ARH 4310
Early Renaissance Art in Italy
Dr. Elizabeth Ross
University of Florida
College of Fine Arts
School of Art and Art History
Fall 2014
Monday, 11:45-12:35am and Wednesday 11:45am-1:40pm, FAC 201
Credit Hours: 3
Course Fee: $10
Email: elizross@ufl.edu
Office Hours: Monday, 12:50-1:40pm and Wednesday, 1:55-2:45pm
Course Web Site: https://lss.at.ufl.edu/
University Counseling & Wellness Center
Phone: (352) 392-1575 (line open 24/7)
Web: http://www.counsel.ufl.edu
University Police Department
Phone: (352) 392-1111 or 9-1-1 for emergencies
Course Description:
This course offers an introduction to the art of Italy from the death of Saint Francis in 1226 to the years after the
death of Cosimo de’ Medici in 1469. We will focus on the painting, sculpture, and civic architecture of the
republican communes of Florence, Siena, and Venice, in addition to Papal patronage in Rome and Assisi, with
particular attention to the work of Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Donatello, and Piero della Francesca.
The Italian commune served as an arena for political and social competition, where an urban mercantile class
showcased their rising wealth and cultural ambitions through the patronage of art and architecture. Experiments
with pictorial space lead from the expressive tension between naturalism and abstraction in the Duocento and
Trecento to the development of linear perspective in the Quattrocento. Artists negotiated the influence of Christian
Byzantium, the Gothic North, and Italy’s own Classical heritage, until the fifteenth century chose the language and
visual forms of Antiquity as the predominate model and marker of elite culture. The rise of art theory and a
humanist discourse about art changed the conception of the role of art and artists in society. Together, this
extraordinary patronage, new pictorial space, and intensive interpretation of Classical Antiquity began to establish
the paradigms that continue to shape the Western tradition.
Course Objectives:
Provide a comprehensive overview of the works, personalities, and themes central to the history of the art of Italy
from 1226 (death of St. Francis) to circa 1480.
Inform students about the variety of social and cultural contexts in which art was produced and about the ways in
which these contexts affected the form and function of art objects.
Increase fluency with reading the scholarly literature of Renaissance art history and provide students with the
vocabulary to read and write about Renaissance art and culture.
Heighten visual acuity and increase facility with discussing visual images, architecture, and objects.
Increase students’ ability to conduct research—to find and critically evaluate information—and then to write an
analysis of it clearly, with historical rigor and proper academic form.
Course Policies:
Attendance and due dates. Please look at your calendar at the beginning of the semester to see if you have any
commitments (for example, religious holidays) that conflict with classes, due dates, or exams. If you do have a
conflict, contact Dr. Ross in advance. Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and
other work in this course are consistent with university policy that can be found at:
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx .
Classroom demeanor. No talking on cell phones, ringing or beeping, texting, Facebooking, tweeting, emailing,
noisy or smelly eating, etc., during class. Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment
that is conducive to learning. Inappropriate behavior shall result, minimally, in a request to leave class.
Email. Please check your UF email account regularly for course announcements or replies to any emails you send.
Dr. Ross will email you through your UF email account. If your email box is full, her emails will be bounced back,
and she will have no way to contact you. Please make sure to clean out your box to prevent this.
Accommodation. Students with disabilities requesting accommodations should first register with the Disability
Resource Center (352-392-8565, www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/) by providing appropriate documentation. Once registered,
students will receive an accommodation letter which must be presented to the instructor when requesting
accommodation. Students with disabilities should follow this procedure as early as possible in the semester.
Course evaluations. Students are expected to provide feedback on the quality of instruction in this course based on
ten criteria. These evaluations are conducted online at https://evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations are typically open
during the last two or three weeks of the semester, but students will be given specific times when they are open.
Summary results of these assessments are available to students at https://evaluations.ufl.edu/results.
Academic Honesty:
UF students are bound by The Honor Pledge which states, “We, the members of the University of Florida
community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honor and integrity by abiding by the
Honor Code. On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is
either required or implied: ‘On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this
assignment.’” The Honor Code (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/process/student-conduct-honor-code/) specifies a
number of behaviors that are in violation of this code and the possible sanctions. Furthermore, you are obligated to
report any condition that facilitates academic misconduct to appropriate personnel. If you have any questions or
concerns, please ask me (the instructor, Dr. Ross).
UF’s policies regarding academic honesty, the honor code, and student conduct related to the honor code will be
strictly enforced. This means that cheating and plagiarism will be penalized, and a report will be filed with the
Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution office. During exams, personal items must be cleared from desks and
chairs and placed in a bag on the floor, and phones must be turned off. For information on what constitutes
plagiarism, consult the UF Plagiarism Guide at http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/07b/studentplagiarism.html and
<“Misuse of Sources”> on the course web site. If you have any questions, please ask me. An online plagiarism
checker service may be used to screen papers.
Grading Scale:
Letter Grade
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
E
% Equivalent
93+
90-92
87-89
83-86
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
67-69
63-66
60-62
59-
See the following web page for UF policies for assigning grade points:
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/grades.aspx.
Course Requirements:
Midterm Exam 25%
Preliminary Bibliography 5%
Peer Reviews and Participation in Paper Discussion Group 10%
Draft and Final Paper 25%
Final Exam 30%
Attendance and Participation 5%
There will be a Midterm Exam on Wednesday, October 15 in class and a Final Exam on Wednesday, December
17 from 3-5pm in our regular classroom. The exams will require (1) identification and discussion of images shown
in lecture and (2) essay responses to questions about themes developed in lecture and in the readings. You will find
sample exam instructions at the end of this syllabus and by following the <Exam Study Materials> link on the
course web site. The images you need to know for exams will be available online through that link about two weeks
in advance of each test.
You will also write a 7- to 8-page (1750- to 2400-word) research paper with a bibliography and proper academic
citation (footnotes). Suggested topics and more detailed instructions are available on the course web site by
following the <Research Paper Materials> link. These will be distributed and discussed in class on Wednesday,
September 17. The topics encourage you to investigate an unresolved issue, explain the problem and the state of
the literature, and develop and support a thesis . You may develop your own topic in consultation with me.
There are FOUR due dates for the paper. Your choice of topic and a preliminary bibliography will be due in class
on Wednesday, October 8. A draft of the paper will be due in class on Wednesday, November 5. You will be
assigned to a paper discussion group of 3-4 students, and your draft will be distributed to the members of your
group. You will then be assigned to write a 1-page (max. 300- word) peer review of two of the papers, including
their organization, the force and clarity of their writing, and their grammar. The peer reviews are due in class on
Wednesday, November 19. On Monday, November 24 your paper discussion group will meet during the class
period to discuss your papers and peer reviews. You may then revise your draft, and the finished paper will be due
Monday, December 15.
In preparation for the paper, you will read a brief text on the “Misuse of Sources” in academic writing and take an
online quiz.1 You can find the link to the text on the desktop of the course web site, and you can access the quiz via
the <Tests & Quizzes> link to the left of that. You should complete the quiz by Wednesday, September 17. You
may take the quiz as many times as you need until you get all the questions right, but you must get all the questions
right to pass the quiz. You will not receive a grade for the quiz, but you must pass the quiz to pass the course.
Readings:
Most readings are available as PDF files online through the UF Libraries’ ARES course reserves system at
https://ares.uflib.ufl.edu/ .
Two books are required for the course. Both are on reserve at the AFA Library.
1. Lavin, Marilyn. Piero della Francesca. Phaidon, 2002.
2. Baxandall, Michael. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A primer in the social history of
pictorial style. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, 1988.
1
Gordon Harvey, “Misuse of Sources,” Chapter 3 of Writing with Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998), 22-29.
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Week 1
August 25—Introduction
August 27—What is the Renaissance, why did it happen, and when exactly?
Week 2
September 1—No Class (Labor Day)
September 3—Communes and their Culture: Florence, Siena, Padua, and Venice
Week 3
September 8— Shaping the Image of Saint Francis
September 10—Rome and the Franciscan Mother Church in Assisi
Week 4
September 15—Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Pisa and Siena
September 17—**Research Paper Distributed/Research Workshop**
**ONLINE QUIZ** due Wednesday, September 17
Week 5
September 22 and 24—Duccio and the Virgins of Siena
Week 6
September 29 and October 1—Giotto at the Arena Chapel
Week 7
October 6—Giotto in Florence
October 8—Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti in Siena
**PAPER TOPIC AND PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY** due in class on Wednesday, October 8.
Week 8
October 13—Midterm Exam Review
October 15—**MIDTERM EXAM**
Week 9
October 20—In the Shadow of the Black Death: The late Trecento
October 22— The Trecento in the Quattrocento
Week 10
October 27—The Trecento in the Quattrocento, cont.
October 29— Orsanmichele, the Baptistery Doors, and Civic Patronage in early Quattrocento Florence
Week 11
November 3— Civic Patronage in early Quattrocento Florence, cont.
November 5— The Early History of Linear Perspective and Its Implications
**DRAFT PAPER ** due in class on Wednesday, November 5.
Week 12
November 10— The Early History of Linear Perspective and Its Implications, cont.
November 12— Perspective and its Implications II: Piero della Francesca and Mantegna
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Week 13
November 17— Perspective and its Implications II: Piero della Francesca and Mantegna
November 19— Court Patronage in the North
**PEER REVIEWS** due in class on Wednesday, November 19
Week 14
November 24—Discussion of Papers
November 26—No Class (Thanksgiving)
Week 15
December 1 and 3— The Rise of the Medici
Week 16
December 8 and 10— The Medici Palace and Fra Angelico at San Marco
**FINAL PAPER DUE **
Monday, December 15
**FINAL EXAM**
Wednesday, December 17
3-5pm
FAC 201
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