Unit information: Art and Patronage in Fifteenth-Century Florence in 2009/10

Unit name	Art and Patronage in Fifteenth-Century Florence
Unit code	HART22222
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Emeritus Professor. Pemberton
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit introduces students to the rich artistic tradition of Florentine art during the fifteenth century with a particular emphasis on the social and political conditions under which it was produced. As well as covering the major works and artists across all media including architecture, we will also pay close attention to civic, religious and private patronage. The structure will be broadly chronological so that the changing political contexts can be clearly articulated. The core of this narrative will circle around Medici family patronage and its impact on the wider city, although we will also consider alternative patronage networks. Within this unfolding narrative, we will reconstruct the evolving visual fabric of urban Florence and trace the complex relationships between artists and their patrons. The unit will conclude by looking at the political charge of works of art in the immediate aftermath of the Medici regime during the late 1490s.

Aims:

• To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of academic tutors and to enable them to explore the issues surrounding the state of research in the field.

• To develop students ability to work with both visual and textual sources

• To develop students abilities to integrate visual and textual source material into a wider historical analysis

• To develop students ability to learn independently within a small-group context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the major patronage networks in fifteenth-century Florence

• Demonstrate an understanding of the roles played by art in Florentine society

• Demonstrate a knowledge of the key stages in the evolving interaction between art and politics

• Demonstrate an awareness of the key works, artists and patrons

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the significance of Medici patronage of the arts within their wider family activities

• Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis

• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level

• Demonstrate critical analysis of groups of cultural artefacts in their context.

Teaching Information

• Weekly 2-hour seminar

• Feedback on formative essay

• Feedback on formative presentation

• Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in office hours

Assessment Information

• 2500 word formative essay

• 1500 word formative presentation

• 2-hour unseen written examination (100%)

Reading and References

• Kent, D., Cosimo de Medici and the Florentine Renaissance: The Patrons Oeuvre, Yale University Press (New Haven and London, 2000).

• Kent, F. W., Lorenzo de Medici and the Art of Magnificence (Baltimore, 2004).

• Wackernagel, M., The World of the Florentine Renaissance Artist, trans. A. Luchs, (Princeton, 1981).

• Rubin, P. and A. Wright, Renaissance Florence. The art of the 1470s, exhib., National Gallery (London, 1999).

• Rubin, P., Images and Identity in Fifteenth-Century Florence (New Haven and London, 2007)