Undergraduate Course: The Art of Disegno: Creating in Renaissance Italy (HIAR10213)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | How were works of art made in Renaissance Italy? Through behind-the-scenes visits and practical demonstrations, this course takes a hands-on approach to investigating the possibilities and limits different materials and techniques offered artists. Students confront questions about originality, copying and collaboration; and consider economic and cultural value in an increasingly globally connected world. |
| Course description |
The Art of Disegno: Creating in the Italian Renaissance focuses on disegno, an Italian word that is hard to translate but that came to define artists practice and status in the fifteenth and sixteenth-centuries. The first half of the course concentrates on the relationship between the theory and practice of drawing/design. Practical activities are included in some seminars to offer hands-on experience of the limits and possibilities of certain materials and techniques. In the second half of the course some of the artworks made possible by drawing/design are explored: marble carving and bronze casting, print-making and tapestry. Recurring themes throughout the course include individual or collaborative artistic identity, originals or copies, economic or cultural value.
This 20-credit course is taught over 10 teaching weeks through 2-hour weekly seminars, one or more of which will take place in Edinburgh's museums and galleries. Classes will include short lectures, group work, class discussion and hands-on practical demonstrations. No prior practical art experience is expected, however. Essential readings cover primary and secondary texts, with an emphasis on technical art history. Preparatory readings which students are expected to completed for each class are complemented by self-guided site visits and video/web-based research. Group tasks will include the design and presentation of a collaborative project.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and we will only consider University/College level courses. **Please note that 3rd year History of Art courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 9,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 9,
External Visit Hours 2,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 5,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
170 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 3 assessment components:
1. Group Presentation, 20%, Weeks 5-6. Relating to all Learning Outcomes. In the first week of the course, students will be organised into small groups and given a task to research and present to the rest of the cohort as a Group Presentation lasting 10-15 minutes. They will submit a short written report of 500 words immediately after the presentation.
2. Reflective written Portfolio, 1,000 words, 30%, Weeks 6-8. Relating to all Learning Outcomes. Two mini-essays of 500 words each. Mini essays reflect on and expand practical activities undertaken in classes during Weeks 1-5.
3. Essay, 2,000 words, 50%, Exam Diet. Relating to all Learning Outcomes. Students will respond to one of a choice of essay questions.
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| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
Students will receive on-going formative feedback during seminars from peers and the course organiser in the form of class discussions and the opportunity to ask questions. This feedback will relate directly to the course learning outcomes and all summative assessments equally. Additionally, each student is entitled to one-to-one meetings to obtain verbal feedback from the course organiser on essay plans for the 2,000-word essays in weeks 8-9.
Summative feedback:
Students will receive separate written feedback for the summative assessments from the course organiser.
The analytical and critical thinking skills needed for the first summative assessment correspond to the skills needed in the second summative assessment, and likewise for the third. As such, summative feedback for the first assessment will contribute directly to the second and third assessments, allowing for reflection and improvement before the subsequent summative submission.
Summative feedback will be provided according to university regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply appropriate technical, theoretical or historical methodologies to the analysis of art objects.
- Think critically about how and why artworks were created.
- Utilise primary and secondary sources from a variety of subject areas, including art history and theory, conservation and curatorial practice, social and economic history.
- Discuss verbally and in writing (as appropriate) the ways in which materials and techniques inform the objects and values of Italian Renaissance art history.
- Use their understanding of historical values to contest contemporary assumptions.
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Reading List
Kemp, Martin, Ann Massing, Nicola Christie, and Karin Groen. Paolo Uccello's Hunt in the Forest. Burlington Magazine 33, no. 1056 (1991): 164-78.
Miedema, Hessel. On Mannerism and Maniera. Simiolus 10, no. 1 (1978): 19-45.
Rosand, David. Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Whistler, Catherine. Venice and Drawing, 1500-1800: Theory, Practice and Collecting. Yale University Press, 2016.
Woods, Kim. Making Renaissance Art. Yale University Press, 2007. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and Enquiry: Analytical and critical thinking skills are strengthened in seminars and summative assessments through the analysis of cross-disciplinary primary and secondary sources, as well as direct engagement with artworks and the materials and techniques that made them.
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy: Formative and summative assessments encourage students to be self-aware of their own learning and development on their own and in relation to other students; students potential is maximised by choosing topics and tasks that best suit their learning styles and interests. Intellectual autonomy is fostered through independent learning while group work encourages an openness to and curiosity in others opinions.
Communication: The three assessment types facilitate the communication of complex ideas in diverse ways: the ability to work in a group and deliver agreed outcomes verbally, the ability to write concisely, and the ability to develop an argument through a piece of substantial, structured writing.
Seminar discussions explore the ways in which values change through history, hence strengthening cross-cultural communication and encouraging sensitivity to diversity and inclusion. |
| Keywords | Italian Renaissance,making,technical art history,drawing,process |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Carol Richardson
Tel: (0131 6)50 4119
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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