The course examines the art and architecture of Venice in the light of its unique physical, political and cultural situation. The city's links with the Byzantine empire, its status as a maritime republic and its distinctive political situation fostered a culture different from those of other Italian cities and which can be studied as a discrete entity. The relationship between art and its various contexts will be studied in detail using the physical evidence of the city and its past. The influence of Venice on art in the terraferma will also be examined through, for example, study trips to Padua, Verona, Vicenza and the villas of the Veneto.

 

The political background of Venice
The Doge's Palace
Ravenna, Torcello and the Byzantine Heritage
San Marco and the surrounding area
The Gothic and the Mendicant orders in Venice
Domestic architecture
The Scuole and their decoration
Ducal tombs
Secular painting
Venice and antiquity
Art and the terraferma

 

Taught in Venice

 

1 x 3000 word-essay (20%) and 2 x 3 hour exams (1 essay paper; 1 image paper; each 40%)

 

P.F. Brown, The Renaissance in Venice, London, 1997
D. Chambers, The Imperial Age of Venice, London, 1970
J. White, Art and Architecture in Italy 1250-1400 (Pelican History of Art), Harmondsworth 1966, 3rd edn. 1993
N. Huse & W. Wolters, Art of Renaissance Venice, architecture, sculpture and painting, Chicago, 1990
D. Howard, The Architectural History of Venice, London, 1980
P. Humfrey, Painting in Renaissance Venice, London, 1995