This course is part of the overall objective of the degree program, which aims to train highly qualified professionals through a solid, specialized education.
The course aims to explore the history of drawing and printmaking—in their various techniques, forms, and types—by combining hands-on experience with the works themselves with a critical analysis of sources, while emphasizing the close connection between technique, style, and function.
Upon completion of the course, students will be familiar with the key moments in the history of the graphic arts in Europe and will be able to place the works of art analyzed in class within their proper historical and critical context and in relation to one another. To this end, methodological and bibliographic resources will be provided to enable students to independently conduct a careful study of the works, identifying their chronology, technique, provenance, and style.
Students will acquire the skills and methodologies necessary to understand the practice of drawing and engraving developed primarily in Italy within its European context from the 15th century to the present day.
The course will focus on the techniques and stylistic characteristics of artists from various geographical contexts, their influences, and the dissemination of artistic models, as well as the history and major developments in collecting related to this specific field.
The course aims to explore the history of drawing and printmaking—in their various techniques, forms, and types—by combining hands-on experience with the works themselves with a critical analysis of sources, while emphasizing the close connection between technique, style, and function.
Upon completion of the course, students will be familiar with the key moments in the history of the graphic arts in Europe and will be able to place the works of art analyzed in class within their proper historical and critical context and in relation to one another. To this end, methodological and bibliographic resources will be provided to enable students to independently conduct a careful study of the works, identifying their chronology, technique, provenance, and style.
Students will acquire the skills and methodologies necessary to understand the practice of drawing and engraving developed primarily in Italy within its European context from the 15th century to the present day.
The course will focus on the techniques and stylistic characteristics of artists from various geographical contexts, their influences, and the dissemination of artistic models, as well as the history and major developments in collecting related to this specific field.
teacher profile teaching materials
Introduction to the study of drawing and engraving with a diachronic path and knowledge of specific graphic techniques
Already in the Proem of the first edition of the Lives, Giorgio Vasari had emphasised the importance of drawing in the construction of the work of art. But in the more extensive Introduction to the 1568 edition, the artist and historiographer from Arezzo describes its forms, typologies, techniques and functions in detail.
Following Vasari's outline, the course aims to offer an awareness of the arts of drawing as the foundation of all arts, a technical instrument that allows the artist to organise and get to know external reality in its various appearances, and to express his or her inner concepts and ideas in visible forms.
The course consists of two parts:
The first will examine the evolution of drawing from the 15th to the 21st century, highlighting the importance progressively accorded to it, from a mere design or mnemonic tool - in relation to the dynamics of artistic workshops - to a conceptual foundation of artistic practice. The technical aspects and collecting aspects will also be considered fundamental.
In the second part, the specific documentary, multiplicative and diffusive nature of engraving will be examined, with a focus on its different technical modes as they were developed over the same time span, and their characteristic declination according to expressive and communicative purposes.
The materials and techniques
The supports
The tools
Pentimenti, transfer methods, restoration and tampering
Forms, functions and typologies
Functional design
Autonomous drawing
Attendance of lectures and especially workshops/seminars at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica is to be considered essential.
- Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Forme, funzioni, tipologie, in Il disegno. Forme, tecniche, significati, edited by A. Petrioli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, G.C. Sciolla, Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, Turin 1991, pp. 91-183.
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche d'incisione a rilievo. La xilografia, De Luca, Rome 2001
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche calcografiche d'incisione diretta. Burin, drypoint, black manner, De Luca, Rome 2003
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche calcografiche d'incisione indiretta. Acquaforte, acquatinta, lavis, ceramolle, De Luca, Roma 2005;
+ Other texts to be defined shortly
Familiarity with the following tools is required and will be presented in class:
- F. Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et d'Estampes, Amsterdam 1921. Supplement: La Haye 1956 ON LINE: www.marquesdecollections.fr
Teaching support tools
Projections of PPT images, which will be made available to the student at the end of the course.
Other materials, which will be made available in a manner to be communicated as the course progresses, relating to specific thematic topics.
- C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire Historique de Marques du papier, Geneve 1907, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1932. ON LINE http://www.ksbm.oeaw.ac.at/_scripts/php/BR.php
Programme
The drawing father of the arts / The language of engraving between reproduction and dissemination:Introduction to the study of drawing and engraving with a diachronic path and knowledge of specific graphic techniques
Already in the Proem of the first edition of the Lives, Giorgio Vasari had emphasised the importance of drawing in the construction of the work of art. But in the more extensive Introduction to the 1568 edition, the artist and historiographer from Arezzo describes its forms, typologies, techniques and functions in detail.
Following Vasari's outline, the course aims to offer an awareness of the arts of drawing as the foundation of all arts, a technical instrument that allows the artist to organise and get to know external reality in its various appearances, and to express his or her inner concepts and ideas in visible forms.
The course consists of two parts:
The first will examine the evolution of drawing from the 15th to the 21st century, highlighting the importance progressively accorded to it, from a mere design or mnemonic tool - in relation to the dynamics of artistic workshops - to a conceptual foundation of artistic practice. The technical aspects and collecting aspects will also be considered fundamental.
In the second part, the specific documentary, multiplicative and diffusive nature of engraving will be examined, with a focus on its different technical modes as they were developed over the same time span, and their characteristic declination according to expressive and communicative purposes.
The materials and techniques
The supports
The tools
Pentimenti, transfer methods, restoration and tampering
Forms, functions and typologies
Functional design
Autonomous drawing
Attendance of lectures and especially workshops/seminars at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica is to be considered essential.
Core Documentation
- Annamaria Petrioli Tofani, I materiali e le tecniche, in Il disegno. Forme, tecniche, significati, edited by A. Petrioli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, G.C. Sciolla, Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, Turin 1991, pp. 185-251;- Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Forme, funzioni, tipologie, in Il disegno. Forme, tecniche, significati, edited by A. Petrioli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, G.C. Sciolla, Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, Turin 1991, pp. 91-183.
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche d'incisione a rilievo. La xilografia, De Luca, Rome 2001
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche calcografiche d'incisione diretta. Burin, drypoint, black manner, De Luca, Rome 2003
- Ginevra Mariani (ed.), Le tecniche calcografiche d'incisione indiretta. Acquaforte, acquatinta, lavis, ceramolle, De Luca, Roma 2005;
+ Other texts to be defined shortly
Familiarity with the following tools is required and will be presented in class:
- F. Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et d'Estampes, Amsterdam 1921. Supplement: La Haye 1956 ON LINE: www.marquesdecollections.fr
Teaching support tools
Projections of PPT images, which will be made available to the student at the end of the course.
Other materials, which will be made available in a manner to be communicated as the course progresses, relating to specific thematic topics.
- C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire Historique de Marques du papier, Geneve 1907, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1932. ON LINE http://www.ksbm.oeaw.ac.at/_scripts/php/BR.php
Attendance
Given the seminar format of the course, attendance is to be considered mandatoryType of evaluation
The assessment of learning will consist of an oral test in which the candidate will have to sustain a critical discussion based on the texts in the syllabus and a short written paper (in the form of a ministerial cataloguing form) that will have to verify the technical and stylistic reading knowledge learnt in the workshop lessons at the Central Institute for Graphics. Assessment of the test The assessment method for the interview follows the principle of considering as excellent the test of Candidates who combine solid art-historical skills with a mature critical awareness. To pass the oral examination, the candidate must therefore demonstrate that he/she has acquired a critical knowledge of the topics discussed during the course and of the bibliography indicated in the programme. At the end of the course the candidate should be able to: - Know the outlines of the history of drawing and engraving between the 15th and 20th century - Recognise and analyse the most significant works - Develop personal reflections - Demonstrate a critical understanding of the various themes discussed - Use correct terminology The achievement of an organic vision of the themes addressed, the possession of a mastery of expression and specific language, the originality of reflection as well as familiarity with the tools of analysis of graphic works produced in the modern age will be assessed with marks of excellence. A mostly mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, an unarticulated ability to synthesise and analyse or language that is correct but not always appropriate, as well as a scholastic command of the topics covered by the course will lead to fair marks. Formative deficits or inappropriate language, as well as a lack of knowledge of the tools of analysis will lead to grades that are on the threshold of sufficiency. Formative deficiencies, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliography as well as inability to analyse will only lead to negative marks.