Year Course Programme 2016–17 Late Medieval to Early Renaissance 1250–1500 Tuesdays, 20 September 2016 – 11 July 2017 (over 3 terms) 11.10–15.30 (Each term includes optional gallery talks, commencing at 10.00 and repeated at 15.30) The two and a half centuries between 1250 and 1500 are some of the richest and most fascinating in the history of Western European art. Spanning the periods of the High Gothic and the Renaissance, it was an era of profound cultural, intellectual and social change. Geographically the course encompasses the whole of Western Europe, while emphasising those countries where significant developments took place. At the core of the course are the visual arts in all their varied manifestations. Many of them are outstandingly represented in the V&A: painting, sculpture and architecture, metalwork and tapestry, stained glass and maiolica, manuscript illumination and prints. Broader issues crucial to artistic developments are also addressed: political and social structures, Christian thought and devotional practice, the rediscovery of classical antiquity, and patronage. The processes and techniques involved in producing works of art and artefacts are investigated, and related themes such as literature and dress introduced. Case studies offer the opportunity to focus on major works of art and their makers within the broader thematic context of the course as a whole. Course Director: Dr Paula Nuttall is an art historian specialising in the renaissance, and has taught on the Medieval and Renaissance Year Course since its inception in 1993. She gained her B.A. and Ph.D at the Courtauld Institute of Art, writing her doctoral thesis on artistic relations between the Netherlands and Italy. She has published widely in this field, including From Flanders to Florence, the Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400–1500 (Yale 2004), and co-curated the exhibition Face to Face: Flanders, Florence and Renaissance Painting at The Huntington, San Marino (California) in 2013. Paula also lectures for the National Gallery, the Art Fund and NADFAS, and is a visiting lecturer on the MA programme at the Courtauld. Course Tutor and Medieval Consultant: Dr Sally Dormer was Director of the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Year Course 1993–2009 and is currently Director of the V&A Early Medieval Year Course. She is a specialist medieval art historian and lecturer who gained an MA in Medieval Art History and a Ph.D on medieval manuscript illumination at the Courtauld Institute. Sally is Dean of European Studies, a study-abroad semester for undergraduate students from the University of the South and Rhodes College, USA, and teaches for the Art Fund, NADFAS and Swan Hellenic. Other Lecturers: - Dr Sally Dixon-Smith, Tower of London - Peter Draper, Visiting Professor, Birkbeck College, University of London - Dr Anna Eavis, Curatorial Director, English Heritage - Dr Jim Harris, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford - Peta Motture, V&A Senior Curator - Rev Gordon Mursell, former Bishop of Stafford - Dr Catherine Oakes, Director of Studies, University of Oxford, Dept of Continuing Education - Prof David Park, Head of Wall Painting Conservation, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London - Dr Catherine Reynolds, Christie’s manuscript consultant - Dr Andrew Spira, Programme Director, Christie’s Education Autumn Term Programme & Dates: Late Medieval to Early Renaissance 1250–1500 Tuesdays, 20 September – 6 December 2016 The first term covers the period c.1250– Secular life produced its own art forms, 1350, when the fully-fledged Gothic style such as manuscripts, tapestry and spread from the Île de France throughout jewellery. Such objects and their Europe, with Paris in the vanguard of functions remained fundamentally artistic centres. Intellectual life was unchanged up until 1500, although their dominated by the universities, while style changed dramatically. spiritually the mendicant Dominican and Franciscan orders were increasingly Conversely, the beginnings of social and influential in encouraging popular ideological change, fundamental to later devotion amongst the laity. This is the developments, were already evident. era of the great late Gothic cathedrals Towns were emerging as centres of of France and England, whose influence wealth and power and, for the first time, dominated European architecture of the artistic personalities can be identified. period, and for which much important A dawning interest in the antique is sculpture and stained glass was apparent in the philosophy of produced. theologians and scholars from Thomas Aquinas to Petrarch. In Italy sculptors Religious life inevitably also played a such as the Pisani were aware of antique crucial part in determining the form sources, while Florentine and Sienese and function of small-scale works of painters achieved unprecedented art. The course considers liturgical and realism which gradually spread to devotional practices and related objects northern Europe through the travels including altarpieces, vestments, of artists and patrons. liturgical vessels and Books of Hours. 20 September 27 September Contexts: Philosophical and Theological Contexts: Historical and Devotional 10.30 Introduction 11.10 Emperors, Kings and Princes: Paula Nuttall Secular Authority in Western Europe 11.10 The Medieval Universities Sally Dormer Gordon Mursell 12.15 Popes, Bishops and Friars: 12.15 Philosophers and Theologians Ecclesiastical Authority in Gordon Mursell Western Europe 14.30 The Antique Sally Dormer Gordon Mursell 14.30 Late Medieval Devotion to the Virgin Sally Dormer 4 October 8 November Art, Artefacts and the Liturgy Civic Architecture and Church Sculpture 10.10 Looking at Pictures 11.10 Italian Gothic Architecture Paula Nuttall Sally Dormer 11.10 Late Medieval Devotional and 12.15 Architectural Sculpture: Liturgical Practice North and South Peter Draper Sally Dormer 12.15 Altarpieces and Altars 14.30 Castles and Fortified Architecture Peter Draper Sally Dixon-Smith 14.30 Liturgical Vestments, Furniture 15 November and Vessels Goldsmiths and Glass Painters Peter Draper 10.00 Gallery Talk 11 October 11.10 Stained Glass 1250–1400 Italian Gothic Sculpture Anna Eavis 11.10 Case Study: Nicola Pisano – The Pisa 12.15 The Goldsmith’s Craft Baptistery Pulpit Sally Dormer John Renner 14.30 Enamelling Techniques 12.15 Assisi and Late 13th Century Italian Sally Dormer Painting 22 November John Renner Private Devotional Art 1250–1300 14.30 Tempera & Fresco 11.10 Ivory Carving Vicky Leanse Sally Dormer 18 October 12.15 Painting in the North 1250–c.1300 Giotto and Italian Painting c. 1300 Sally Dormer 10.00 Gallery Talk 14.30 Books of Hours 11.10 Case Study: Giotto – the Arena Chapel Catherine Oakes John Renner 29 November 12.15 Narrative Sculpture Illuminated Manuscripts 1300–80 John Renner 10.00 Gallery Talk 14.30 The Sculpted Figure 11.10 Romance Manuscripts and the John Renner Roman de la Rose 25 October Sally Dormer Trecento Painting in Siena 12.15 Case Study: the Queen Mary Psalter 11.10 Case Study: Duccio’s Maestà Sally Dormer John Renner 14.30 Manuscript Painting in England and 12.15 Siena: Early Trecento Panel Painting France: 1300–80 John Renner Catherine Oakes 14.30 Siena: Early Trecento Mural Painting 6 December John Renner Secular Buildings 1 November 11.10 Islamic Spain Gothic Church Architecture in Northern Europe Sally Dormer 11.10 French Gothic Architecture 12.15 Domestic Architecture and Interiors Sally Dormer Catherine Oakes 12.15 Gothic Architecture in England, 14.30 Secular Wall Painting Germany and Spain David Park Sally Dormer 14.30 Case Study: Westminster Abbey Sally Dormer Spring Term Programme & Dates: Late Medieval to Early Renaissance 1250–1500 Tuesdays, 10 January – 28 March 2017 The second term continues from 1350 Growing urbanisation and the rise of to c.1440, by which time new styles and the middle classes led to changes in attitudes had emerged both in the North patronage and artistic consumption, and in Italy. Gothic art reached its apogee which ceased to be the preserve of the in the late 14th century courts of Bohemia, Church and the ruling elite. Painters and Burgundy and France, where patrons sculptors sought increasingly to reproduce such as Jean de Berry commissioned the world about them both in the North buildings and sculpture, metalwork and and Italy, although this was often achieved manuscripts of superlative craftsmanship by very different means. In the Netherlands and beauty. Increased interchange oil painting enabled Jan van Eyck and occurred across the Alps as Parisian Rogier van der Weyden to paint with painters became aware of Italian ideas. astonishing fidelity to appearances, The florid style of late Gothic architecture while in Italy the rediscovery of classical continued to evolve until 1500, spreading antiquity, promoted by humanist as far south as Milan and reaching its scholars, contributed to the creation of a most fantastical in the German countries. new realistic style by Donatello, Ghiberti and Masaccio in Florence. The first post-classical theory of art was written by Alberti, and Brunelleschi developed a new architectural style based on classical principles of symmetry and proportion. 10 January 17 January Late Gothic in England and France Textiles and Gem Stones 10.55 Introduction 11.10 Embroidery Paula Nuttall Catherine Reynolds 11.10 Architecture in France and England: 12.15 Tapestry Perpendicular and Flamboyant Catherine Reynolds Catherine Oakes 14.30 Late Medieval Jewellery 12.15 The English Parish Church Sally Dormer Catherine Oakes 14.30