Università Roma Tre

Il corso intende fornire agli studenti un inquadramento di carattere generale sulle arti visive e l’ornamento nel bacino del Mediterraneo in età medievale, ripercorrendo le principali tappe della storiografia sul tema.
L’esame di casi-studio selezionati (Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli e la Cupola della Roccia a Gerusalemme, San Vitale a Ravenna e la Grande Moschea di Cordova, la Cappella Palatina di Palermo e San Lorenzo f.l.m. a Roma), consentirà di approfondire le relazioni transculturali tra Oriente e Occidente nei secoli VI - XIII nei diversi linguaggi visivi, ornamentali ed estetici.

Readings and bibliography

Medieval Mediterranean Art History

Mandatory:
• Caskey, Cohln, Safran, Art of the Middle-Ages, 2022
o chap. 2: St Peter church, pp. 53-58;
o chap. 3: Six to mid-seventh century, Hagia Sophia, San Vitale
o chap. 4: Mid-seventh to late eighth century, Dome of the Rock, Damascus mosque
o chap. 7: Romanesque  1070 – 1170

Byzantine Art

Mandatory:
• Kitzinger, Byzantine art in the making, 1977
o ch. 5: The Justinian Synthesis

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• Kitzinger, Byzantine art in the making, 1977
o ch. 1: Ancient Art in crisis

Islamic Art

Mandatory:
• Ettinghausen, Grabar, Islamic art and architecture, 2001
o Chapter 2: Dome of the Rock, pp. 15-19; Damascus Mosque, pp. 22-26; Ibn Tulun Mosque and Kairouan mosque, pp. 30-36; Abbasids, pp. 51-59;
o Chapter 3: Omayyad Cordoba, pp. 81-98:
o Chapter 6: The Fatimids, pp. 187-213;
o Chapter 8: Islam out of Islam, pp. 291-302

Mandatory for non-attending students only:

• Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art, 1973
o Introduction
o 1. The Problem
o 3. The Symbolic Appropriation of the Land
o 4. Islamic Attitudes toward the Arts
o 8. The Formation of Islamic art

Facultative:
• Rosser-Owen Mariam, Islamic Art from Spain – 2010
o Intro
o Age of Empire

Ornament and Theory of art

Mandatory:
• Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament, 1992
o Preface
o Introduction
o Chap. I " A Theory of intermediaries in Art")
o Chap. III Geometry

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• Gombrich, Art and Illusion, 1960
o Preface
o Introduction. Psychology and the riddle of style

Facultative:
• Grabar Andrè, Les origines esthétique médiévale, 1992 (also available in Italian and Spanish translation)
o Préface
o Plotin
o L’intelligible

• Trilling, Ornament. A modern perspective, 2004
o Preface
o Chap. 1: How ornament works


Norman Sicily

Mandatory:
• Higgs and Booms, Sicily, culture and conquest, 2017
o Chapter 4, pp. 172-228;
o Chapter 5, pp. 229-245;
• Longo, Anzelmo, From Creation to Communication, Reviewing Art in Norman Sicily 2022;
• Kapitaikin, Norman Sicily and the stage of multiculturalism, 2017
• Longo, The Royal Palace 2010 (with Italian version including pics);
• Longo, The first Norman cathedral in Norman Palermo, 2018;

Mandatory for non-attending students only:
• MWNF, Leone, Mauro et al. Siclulo-Norman Art Islamic Culture in Sicily, 2003
o Islamic Art in the Mediterranean: pp 15-34;
o Historical Artistic Intro: pp. 35-65;
o Royal Palace and Palatine Chapel: pp. 123-132;
o Martorana and San Cataldo: pp. 158-163;
o Cefalù: pp. 249-254;
o Cathedrals (Palermo and Monreale): pp 135-149;
o Favara Palace: pp.115-118;
o Norman Palaces: pp: 67-84;
o XIX century studies: pp. 85-86;

• Kitzinger, Byzantine studies, Norman Sicily, collection of essays:
o Cappella Palatina, arrangement of subjects, 1949, pp. 1001-1054
o Roger II mantle, 1950, pp. 1055-1062;
• Ćurčić, Some Palatine aspects of the Cappella Palatina, 1987;
• Bongianino, King’s Chapel, 2017;
• Grabar, Experience of Islamic Art at the Margins, 2005;

• Winkler, et al, Designing Norman Sicily, 2020:
o Introduction: pp. 1-21;
o Reilly, Roger II and Medieval Visual Culture, pp.23-46;
o Tronzo, The interplay of media: pp. 47-59;


Facultative:
• Longo, Forma e Sostanza, with pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite (in Italian) 2023;
• Nef, Companion to Medieval Palermo, essays:
o Di Liberto, Norman Architecture: pp. 139-194;
o Pezzini, Forma urbis: pp. 195-232;
• Higgs and Booms, Sicily, culture and conquest, 2017
o Frederick II and Nobiles Officinae, pp. 246-269;
• Longo, Idealizing medieval medierranean, 2018
• Armando, Role and perception of Islamic Art in Sicily, 2017;
• Bloom, Islamic (Fatimid?) Art in Sicily, 2008;
• Johnson, Episcopal and royal views in Cefalù, 1994;
• Kessler, Peter and Paul in Palermo (in Italian), 2010;
• Johns, Savage-Smith, The Book of Curiousities, Imago Mundi 55, 2003;
• Borsook, Messages in Mosaics, 1990;
• Peters-Custot, How Byzantine was Norman Sicily, 2018;
• Tranchina, Emir’s God, 2019