Art History 475-601
Jon L. Seydl

Spring 2002
215-627-6936 (from 9AM to 10PM)
Tu-Th 5-6:15

jseydl@sas.upenn.edu Meyerson Hall B5

http://www.arthistory.upenn.edu/spr02/475601/index.html

Course Description:
This course examines the painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture in Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, concentrating on Rome, Bologna, Naples, and Venice, the major centers of production. We will examine well-known figures in depth—including Bernini, Caravaggio, the Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Piranesi, and Canova—as well as explore major synthetic, thematic issues.

Requirements will include a midterm and final, a short visual analysis assignment (5-6 pages), and a longer research paper (12-15 pages). There will also be two short quizzes assigned across the semester. Since this course has no separate discussion sections, part of each lecture will be devoted to discussion of the weekly readings.

We will also attend the forthcoming Gentileschi exhibition (February 15 – May 12) at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as well as visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art at least once. Those visits will have to take place out of the usual time slot, and we will make arrangements later in the term.

Readings:
The course will use no textbook, since no single survey is adequate for the period we will cover. However, I have placed several on reserve at the Fine Arts Library (see the bibliography at the end of this syllabus).

A bulkpack is available from Wharton Reprographics (Steinberg-Dietrich Hall Basement) and should be purchased at once.

Readings are all on reserve (or they are in non-circulating journals) at the Fine Arts Library. You may want to consult these books for the images given that the photocopies in bulkpacks are often so dreadful. Two books must be read in full, and those texts will only be on reserve in the Fine Arts Library, and not reproduced for the bulkpack (Dempsey, Annibale Carracci and Wilton and Bignamini, The Grand Tour).

Requirements:
1. Attendance and Class Participation. In-class participation is axiomatic. Absences will only be excused with a note from the health center, and three unexcused absences will result in automatic failure. It is imperative that you come to class prepared to discuss course readings and other assignments.

2. Writing Assignments: Descriptions of the papers will be handed out in class later, and topics for the final research paper must be submitted for approval several weeks in advance. I am delighted to read and comment on drafts of your writing, but you must give me these drafts at least four full days before the paper is due. Late papers will not be accepted without a note from the health center and late work will unquestionably affect your grade. The more time you spend developing your ideas, argument, tone, and structure, the more time I will spend reading and commenting on your work.

3. Grading. Your grade will be calculated on the following scale:

4. Format. All papers must be typed or printed in standard fonts and typesize, double-spaced, on 8½" x 11" paper, with 1" margins. I will not accept papers that have not been spellchecked and proofread. Papers may not be submitted electronically. Deadlines are firm. Deviating from these guidelines will adversely affect your grade. Papers may be handed in up to 5PM in my mailbox in the Jaffe Building.

Availability: I do not hold regular office hours, but I am happy to meet with you during the week at a mutually convenient time. You may always conduct business over email or telephone as well.

COURSE SYLLABUS

DROP PERIOD ENDS 2/8

Th 2/21 MIDTERM

Tu 3/5 Late Poussin and Claude: Issues of Landscape

Th 3/7 FINAL PAPER TOPIC DUE

Architecture and Urbanism in the Eighteenth Century: Turin, Rome, Naples

SPRING BREAK

Th 4/11 Sentimental and Revolutionary Classicism

4/16 Swing class (Gentileschi exhibition visit)

4/18 Swing class (Philadelphia Museum of Art visit)

Survey Texts:

Blunt, Anthony, ed. Baroque and Rococo: Architecture and Decoration. New York, 1978.

Bowron, Edgar Peters and Joseph J. Rishel, eds. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2000.

Held, Julius and Donald Posner. Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Art. New York, 1974.

Martin, John Rupert. Baroque. New York, 1977.

Levey, Michael. Painting in Eighteenth Century Venice. 3^d ed. Oxford, 1994.

Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu. 3 vols. 6th ed. New Haven, 1999.

Readings:

Barroero and Stefano Susinno, "Arcadian Rome, Universal Capital of the Arts," 47-75. In Edgar Peters Bowron and Joseph J. Rishel, eds. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2000.

Bissell, R. Ward. Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. University Park, PA, 1999 (Chapter IV, "Myths, Misunderstandings, and Musings," 103-33).

Bolland, Andrea. "Desiderio and Diletto: Vision, Touch, and the Poetics of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne." Art Bulletin 82 (June 2000): 309-330.

Bowron, Edgar Peters. "Academic Life Drawing in Rome, 1750-1790," 75-85. In Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson. Visions of Antiquity: Neoclassical Figure Drawings. Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles and Minneapolis, 1993.

Brown, Beverly Louise, "The Black Wings of Envy: Competition, Rivalry and Paragone," 276-86. In Beverly Louise Brown, ed. The Genius of Rome, 1592-1623. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2001.

Camiz, Franca Trinchieri. "Music and Painting in Cardinal del Monte's Household." Metropolitan Museum Journal 26 (1991): 213-27.

Christiansen, Keith. "Tiepolo, Theater, and the Notion of Theatricality." Art Bulletin 71 (December 1999): 665-92.

Clifton, James. "Mattia Preti’s Frescoes for the City Gates of Naples." Art Bulletin 76 (September 1994): 479-501.

Coates, Victoria C. Gardner. "A Painting Reserved for 'nobil diletto:' Poussin's Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh for Camillo Massimo." Gazette des Beaux Arts (November 2001): 185-202.

Cropper, Elizabeth. "The Petrifying Art: Marino’s Poetry and Caravaggio." Metropolitan Museum Journal 26 (1991): 193-212.

Cropper, Elizabeth and Charles Dempsey. Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting. Princeton, NJ, 1996 (Chapter 5: "Painting and Possession: Poussin’s Self-Portrait for Chantelou and the Essais of Montaigne," 177-215).

Dempsey, Charles. Annibale Carracci: the Farnese Gallery, Rome. New York, 1995.

Dixon, Susan M. "Piranesi and Francesco Bianchini: Capricci in the Service of Pre-Scientific Architecture" Art History 22, no. 2 (June 1999): 184-213.

Eitner, Lorenz, ed. Neoclassicism and Romanticism, 1750-1850: Sources and Documents. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, [1970] (excerpts from Winckelmann, 4-20, and excerpts from Mengs, 30-34).

Enggass, Robert, and Jonathan Brown. Italy and Spain: 1600-1750: Sources and Documents. Evanston, IL, 1992. (Gian Pietro Bellori, Idea, 5-20 and Gian Pietro Bellori, Life of the Carracci, 69-75).

Garrard, Mary D. Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. Princeton, NJ, 1989 (Introduction, pp. 3-10 and letters no. 16-28, pp. 390-401).

Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique:The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900. 2d printing with corrections. New Haven, 1982.

Johns, Christopher M. S. Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. Berkeley, 1998 (Chapter 1: "Canova’s Background, Religious Views, and Cultural Formation").

Christopher M. S. Johns, "The Entrepôt of Europe," 17-45. In Edgar Peters Bowron and Joseph J. Rishel, eds. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2000.

Kenseth, Joy. "Bernini's Borghese Sculptures: Another View." Art Bulletin LXIII, no. 2 (June 1981): 191-210.

Lapierre, Alexandra. Artemisia: A Novel. Translated by Liz Heron. New York, 2000 (Chapters 4-15, pp. 41-104).

Lavin, Irving. "Divine Inspiration in Caravaggio's Two St. Matthews." Art Bulletin LVI (1974): 59-81.

McTighe, Sheila. Nicolas Poussin's Landscape Allegories. Cambridge and New York, 1996 (Chapter 1: "Storm Landscapes and Libertinage," 18-52).

John Pinto, "Architecture and Urbanism," 113-121. In Edgar Peters Bowron and Joseph J. Rishel, eds. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2000

Scott, John Beldon. Images of Nepotism: The Painted Ceilings of the Barberini. Princeton, NJ, 1991. (Chapter XI, "Program and Narrative Action" and Chapter XII, "The Iconographic Tradition")

Spear, Richard E. The "Divine" Guido: Religion, Sex, Money and Art in the World of Guido Reni. New Haven and London, 1997 (Chapter 5, "Sex," 51-76, and Chapter 6, "Martyrs," 77-100).

Spear, Richard E. "Artemisia Gentileschi: Ten Years of Fact and Fiction," Art Bulletin LXXXII, No. 3 (September 2000): 568-79.

Waddy, Patricia. "Inside the Palace: People and Furnishings," 21-37. In Stefanie Walker and Frederick Hammond. Life and the Arts in the Baroque Palaces of Rome: Ambiente barocco. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven, 1999.

Wardropper, Ian, "The Role of Terracotta Models in Italian Baroque Sculptural Practice," 30-42. In Ian Wardropper, ed. From the Sculptor's Hand: Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum. Exhibition catalogue. [Chicago], 1998.

Wilton, Andrew, and Ilaria Bignamini. The Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century. Exhibition catalogue. London, 1996.

Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu. 3 vols. 6th ed. New Haven, 1999 (Chapter 1, "The Age of the High Baroque: Introduction," 1-4, Chapter 2, "Gianlorenzo Bernini," 5, 23-38, Chapter 3 "Francesco Borromini," 39-62, Chapter 4 "Pietro da Cortona," 63-74, and Chapter 5 "Architectural Currents of the High Baroque," 99-117).