Rome, Italy - Course Descriptions - Art of Rome: Introduction to History of Art & Architecture in Rome

Course Information

Contact Hours and Credits

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Full Description

Objectives

To form a mental network of the traditional forms and cultural themes with which we might more fully comprehend our experience of Rome and her art.

We will be able

• to distinguish historical artistic styles and the work of individual artists
• to analyse the visual composition and iconographic meanings of artworks and make connections between works accordingly, even across diverse media, and
• to argue convincingly in written and oral presentation about the meanings of works of art understood in their specific historical contexts.

The Art of Rome is a broad survey of the history of Rome through art and architecture from its foundation to the present. Virtually the entire course is on site, examining masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture and urbanism with careful attention to their specific historical and spatial contexts and to their interrelated meanings.

As an introduction to the study of art and architecture, the course will include exercises in methods of description, analysis & interpretation.

Syllabus

• Introduction to the Art of Rome
• The Beginnings of Rome
• Imperial Rome
• Classical Sculpture & Painting
• Early Christian & Medieval Rome
• Renaissance Palaces & The City
• The Sistine Chapel & the Vatican Stanze
• Counter-Reformation Rome
• Baroque Rome
• Saint Peter’s
• 17th- & 18th-Century Rome
• Roma Capitale
• Modern Art & Architecture in Rome

Recommended Text(s)

Christopher Hibbert, Rome, The Biography of a City (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1985 or latest edition).
Art of Rome 100 – Original Source Material
Reader”, available in xerox at AUR Library Reserve Desk. This comprises
The Art of Rome Reader contains, among other things, selections from:
Virgil, The Aeneid
The Holy Bible, The Old & New Testaments
Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Artists
which are also available in most bookstores and are highly recommended to you for separate purchase as valuable books for you in their entirety.

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