Loyola University Chicago

Instructor: Prof. Giovanni SCICHILONE

Meeting Day: Thursday

Meeting Times: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course is an introduction to the art of ancient Italy from the 2^nd millennium B.C.E. to the 5^th century A.D. It focuses on major trends and developments in Etruscan and Roman art and explores the impact of Greek art and culture on both. Students will learn to consider and interpret selected examples of material culture and art, placing them in the broader context of contemporary history. Due reference will be made also to the changing geographical context, ranging from local areas of Central Italy in the Bronze Age to vaste areas of the known world over wich – in due time – the Roman Empire expanded.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will study and learn to interpret selected examples of ancient Roman art, including painting, sculpture, mosaic, architecture, and other media from the Bronze Age (c. 3000 B.C.E.) to c. 400 A.D.

While students will be able to apply their knowledge to analysis, artistical literary description and interpretation of Roman art, they will also be able to do so comparatively to examples of western and non-western art.

In addition to honing observational and critical skills, students will learn about the production of art and the techniques used to create its various types. In doing so, they will acquire  the technical vocabulary attaching to Roman (and others) art and art-productions.

Students will come to understand that art even in the rather different culture of the Romans is yet a communication that not only reflects the desire of artists to portray the truths about the human condition and environment in aesthetic ways, but also (since art is profoundly tied to audience, time and place) that it is a representation of social, psychological, political, intellectual and cultural topics and concerns.

To contextualise their studies and lay the optimum groundwork for analysis and interpretation of individual examples, aspects of myth, religion, sociology, history and other related socio-cultural subjects will be introduced as they pertain to various pieces. Introduction of scholarship on Roman art will demonstrate the multiplicity of interpretations possible and how these reflect cultural and temporal differences.

Students will acquire the vocabularies applied to ancient Roman art. As material is presented chronologically, students will see and evaluate works of art in the light of their aesthetic and cultural precedents.

Acquisition of this knowledge and these vocabularies will enable students to better focus in, observe, describe and analyze objects of ancien Roman art, to introduce thoughtfully the considered views of others, and to formulate their own fresh interpretations and viewpoints about how and why such art was produced and what it means. They will be better able to recognize and partecipate in the artistic-cultural life of their communities as a result of this course.

METHODOLOGY:

Every lesson will be richly illustrated by original slides from the instructor’s collection; occasionally readings from ancient written sources in traslation will be offered. In all cases, class discussion and active participation to class work are to be considered crucial and are highly encouraged and valued by the instructor. The same principle applies to the context of on-site classes, with the added benefit of the direct vision of works of the most different materials and scales, suggesting a very broad range of visual and intellectual stimuli. Moreover, since the variety of points and comparisons developed in class can only in part find a substitute in the required readings, class attendance is strongly recommended.

During the month of February the students will choose with the instructor’s guidance, the topic for an individual project in writing (a brief essay or book report for the equivalent of 5 to 6 typed pages), ideally reflecting a personal interest within the scope of the course. Such home projects are to be given to the instructor by March ____ at the very latest.

SYLLABUS

References are made to Nigel SPIVEY, Etruscan Art, London and to Nancy & Andrew RAMAGE Roman Art - Romulus to Constantine, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2005 (both available at our bookstore).

Lesson 1  Introductions. The appreciation of art and of material culture. What are they in reference to the Ancient World and why do we bother? Early peoples of ancient Italy and their material culture: The Etruscans and their neighbors – an introduction (SPIVEY, Intro & Chapter 1).

Lesson 2  (on site) Aspects of the archaeological evidence, 11^th to 8^th c. B.C.: a visit to the National Etruscan Museum of the Villa Giulia.

Lesson 3  Glimpses of the Etruscan “golden age” through the monumental cemeteries of Cerveteri and Tarquinia. The Etruscans and their neighbors in Italy and Mediterranean world.

Lesson 4  (on site) Treasures of Etruscan sculpture, architecture and painting in the Villa Giulia. Etruscan crafts. The Etruscan and Rome before the time of the Republic. (For the material discussed in Lessons 2, 3, 4 see SPIVEY, Chapter 2, 3, 4).

Lesson 5 & 6  The Roman Republic, 509/27 B.C. Expantion, expansionism and the growth of Rome. Aspects in the formation of a Roman identity. Architecture, sculpture and painting in the 2^nd and 1^st c. B.C. Rome and Greece (RAMAGE, Chapter 2).

Lesson 7   Rome as the center of an empire: an overview of Augustan architecture (RAMAGE, Chapter 3).

Lesson 8   The Jiulio-Claudian emperors: Rome as an art center and as the center of a world market for arts and artist. The “romanization” of the world (RAMAGE, Chapter 4).

Lesson 9   (on site) Rome under the Flavian emperors. A master of architecture -Rabirius- and his Palace on the Palatin Hill (RAMAGE, Chapter 5).

Lesson 10  The world under Trajan, A.D. 98/117. The essence of Roman imperial art and architecture (RAMAGE, Chapter 6).

Lesson 11  Hadrian, the classical revival and a culmination for the Roman Empire (RAMAGE, Chapter 7).

Lesson 12  The Antonine and the Severan dynasties: new languages for Roman art (RAMAGE, Chapters 8 - 9).

Lesson 13  Towards another world: Rome and Roman Art from 235 A.D. to circa 400 A.D. (RAMAGE, Chapters 10 - 12).

GRADING: The final grade for this course will be calculated in accordance with the following percentages:

•  Midterm................................................................30%
•  “Home Project”......................................................20%
•  Active class participation....................................... 10%
•  Final test...............................................................40%

                                                            The grading scale adopted will be:

                                          (A) 100-93           (A-) 92-90      (B+) 89-87     (B) 86-83

                                          (B-) 82-80            (C+) 79-77     (C) 76-73       (C-) 72-70

                                          (D+) 69-67           (D) 66-60       (F) below 60

IMPORTANT NOTE: The mid-term test will take place on Wednesday, February _____, 2009.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

The basic commitment of a univerity is to search forand to communicate the truth as it is honestly perceived. The university could not accomplish its purpose in the absence of this demanding standard. Students of this university are called upon to know, to respect, and to practice this standard of personal honesty.

Plagiarism, a serious form of violation of this standard, is the appropriate for gain of ideas, language or work of another without sufficient public acknowledgment that the material is not one’s own. It involves deliberate taking and use of specific words and ideas of others without proper acknowledgment of the source. Examples of plagiarism include submitting as one’s own: (a) material copied from a published sources –print Internet, CD-ROM, audio, video, etc.- another person’s published work or exam material, or a rewritten or paraphrased version of another’s work; (b) paying another to write or research a paper for one’s own benefit; (c) purchasing, acquiring and using for course credit a pre-written paper.

Among other common forms of academic dishonestly are: distributing or communicating materials prior to an exam; obtaining information from another student during an exam; bringing non-allowed materials into an exam for clandestine use; attempting to change answers after an exam has been submitted; and falsifying medical or other reasons to petition for excused absences:

Plagiarism or dishonest examination behavior will result minimally in the instructor assigning the grade of “F” for the assignment. In addition, all instances of academic dishonestly will be reported to the Rome Center’s Associate Director for Academic Affairs, who may constitute a hearing board to consider the imposition of additional sanctions, including a recommendation of expulsion, depending on the seriousness of the misconduct.