Eva Renzulli, VIU

Description
This course is an introduction to Venetian Art and Architecture in the 15th and 16th centuries. Different aspects will be investigated (eg culture, politics, art and architecture) exploring their interaction. After having examined what historians call “the Myth” of Venice, and considered the institutions that gave shape to it, the course will concentrate on the various forms that such Myth took in art, in architecture and, on a larger scale, in urban strategies. The course will begin by focusing on several sectors of the town. An analysis of its two major centers: the political and religious one, Piazza San Marco and the economic one, the Rialto, will be followed by an examination of minor catalyzing centers around which Venetian and foreign communities assembled such as: Scuole Grandi and Piccole, the German Fondaco and the Ghetto, manifestations of that mythical harmony between classes and of hospitality towards foreigners. A survey of private and public buildings and their patrons, secular and sacred, will be the starting point to develop various themes such as magnificence, ritual uses of public space, architecture and art, self representation of the State, and of the governing élite in its private palaces and chapels. This approach will be carried out trying at the same time to highlight how the peculiarity of Venice, and its complex heritage - since it considered itself a second Constantinople and a second Rome- influenced the way in which the “new language” of the Renaissance was introduced into town and evolved from the 15th to the 16th century, concentrating on concepts such as renovation and innovation, and tradition and interpretation of models.
Classes will be integrated by visits on site. Readings from the course pack are required for each session.

Aim of the course
The goal is to provide an introduction to Venetian art and architecture and their complex relations with the specific lagoon context and its institutions. The course also aims to encourage the student’s awareness of the meanings of built pace, and to provide the student with an intellectual vocabulary for the critical discussion of art and architecture.

Evaluation
Attendance and participation in class and on site visits 25%; Midterm exam 35%; Paper, theme to be chosen before and in accordance with instructor 40%.

1.1- The Myth of Venice.
1.2 - Venetian Society and its Institutions.

2.1 - Piazza San Marco and the Market of Rialto.
2.2 - The Ducal Palace.

3.1 Discussion.
3.2 - VISIT to the Ducal Palace.

4.1 - The palaces of two patricians in the XVI century: Ca’ d’Oro and Ca’ Foscari. Ducal allusions on private facades.

4.2 Art, religion and politics doge’s Foscari’s time: the Cappella dei Mascoli in Saint Mark’s church and the Cappella d’oro Chapel San Zaccaria.

5.1 - Triumph over death: the Doge’s tomb in the XV century.
5.2 Scuole Grandi e Piccole. Architecture in the name of Piety.

5.2 Scuole Grandi e Piccole. Art in the name of Piety: Bellini and Carpaccio.
6.2 Giovanni Bellini’s altarpieces.

7.1 HALF TERM EXAM.
7.2 VISIT to the Accademia.

8.1 PAPER TOPIC PROPOSITION AND DISCUSSION
8.2 The church of Santa Maria de’ Miracoli

9.1 - The German Fondaco and the Germans’ Chapel. Commercial alliances and cultural consequences. Fra Giocondo and Dürer.
9.2 VISIT - Scuola to Santa Maria de’ Miracoli, San Giovanni e Paolo San Zaccaria

10.1 - The Jewish Enclosures: Ghetto Nuovo and Ghetto Vecchio
10.2 - Venice after the Sack of Rome (1527).

11.1 A Roman architect in Venice: Jacopo Sansovino and the Library, the Mint and the Loggetta.
11.2 From Ca’ Loredan to Ca’ Corner: the transformation of the Venetian Palace and the
absorption of the new language.

12.1 - Andrea Gritti’s patronage in Piazza San Marco and at San Francesco della Vigna: two sides of the medal.
12.2- VISIT to San Franceso della Vigna.

Biography
Laurea in Architecture and Dottorato in History of Architecture (IUAV). Teaching Assistant for the Degree Course in Construction at IUAV. Was Teaching Fellow at Harvard and Teaching Assistant at the University of Ferrara. Contributed to the exhibition Palladio nel Nord Europa. Libri, viaggiatori e architetti organised by the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura 'Andrea Palladio' of Vicenza (CISA). Published Modelli e reinterpretazioni: Borromini e l'altare cosmatesco di S. Maria Maddalena a S. Giovanni in Oleo, in Atti del Convegno “Borromini e l'universo barocco”, (Roma, 13-15 Gennaio 2000), Milano: Electa 2000, pp. 162-65 and Borromini restauratore: S. Giovanni in Oleo e S. Salvatore a Ponte Rotto, in 'Annali', X, 1998, pp.203-220.