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Themes in Early Modern Art - HOA00072I

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Jessica Richardson
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
    • See module specification for other years: 2021-22

Module summary

This module serves to introduce students to the richness and complexities of Italian art, c.1350–1550. It considers the diverse artistic traditions and image-making practices throughout Italy, focussing on the cities of Siena, Venice, Rome, Mantua and their wider global and transcultural connections. The study of Italian early modern cities and courts will provide the springboard for examining the multi-faceted worlds of art-making and the circulation of ideas, materials, techniques and artworks within and beyond the Italian peninsula. What types of art were created and how were art and artefacts coming from outside interpreted, emulated, or even collected? Through study of selected cities and courts throughout the peninsula, vis-à-vis their specific social-political cultures and the circulation of ideas, people, materials, techniques and artworks, the module also addresses issues such as race, gender and alterity. Themes include Siena, ‘civic’ art and the Silk Roads; Venice, Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire; Rome, its antiquities and the ‘Egyptian Renaissance’; Mantua, female patronage and collecting. The module aims to provide students with a knowledge of the arts of selected Renaissance cities in Italy (c.1350–1550); an understanding of the dynamics of art-making as it relates to the circulation of ideas, materials, techniques and artworks within the Italian peninsula and beyond; a solid grounding in the current critical debates about Italian early modern art and its transcultural connections; and the ability to analyse artworks within past and current discussions in the field.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

The aim of this module is to introduce student to some of the key themes in the arts of the early modern period in its widest sense. It will allow a range of different cultures, media, and contexts to be introduced and examined from an array of different perspectives.

Students will learn how to synthesise a diverse range of scholarship, critically assess objects and refine their academic writing skills.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • a good understanding of key terms, problems and methodologies in early modern art history
  • a broad awareness of different cultural phenomena, as well as a familiarity with a number of case studies.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Assessed Essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Assessed Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

Marta Ajmar-Wolheim and Luca Molà, “The Global Renaissance: Cross-Cultural Objects in the Early Modern Period,” in Global Design History, ed. Glenn Adamson, Giorgio Riello and Sarah Teasley (London, 2011), 11–20.

Caroline Campbell and Alan Chong, eds., Bellini and the East (New Haven, 2005).

Stephen Campbell, The Cabinet of Eros: Renaissance Mythological Painting and the Studiolo of Isabella d’Este (New Haven, 2006).

Kathleen Christian, Empire without Ends: Antiquities Collections in Renaissance Rome, c. 1350–1527 (New Haven, 2010).

Kathleen Christian and Leah R. Clark, eds., European Art and the Wider World (Manchester, 2017).

Alison Cole, Italian Renaissance Courts: Art, Pleasure and Power (London, 2016).

Brian A. Curran, The Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy (Chicago, 2007),

Thomas Foster Earle and Kate J. P. Lowe, eds., Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 2004).

Chiara Frugoni, A Distant City Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World, trans. William McCuaig (Princeton, 1991).

Rosamond E. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic trade & Italian Art, 1300–1600 (Berkeley, 2002).

Deborah Howard, Venice and the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture, 1100–1500 (New Haven),

David Young Kim, “Materiality, Textiles and Composition in Renaissance Painting,” The Art Bulletin 98, no. 2 (2016), 181–212.

Diana Newall, ed., Art and its Global Histories: A Reader (Manchester, 2017).

Carol M. Richardson, “The Allure of Rome,” in Carol M. Richardson, ed., Renaissance Art Reconsidered: Locating Renaissance Art, vol. 2 (New Haven, 2007), 25–64.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.