Romanesque & Gothic Art & Architecture (Fall 2005) Prof. T. Dale ...

Camille, Gothic Art, 167-73; R. Randall, "Popular Romances Carved in Ivory," in P. Barnet,
ed. Images in Ivory (Detroit, 1997), 63-79, illustrations, 218-248. Rec. Camille, The
Medieval Art of Love, 51-71
What are the principal literary sources of images of courtly love in French Gothic art? What
different metaphors are used to describe courtship and how do they reflect mysoginistic
tendencies in medieval society? What iconographic signs gestures constitute the pictorial
language of courtly love? How does this kind of imagery relate to the function of the
objects it adorns? To what extent do these themes of profane love make reference to sacred
art (in style or iconography)?
Nov. 26
XXI. Gothic Art and Architecture and the Rise of the Mendicant Orders in Italy
Pseudo-Bonaventure, Meditations on the Life of Christ, excerpt in READER; J. White, Art and
Architecture in Italy, 1250-1400 (Harmondsworth, 1988), 21-44; 74-92. M. Trachtenberg,
"Gothic/Italian Gothic: toward a redefinition" Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 50 (1991):22-37 in READER.
Who was Saint Francis and what was revolutionary about the new order that he founded?
How does Italian Gothic architecture depart from the French paradigm and what local factors
explain its apparent conservatisim? How does Trachtenburg redefine Italian Gothic in more
positive terms vis-à-vis French models? How does Trachtenburg suggest that Italian Gothic
can be considered a departure from both earlier “historicist” Romanesque architecture in
Italy and contemporary “modern” Gothic in France. What role did the rise of the mendicant
orders play in the dissemination of Gothic architecture in Italy and how was the architectural
planning adapted to the needs of these new orders? What different sources of insipiration
are synthesized in Italian Gothic sculpture? How is mendicant spirituality reflected in the
sculpture of the Pisani? How did devotional texts such as the Pseudo-Bonaventure’s
Meditations foster new attitudes in the pictorial representation of the life of Christ?
Nov. 28: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Dec. 3
XXII. Icon to Altarpiece: The Maniera Greca and Italian Painting around 1300.
Frisch, Gothic Art, 85-88; W. Tronzo, “Between Icon and Monumental Decoration of a
Church: Notes on Duccio’s Maestà and the Definition of the Altarpiece,” in READER. Rec:
Belting, Likeness and Presence, 377-408.
What role did the “maniera greca” (Byzantine art) play in the orgins of the altarpiece? How
did Italian masters adapt Byzantine style and iconography for the altarpiece? What specific
new functions did the altarpiece perform? What was particularly remarkable about Duccio’s
Maiestà? What does the contract for the Maiestà tell us about the relationship bewteen
artist and patron? What was the civic role of the new altarpiece?
Dec. 5
XXIII. Secular Architecture and City Planning in the later Middle Ages
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