Programme

How did transcultural exchanges, explorations, art market(s), travels, and diplomatic interactions influence artistic production, taste, and collecting? By focusing on the early modern period (roughly 15th -18th centuries), this course explores material and artistic exchanges across cultures and investigates case studies casting light on how encounters among diverse societies have shaped art and visual/material culture. After a preliminary methodological and historical introduction, the course will focus especially on three major Italian centres—Rome, Florence, and Venice—to explore their interactions with the global world, and investigate how entangled objects, complex ethnoscapes, and mobility help us problematize the production and spectatorship of art in relation to local and global contexts.

Adopted texts

In addition to the class powerpoints, which will be periodically uploaded to Moodle, students will be expected to read the following required texts:

Kathleen Christian and Leah Clark, eds., European Art and the Wider World, 1350-1550 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017)

Emma Barker, ed., Art, Commerce, and Colonialism, 1600-1800 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017), chapters 1 and 2

Further required readings will be provided throughout the course.

Prerequisites

no prerequisites

Study modes

Lectures and classroom discussions, together with visits to monuments and artworks that are relevant to the course.

Frequency modes

Attendance is strongly recommended.

Exam modes

In order to pass the exam (18/30), students will be required to have a basic knowledge of the course materials. Students showing excellent and critical knowledge of all course materials and demonstrating outstanding capacity for independent thinking and the ability to meaningfully connect topics and information learned during the course will obtain a grade of 30/30 e lode.
An optional written exam (in the form of a research paper to be submitted at the end of the course) may be proposed to attending students as an alternative to the oral exam.