SUMMER Courses 2006
Early Renaissance Art in 15th Century Florence
Professor Grazia Badino
3 credits
The course is an introduction to Renaissance Art in Florence: from Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Donatello to Michelangelo's youth in the age of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Republican Florence. The survey will span the entire 15th and early 16th centuries in the form of lectures at the Villa Corsi-Salviati and on-site visits, mainly to downtown Florence. Alternating the classroom sessions with visits to the major museums and monuments of Florence, students will have the opportunity to integrate their studies with first hand experience of the masterpieces of the Golden Age of Humanism. My aim is to give students different keys by which to approach a work of art in its complexity; these comprise history, iconography, technique, style and, of course, beauty. Florence is surely the best place to acquire a basic knowledge of Renaissance art and it also affords the opportunity of learning about coeval Italian Art in general. The program includes in effect an overnight trip to Rome that will enhance our insight into this epoch and it's culture.
Experiencing the City
Professor John Comazzi, University of Michigan
3 credits
Using the city of Florence as an artifact and a laboratory, this course will examine basic concepts of architecture and urban morphology through a series of lectures, readings and on-site analyses. Specific topics addressed will include: "The Urban Morphology of Florence", "The City and the Palazzo, "The City and the Villa", "The City and the Piazza", "Brunelleschi's Dome", "Facade", "Landscape and Gardens of Florence", and "The Architecture of Michelangelo". The content of lectures will introduce non-architecture students to terms, topics, and representational methods necessary to analyze the built environment, and to provide background information for sites in Florence selected for further analysis. Weekly site visits to Florence will be organized in conjunction with the lecture topics and related themes to be explored and documented in more detail through written and image-based reports. Some basic representational techniques such a photography and drawing will be used to more deeply examine, analyze and document the urban and architectural context. While these on-site analyses will be used to compliment written reports, it should be noted that there is no prior knowledge of architecture, urbanism, drawing or photography required to take this course.
Visual Narratives
Professor Edward West
3 credits
This course asks students to make their art in response to the environment they encounter as they explore the land, the people and the culture around them, by creating a visual diary or narrative of their experiences. The assignments will enable students to create a remembrance of the essence and the traces of an important time in their life: getting to know and live in another country and culture, perhaps for the first time in their lives. The assignments will include, but will not be limited to: Mapping and Visual Research accompanied by a text, students will move out of the Villa into the surrounding environment, recording markers, location, artifacts, and features of the terrain. Daily Creative Work: students will be asked to generate a response to each day they are in Italy, which will create a "diary", with each entry capturing the essence of that day. Students will use digital cameras, pencils, glue sticks and bone folders. They will also be asked to incorporate materials they find discarded on the streets, as well as artifacts from junk shops, menus, tickets, and so forth. Students will be the subject and the substance of their work, but the aim is to heighten the consciousness of daily activity and to reinforce the notion that great things are made of little steps consciously taken.
Constructing Italy
Professor Merla Wolk, University of Michigan
3 credits
Arguably no country captures the hearts and minds of writers more than Italy has, whether for its natural beauty or unnatural crimes, as the site of romance as well as intrigue, or as the embodiment of hospitality that occasionally hints at calculation. We will read short stories and novels, and we will see films based on texts written by authors-including Muriel Spark, E.M. Forster, Ian McEwan, Shirley Hazzard and others- who have each, through writing, constructed different Italy's. The class will operate as a writing and reading workshop in which we will discuss and analyze what we read about Italy, write short essays (1-2 pages) on the readings, keep a journal about impressions and experiences from which we will evolve a 6-8 pages essay in which students construct their own Italy.
Italian Language (Elementary Level)
Professor Sandra Palaich, University of Michigan
Professor Silvia Sammicheli, Florence Faculty
3 credits
Designed to provide a solid foundation in both spoken and written Italian, this intensive introduction permits comprehensive coverage of basic structures and vocabulary. Exclusive use of the language in dialogues and drills encourages development of linguistic awareness in a meaningful and dynamic context.
 |
