Bramante to Palladio Architecture in Sixteenth-Century Italy

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Tag Gronberg
• Tutor: Peter Fane-Saunders
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)

This module explores how architects of the period, from Bramante to Palladio, fashioned a new architectural language for villas, palaces and churches - a vocabulary that was loaded with social, religious and political significance. It also considers the changing status of the architect and the role of the architect’s imagination in the interpretation/transformation of source material. The module will discuss three major regions of architectural innovation: Rome, Florence and north-east Italy (Mantua and Venice). Architects and buildings to be covered include Bramante and his work in Rome; the villa and palace designs of Raphael and his school; Michelangelo’s commissions from the Medici and the papacy; and Palladio’s projects for villas, churches and palaces in and around Venice. Primary sources will be studied in translation and there will be a field trip to study architectural material of the period.

By the end of this module, you should have:

• developed at postgraduate level acuity in observing visual culture including photographs
• an enhanced understanding of this visual culture within the social and cultural context of its production
• acquired knowledge of methodologies concerned with the discipline
• engaged constructively in current debates concerning the discipline and its changing nature.