AH305 Raphael, Titian, and the Art of Painting

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1 AH305 Raphael, Titian, and the Art of Painting Art and Aesthetics Module: Artists, Genres, Movements Spring 2018 Seminar Leader: Geoff Lehman Course Times: Wednesday,14:00-15:30 and Friday, 14:00-15:30 (until 17:15 for museum visits) Office Hours: Tuesday, 13:00-15:00 Course Description This course examines the works of two painters central to the Renaissance tradition, Raphael and Titian, and considers the dialogues among them and the larger questions they raise for understanding the art of painting. For Vasari, Raphael s art was the epitome of Florentine disegno (design, drawing) and Titian s of Venetian colorito (coloring). And yet this is only one of a myriad of ways that these two artists, between them, defined the terms of Renaissance painting, and of its long afterlife in the following centuries. Their individual works are exceptional in the complexity of interpretation they demand, in their aesthetic and affective power, in their engagement with the wider humanist culture of the Renaissance, and in the degree to which all these qualities emerge from the use of the medium itself and from the very process of painting. Indeed, the works of these artists not only play a central role in defining the art of painting historically within the Western tradition; they also raise the question of the meaning and the power of the art itself, its philosophical (metaphysical, ontological, epistemological) character and its role in responding to and shaping human experience. The course will focus on a small number of major works (among others: Raphael s Madonnas, large altarpieces, and frescoed rooms in the Vatican; Titian s mythologies, portraits, and paintings in sitù in Venice) and will consider the response to Raphael and Titian in the works of the Mannerist generation and of later artists (Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Velázquez, Goya, Monet, Picasso, Kentridge). Visits to museums to encounter works of art firsthand will be an integral part of the course. Course Books (all of these books can be borrowed from the Bard College Berlin library for the term) Ovid, Metamorphoses (ISBN: ) Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (ISBN: ) Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (ISBN: ) Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists (ISBN: ) Walter Pater, The Renaissance (ISBN: ) There is no reader required for the course.

2 Requirements Attendance For this class attendance is mandatory, and active participation in discussions will be an essential part of the course. More than two absences (that is, absences from two sessions of 90 minutes) in a semester will significantly affect the participation grade for the course. Readings should be done in advance of the class for which they are assigned. Please consult the Student Handbook for regulations governing periods of illness or leaves of absence. Museum Visits Five of our scheduled classes will be museum visits. These will usually be on Friday, since the longer block of time scheduled for our course on Fridays allows us to make these visits during regular class time. Assessment Participation Students should arrive to each class on time and prepared. Being prepared means (1) having completed the assigned reading (in the specific editions indicated above), (2) bringing to class a non-electronic copy of the assigned reading, and (3) being ready to initiate and to contribute to discussion. Engagement in class discussion should be regular as well as productive; quantity alone will not favorably affect the participation grade. Writing Assignments There will be two principal assignments over the course of the term: a midterm essay of 6-7 pages ( words) and a final presentation accompanied by an essay of 9-10 pages ( words), due at the end of the term. Policy on Late Submission of Papers From the Student Handbook on the submission of essays: Essays that are up to 24 hours late will be downgraded one full grade (from B+ to C+, for example). Instructors are not obliged to accept essays that are more than 24 hours late. Where an instructor agrees to accept a late essay, it must be submitted within four weeks of the deadline and cannot receive a grade of higher than C. Thereafter, the student will receive a failing grade for the assignment. Grade Breakdown Class participation: 30% Midterm essay: 30% Final presentation: 10% Final essay: 30%

3 Schedule I. Raphael Wednesday, January 31 Theme and Variations Wallace Stevens, So-and-So Reclining on Her Couch Friday, February 2 Visit to the Gemäldegalerie Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, Book II, pp Wednesday, February 7 The Vatican Stanze, I Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting, Book III Heinrich Wölfflin, Classic Art, Raphael, selections Friday, February 9 No class Wednesday, February 14 The Vatican Stanze, II Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Book I, sections and 37 Heinrich Wölfflin, Classic Art, Raphael, selections Friday, February 16 The Vatican Stanze, III Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, Preface to Part Three and Life of Raphael, selections Wednesday, February 21 Mannerism Walter Friedländer, Mannerism and Anti-Mannerism in Italian Painting, selections II. Raphael, Rembrandt, Goya Friday, February 23 Rembrandt: The Group Portraits Aloïs Riegl, The Dutch Group Portrait, pp.3-20, Wednesday, February 28 Painting, Engraving, Etching André Malraux, Saturn: An Essay on Goya, selections III. Titian

4 Friday, March 2 Visit to the Gemäldegalerie Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History, Linear and Painterly, pp.18-29, Wednesday, March 7 Giorgione and Titian Walter Pater, The Renaissance, The School of Giorgione and Conclusion Friday, March 9 The Altarpiece Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, Life of Titian, selections David Rosand, Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice, Chapter 2, selections Sunday, March 11, 14:00 Painting Workshop * Class meets in The Factory Lodovico Dolce, The Dialogue on Painting, selections Wednesday, March 14 Titian s Mythologies, I Ovid, The Art of Love, Book 1, ll Philostratus the Elder, Imagines, Book I, Introduction, 6, 15, and 25 Friday, March 16 Titian s Mythologies, II Ovid, Metamorphoses, selections Hubert Damisch, A Theory of /Cloud/, Chapter 1, selections Midterm essay due: 23:59 on Sunday, March 18 Wednesday, March 21 Old-age style David Rosand, Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice, Chapter 5, selections Friday, March 23 No class SPRING BREAK (March 26-April 2) IV. Poussin and Rubens Wednesday, April 4 Poussin and Rubens

5 Louis Marin, Toward a Theory of Reading in the Visual Arts: Poussin s The Arcadian Shepherds Jonathan Unglaub, Poussin and the Poetics of Painting, selections Friday, April 6 Visit to the Gemäldegalerie Georges Didi-Huberman, Confronting Images, selections V. Las Hilanderas Wednesday, April 11 Framed Narrative Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book VI, ll (pp ) Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing, selections Friday, April 13 The Art of Painting David Rosand, The Meaning of the Mark, The Stroke of the Brush VI. Modernism Sunday, April 15, 14:00 Visit to the Alte Nationalgalerie Edmond Duranty, The New Painting, selections Jules LaForgue, Impressionism T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life, Olympia s Choice, selections Wednesday, April 18 Monet T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life, The Environs of Paris, selections Leo Steinberg, Monet s Water Lilies Friday, April 20 Visit to the Berggruen Museum Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Eye and Mind, sections II, IV, and V Leo Steinberg, Other Criteria, The Women of Algiers, selections Wednesday, April 25 Picasso Gertrude Stein, Picasso (Dover ed.), selections Rosalind Krauss, The Optical Unconscious, Chapter 5 Friday, April 27 Kentridge Rosalind Krauss, Perpetual Inventory, The Rock : William Kentridge s Drawings for Projection

6 FINAL PRESENTATIONS Wednesday, May 2 Friday, May 4 Wednesday, May 9 Friday, May 11 Final essay due: 23:59 on Wednesday, May 16

IS102 RENAISSANCE ART AND THOUGHT: RENAISSANCE FLORENCE

IS102 RENAISSANCE ART AND THOUGHT: RENAISSANCE FLORENCE BA2 Core Course, Fall 2016 Seminar Leaders: Geoff Lehman, Katalin Makkai, Libby Merrill Course Times: Tuesday, 11:00-12:30 and Thursday, 9:00-10:30