VENICE: Art, Humanism & Culture

COURSE OUTLINE: THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF VENICE (the official designation of the course is LIB 200: Art, Humanism and Technology)

 

This course meets once a week for three sixty-minute periods. It is paired with two other courses, one that uses drama to study the images and working of Venetian society over the centuries and one that focuses on the intersection of Venetian art and politics.

The chief text for the course is Jan Morris’ The World of Venice (3rd ed.), supplemented by Patricia Fortini Brown’s Art and Life in Renaissance Venice, the Knopf guide, Venice, and about forty handouts.

This course looks at the 1500-year history of Venice by studying the relationship of humanism, science and technology. Particular emphasis will be laid on the impact of technological advances on Venetian life over the centuries: e.g., how a new building technology allowed for the habitation of the lagoon, how the perfection of commercial and naval architecture made Venice the dominant European trading power with Asia and permitted Venice to rule the Mediterranean (until it was eclipsed by Turkish naval power in the seventeenth century), how commerce with Asia led to the creation of a wholly distinctive type of architecture in this "sea-girt city," how Venetian scientists contributed to the expanded understanding of life and the physical environment in the Italian Renaissance, and how in the present new technologies are being invented in hopes of saving Venice from sinking back into the sea.

 

SCHEDULE:

 

INTRODUCTION

WEEK 1—VENICE AS A TOURIST CLICHÉ: TRUTH AND FICTION, IMAGES AND UNDERSTANDINGS

 

PART I: ORIGIN THROUGH THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

->READINGS FOR WEEK 2: Morris: "Foreword," "Landfall," Chapters 11, 23, 27; Knopf Guide: 16-28 (ecology and natural history), 66-71 (mosaics and gondolas), 374-78 (Torcello)

WEEK 2—GEOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY: THE CREATION OF VENICE

->READING FOR WEEK 3 : Morris: Chapters 2, 3, 13, 17; Knopf Guide: 234-43 (basilica of San Marco), 100-04 (architectural styles, gothic palazzo), 279-80 (the Rialto and commerce)

WEEK 3—TECHNOLOGY AND BUILDING IN THE MEDIEVAL CITY
Screening: "The Shape of the World," Part 1 [ex]

->READING FOR WEEK 4: Morris: Chapters 1, 12, 25, 26; Knopf Guide: 148-49 (Ca' D'Oro), 157-59 (Sts. Giovanni e Paolo [a.k.a. "Zanipaolo"]), 292-93 (Frari), 32-33 (15C), 177-80 (Arsenale)

WEEK 4—NAVAL TECHNOLGY, TRADE AND THE SPREADING POWER OF VENICE
Screening: "The Shape of the World," Part 2 [ex]

->READING FOR WEEK 5: Morris, Chapter 19; Knopf Guide: 36-37 (Battle of Lepanto), 40-41 (Francesco Morosini)

WEEK 5—THE RISE AND FALL OF A MARITIME EMPIRE

 

PART II: VENICE AND THE RENAISSANCE

->READING FOR WEEK 6: Brown, Chapter 1; Morris: Chapters 4, 7; Knopf Guide: 224-25 & 227-30 (Doge's Palace), 162-64 (San Giorgio Schiavoni), Burckhardt excerpts (handout)

WEEK 6—THE RENAISSANCE IDEA OF HUMANISM AND THE LATE CONVERSION OF VENICE

->READING FOR WEEK 7: Brown, Chapter 2, Knopf Guide: 302-17 (Venetian Painters)

WEEK 7—VENETAIN RENAIISANCE WORK IN SOCIAL CONTEXT

->READING FOR WEEK 8: Morris: Chapters 16, 20; Brown, Chapter 3; Knopf Guide: 226 & 231-33 (Venetian institutions)

WEEK 8—GOVERNING VENICE: ELIGHTENED OLIGOPOLY, SECRET POLICE, A NETWORK OF SPIES AND POLITICAL LOYALTY

->READING FOR WEEK 9: Brown, Chapters 4-5; Morris: Chapters 6, 8, 9, 24; Knopf Guide: 33-34 (16-17C)

WEEK 9—VENICE, THE VENETO AND ITALY; VENICE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; PRINTING IN VENICE

->READING FOR WEEK 10: Brown, Chapter 6; Morris: Chapters 5, 21, 29, 29; Knopf Guide: 44-47 (furniture and clothing); 78-95 & 98-99 (campi, wells, bridges, churches,campaniles, scoule, palazzi, clocks), 318-20 (Salute); 337-42 (Palladian Churches)

WEEK 10—VENETIAN COURTESANS AND VERONICA FRANCO: VENICE AND FASHION; 17C VENICE

 

PART III: SINKING BACK INTO THE SEA

->READING FOR WEEK 11: Morris: Chapters 10, 14, 18, 22, 30 [cont.]; Knopf Guide: 34-35 (18-19C), 168-69 (Gabriel Bella's paintings)

WEEK 11—VENICE IN DECLINE: THE CENTURIES OF NATIONALISM AND CONQUEST

->READING FOR WEEK 12: Morris: Chapters 15, 31 and "Embarkation"; Knopf Guide: 56-65 & 72-76 (tourist matters: gondoliers, glassblowers, lacemaking, marbled paper, metalwork, boats, food and "tipico"), 106-12 (Venice as seen by painters), 184-86 (the Biennale), 188-218 (the Grand Canal now), 354-57 (Lido and the Film Festival)

WEEK 12—VENICE IN PERIL: THE TECHNOLOGY OF TOURISM, THE TECHNOLOGY OF SURVIVAL
Screening: "Sinking City of Venice"