussion of the different artistic or historical contexts from which the work comes.
Students will be graded on the best 3 of the 5 essay answers.

Extra credit unknown identification

Students can earn a 3% increase to their overall exam score by identifying the period to which a slide that has not been
presented in class belongs. An additional 2% raise in the overall exam score will be given for identification of the artist of the
work. Hint: the mystery slide is a painting.

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III Chronological Practical Sequence of the Course

LESSON 1-- EUROPE AND THE LEGACY OF ANCIENT ROMAN, EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE
CULTURE

The Legacy of Ancient Rome

Roman architecture

Pantheon. Rome 117-125 AD (Frontal and interior view).

Engraving of “The Temple of Fortuna Virilis” in Isaac Ware, The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture,
London, 1738.

Coliseum. 72-80 AD. Rome.

Elements of Roman sculpture

Apollo Belvedere. (Roman copy of a Greek original of the late 4th century BCE).

Early Christian and Byzantine Art

Early Christian Church: the Basilica

Santa Maria Maggiore. 432-440 AD. view of nave interior.

The Byzantine Church

San Vitale. Ravenna 526-547 AD – internal view.

Emperor Justinian and his Attendants. Mosaic Empress Theodora with Attendants. San Vitale, Ravenna.

The Byzantine Icon

Christ. 6th century AD. Monastery of Saint Catherine. Mount Sinai, Egypt.

LESSON 2 -- EARLY MEDIEVAL ART: HIBERNO-SAXON, CAROLINGIAN, AND ROMANESQUE

An example of early Medieval cultural fusion: The Hiberno Saxon Style

Cross page from the Lindisfarne Gospels. 700 AD.

Saint Mathew from the Lindisfarne Gospels. 700 AD.

Golden Buckle and Purse cover from the Sutton Hoo ship burial. 7th century. England.

Carolingian and Ottonian Art: new empires rises from the ruins of Rome

Map of Carolingian Empire.

Palace Chapel of Charlemagne. Aachen, Germany 792-805 AD. Part of the Imperial Palace in Aachen.

Carolingian Illuminated Books

St. Mathew. Gospel Book of Archbishop of Ebbo of Reims. 816-835AD.

Front Cover of binding. Lindau Gospels ca. 870 AD. Gold and Jewels.

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Ottonian Art

St. Michaels at Hildesheim (Interior with view toward the apse and exterior view).1001-1033 AD.

Doors of Bishop Bernward. St. Michaels at Hildesheim (Interior with view toward the apse and exterior view) 1001-
1033 AD) with schematic diagram of the scenes on the doors.

Detail of Accusation and Judgement of Adam.

The Gero Crucifix. ca. 970 AD. carved, painted and gilded wood.

LESSON 3-- ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE

Romanesque

Santiago de Compostela. Spain 1075-1120. View of Nave and floor plan.

Map of Pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela.

Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, 1080 -1120 AD. Aerial view and view of nave and choir.

Nave, Saint-Étienne, 115-1120, Caen, France.

Romanesque Sculpture

Christ in Majesty. ca. 1096 Height 127cm. Saint-Sernin, Toulouse.

Gothic Art

Nave and Choir Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Chartres. France 1194-1220.

Plan, Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Chartres.

Aconometric projection of a High Gothic cathedral.

Exterior view of Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Chartres. France 1194-1220 (from the south).

Tranverse section of Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres.

Detail: Flying buttress, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres.

North transept. Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Chartres—showing stained glass rose window.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Reims (from the west).

Gothic architectural sculpture

Annunciation and Visitation. west portal. Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Reims ca. 1230-1265.

Rayonnant or court style

Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (from the southwest), 1241-1248.

Interior of upper chapel, Sainte-Chapelle.

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Late Gothic sculpture

Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux. 1339. Silver gilt and enamel, height (68cm).

European Impact

German Gothic sculpture: feeling and pathos in representation

Roettgen Pietà. Early 14th century. Wood, height (87.5cm). Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn.

LESSON 4--RENAISSANCE ART IN ITALY: THE TURN TOWARD NATURE AND CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italian art

Cimabue. Madonna Enthroned. ca. 1280-1290. Tempera on panel. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Giotto. Madonna Enthroned. ca. 1310. Tempera on panel. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Early Renaissance Florentine art: Fifteenth Century

Masaccio. Madonna Enthroned. ca. 1426.

Masaccio. The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John, and Two Donors. ca. 1425. Fresco. Santa Maria Novella,
Florence.

Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Venus. ca., 1485.

Filippo Brunelleschi, Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) Florence.

Andrea del Verrocchio. The Doubting of Thomas. 1467 – 1483. bronze. Or San Michele, Florence.

Sixteenth Century Italian Art

Leonardo da Vinci. The Virgin of the Rocks. ca. 1485. Oil on panel transferred to canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Head study for angel of Madonna of the Rocks.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. ca. 1503-1505. Oil on Panel. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Michelangelo. Pietà. ca. 1498. Marble. St. Peter’s, Rome.

Michelangelo. David. 1501-1504.

Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam. 1508-1512. Portion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

View of interior of the Sistine Chapel showing Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco.

Raphael. The School of Athens. 1508-1511. Fresco. Stanza della Segnatura. Vatican Palace, Rome.

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LESSON 5--RENAISSANCE ART IN NORTHERN EUROPE

Fifteenth-century Northern European Art: Oil paint and the New Art

Jan van Eyck. The Madonna in a Church ca. 1425-30s. Oil on oak panel. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen,
Berlin.

Hubert and Jan van Eyck. 1432. Ghent Altarpiece (open). Oil on panel. Church of St. Bavo, Ghent, Belgium.

Adam and Eve. detail Ghent Altarpiece.

Renaissance and Reformation in Sixteenth-century Northern Europe

Matthias Grünewald. St. Sebastian; The Crucifixtion; St. Anthony Abbot; predella: Lamentation. Isenheim Altarpiece
(closed) ca. 1509/10-1515. Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France.

Matthias Grünewald. The Annunciation; Madonna and Child with Angels; The Resurrection. Second View of
Isenheim Altarpiece. ca. 1509/10-1515.

Detail: The Resurrection.

Albrecht Dürer. The Four Apostles. 1523-1526. Oil on panel. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder The Return of the Hunters. 1568. Oil on Panel. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

LESSON 6: BAROQUE ART IN ITALY AND THE NETHERLANDS: THEATER ON A GRAND SCALE

Baroque painting, sculpture, and architecture in Rome

Caravaggio. The Calling of St. Mathew, ca. 1599-1600. oil on canvas. Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi,
Rome.

Guido Reni. Aurora. 1613. Ceiling fresco. Casino dell’Aurora. Palazzo Rospigliosi-Pallavinci, Rome.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Triumph in the Name of Jesus. 1672-1679.

Gianlorenzo Bernini. The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. 1645-1652.

Francesco Borromini. Exterior of Sant’Ivo. Rome. Begun 1642.

Interior view of Dome of Sant’ Ivo.

The Baroque in the Netherlands

Flemish Baroque

Peter Paul Rubens. The Raising of the Cross. 1610-1611. Center panel of a triptych. Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium.

Dutch Baroque

Rembrandt van Rijn. The Return of the Prodigal Son.ca. 1669. Oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Jan Vermeer. Woman Holding a Balance. ca. 1664. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Widener Collection.

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LESSON 7: THE ROCOCO: FANTASY, LIGHT, AND ELEGANCE IN FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA

France: The Rise of the Rococo

Jean-Antoine Watteau. A Pilgrimage to Cythera. 1717. Oil on Canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The Swing. 1767. Oil on Canvas. Wallace Collection, London.

Nicoas Pineau. Varengeville Room in the Hôtel de Varengeville, 217 Boulevard St.-Germain, Paris. ca. 1735.

Germany and Austria and the Rococo in Central Europe

Balthasar Neumann. Kaisersaal Residenz, Würzburg, Germany. 1719-44.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Ceiling fresco (detail) 1751. Kaisersaal, Residenz. Würzburg.

Rococo and Baroque in Innsbruck: field trip to Saint James Cathedral and the Jesuit Church of the Most Holy
Trinity University Church, Innsbruck, Austria. Students will also have the opportunity to study Lucas Cranach’s
famous Mary of Mercy, an example of Northern Renaissance painting in a Baroque frame and explore Rococo-
Baroque frescos inspired by this famous, miracle working image.

LESSON 8 : NEO-CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM

Neo-classicism

Anton Raphael Mengs. Parnassus. 1761. Ceiling frescoes in the Villa Albani, Rome.

Jacques-Louis David. The Oath of the Horatii. 1784. oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Romanticism:

Francesco Goya. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters from Los Caprichos (1st edition 1799, plate 43). ca 1799.
Etching, acquatint, drypoint, and burrin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Joseph Mallord William Turner. Snowstorm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps. 1812 Oil on canvas. Tate
Gallery, London.

Casper David Friedrich. Abbey in an Oak Forest. 1809-1810. Oil on canvas. Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin.

Théodore Géricault. The Raft of the Medusa. 1818-1819. Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Eugène Delacroix. Women of Algiers. 1834. Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

LESSON 9: FRENCH REALISM AND IMPRESSIONISM

Realism

Gustav Courbet. The Stone Breakers. 1849. Oil on canvas. Formerly Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. (Believed to have
been destroyed in World War II).

Honoré Daumier. The Third-Class Carriage ca. 1863-1865. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Impressionism

Claude Monet. On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt. 1868. Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago.

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 August Renoir. Luncheon of the Boating Party. 1881. Oil on canvas. The Philips Collection, Washington DC.

Édouard Manet. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. 1881-82. The Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London.

LESSON 10: POST-IMPRESSIONISM, SYMBOLISM, EXPRESSIONISM, AND THE VIENNESE SECESSION

Post-Impressionism

Paul Cézanne. Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bibemus Quarry. ca. 1897-1900. Oil on canvas. The Baltimore
Museum of Art.
Symbolism

Paul Gaugin. The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel). 1888. The National Gallery of
Scotland, Edinburgh.
Expressionism

Vincent van Gogh. Starry Night. 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Viennese Secession

Gustav Klimt. The Kiss. 1907-1908.

LESSON 11: ABSTRACTION AND THE MODERNIST REVOLUTION

Fauvism
Henri Matisse. Le Bonheur de Vivre (The Joy of Life). 1905-1906. Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation, Merion,
Pennsylvania.
Cubism
Georges Braque. The Portuguese. 1911. Oil on canvas. Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Expressionism:
Oskar Kokoschka. The Bride of the Wind. 1914. Oil on canvas. Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.

IV BIBLIOGRAPHY & RECOMMENDED READING

Most of the material for this course was drawn from Janson’s History of Art: The Western Tradition Seventh Edition (2007).
This book is highly recommended for students who would like to review discussion of the themes pursued in this class.
Below are other recommended specialized texts.

Late Roman World

Elsner, J., Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph. Oxford, 1998
Webster, L., & Brown, M., (eds), The Transformation of the Roman World, A.D.
400-900. London, 1997
Matthews, T. F., The Clash of the Gods: a Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art
Princeton, 1993

Early Christian Art

Jensen, R. M., Understanding Early Christian Art. London, 2000
Gough, M., The Origins of Christian Art, New York. 1973
Lowden, J., Early Christian and Byzantine Art. London, 1997
Early Christian Art and Architecture in the Wider European Setting (e.g. the Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon Worlds)
Barral i Altet, X., The Early Middle Ages: from Late Antiquity to A.D.1000. Cologne, 1997
Campbell, J., (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons, London: 1984 (and following)

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Medieval Art
Snyder, James, Medieval Art: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture 4th-14th Century. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall,
Inc., 1990.
Duby, A., Age of the Cathedrals: Arts and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Artz, Frederick B., The Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey AD 200-1500. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1990

Italian Renaissance
Blunt, Anthony. Artistic Theory in Italy. 1450-1600.Oxford Press
Freedberg, S.J. Painting in Italy. 1500-1600.
Hartt, Frederick and David G. Wilkins, History of Italian Renaissance Art, 6th ed.
(2007)

Northern Renaissance
Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art. New York, 1985.
Stechow, Wolfgang. Northern Renaissance Art, 1400-1600: Sources and Documents. Evanston, 1989

Baroque & Rococo

Borsch-Supan, Helmut. Antoine Watteau 1684-1721 (Masters of French Art).
Koln : Konemann, 2001.
Denvir, B., The Eighteenth Century: Art, Design and Society, London, 1983
Hyde, Vernon Minor. Baroque & Rococo Art & Culture. Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Schneider, Laurie Adams. Key Monuments of the Baroque. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000
Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Revised by Joseph Connors
and Jennifer Montagu. 3 vols. 6th ed. New Haven, 1999.

Nineteenth-Century Art (Neoclassical – Post Impressionists)

Eitner, L., An Outline of 19th Century European Painting from David Through Cezanne. Harper and Row, 1988
Frascina, F., (et. Al). Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Yale, 1993.
Nochlin, L. Realism. Penguin, 1971.
Pool, P.Impressionism, Thames & Hudson, 1973.
Rosenblum, R., & Janson, H.. Art of the Nineteenth Century. Thames & Hudson, 1985

Early Twentieth-Century Modernism

Brettell, Richard R. (1999) Modern Art 1851-1929. Oxford; Oxford
University Press
Harrison, Charles, Frascina, Francis, Perry, Gill (1993) Primitivism,
Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1993
Harrison, Charles, Modernism. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1997
Rewald, John. Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1978.