Gordon In Orvieto Curriculum

Spring 2010

ORV 214: Renaissance Studies in Italy (John Skillen)
 
Humanities courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

ORV 376: Introduction to Medieval Monasticism (Liesl Smith)
ORV 350: Creative Writing (Paul Mariani)
HIS 371: Iconography & Spirituality in medieval Italy (Jennifer Hevelone-Harper)

Visual Arts courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

ORV 372: Drawing (Matthew Doll)
ORV 325: Sculpture (Peggy Parker)
ORV 372: Painting (Bruce Herman)

ORV 214 Renaissance Studies in Italy
Instructor: John Skillen
The interdisciplinary course that provides a framework for the Orvieto program takes as historical point of departure the conditions of community life that promoted the rich production of religious and civic art in Italy during the Renaissance era.  Students are invited to compare these earlier conditions with those of the past century in order to imagine how the cultural arts may be fostered by communities of faith in our own epoch.

ORV101: Italian Language Studies
Because culture and language are inextricably linked, a 2-credit course in Beginning Italian language will be taught concurrently with Professor Skillen’s course in the cultural arts, and integrated with the subject matter, although its central purpose is to assist the students’ full participation in life of the Orvieto community.  (All students are expected to enroll in this course; students with previous formal Italian language study should discuss their situation with the director.)
 
ORV 372: Special Topics in Studio Art: Drawing
Instructor: Matt Doll
Through intense in-studio drawing sessions that involve dynamic spatial constructions, still-life, the figure and the landscape, this course students emphasizes drawing as a way to engage, map and describe the details that are essential to any environment, but specific to the site of Orvieto. This dialogue with the city or urban context is intended to show how the inner life of notation, description and recognition can be intimately related to the outer world of making.

ORV 325: Sculpture
Instructor: Peggy Parker
A Sculpture for a Renaissance Noblewoman: Exploring the Relationship between Artist and Patron.  Your class has been honored to receive a sculpture commission from Vittoria Colonna, a titled, learned, and pious woman who is also Michelangelo’s spiritual advisor.   Each of you will work with your patron (in actuality, your instructor) to create a figure in plaster to her specifications.  No previous art experience is necessary: the course will take you through a quick apprenticeship.  The first week you will learn the basics of plaster and working with the figure, while you enter into initial discussions with your patron.  The second week, after agreeing on a contract, you will create small studies to present to your patron for comment and approval.  The third and fourth week you will construct a larger figure, working with your patron on final decisions about patina, base construction, and installation.  At the end of the course each of you will present your work to your patron, who will preside at the dedication.

ORV 372: Painting Studio at Orvieto: Narrative Painting
Instructor: Bruce Herman
This course in the studio practice of narrative painting will give historical and theoretical attention to the conventions of narrative painting in the Renaissance, the widespread suspicion of narrative in the era of modernism, and the problems and challenges facing painters of narrative in a ‘postmodern’ cultural context.

ORV 376: Special Topics: Introduction to Medieval Monasticism
Instructor: Liesl Smith
This course will be an introduction to the literature and history of monasticism, one of the most influential modes of spiritual life and intellectual thought in the Middle Ages. Beginning with a brief look at the roots of monasticism in the Egyptian desert, the course will focus particularly upon the Italian contribution to the Western tradition made by men like Benedict of Norcia, Francis of Assisi and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and women like Benedict's sister Scolastica, Claire of Assisi. After careful attention to the writings both by and about these architects of spiritual and intellectual thought and models of medieval monasticism, the course will turn to our contemporary context to address the New Monasticism and examine why the medieval monastic life and disciplines are once again so "current".

ORV 350: Literature and Ekphrasis
Instructor: Paul Mariani
This course renews a conversation lively in the Renaissance concerning the relation between poetry and the pictorial arts, between word and image.  Taking up the classical dictum ut pictura poesis (as pictures work, so does poetry), the new humanists thought of poetry as a “speaking picture.” Interest was reborn in the classical tradition of ekphrasis in which poets were invited to create verbal responses to, or even imitations of, works of visual art.  In reverse, artists created visual representations of verbal artworks or drew from verbal descriptions of lost artworks of the past. Both directions are embodied in the frescoes of Luca Signorelli in Orvieto’s cathedral: the poet Dante ekphrastically describes the artwork of God on the cornices of Purgatory, and Signorelli paints the scenes poetically described by Dante.
 
HIS 371: Iconography and Spirituality in late antique and medieval Italy
Instructor: Jennifer Hevelone-Harper
This course explores the experience of lay Christians, clergy, and monastics in Italy during the course of the middle ages. From the earliest Christian images in the catacombs in late antiquity and the development of the papacy in the early middle ages to the flourishing of the Franciscans in the high middle ages and the transfer of papal residence to Avignon in the fourteenth century, we will examine the interface of the visual arts, Christian doctrine, spirituality, monasticism, and politics.

FALL 2010

Note: we anticipate offering an intensive 4-credit course in Beginning Italian in August as an independent International Seminar, or as an optional course taken by Orvieto semester students able to come early to Italy.

Cultural History of the Renaissance [1st month, taken by all students]

Humanities courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

Dante
Education in Classical, Medieval & Renaissance Europe
Creative Writing: Poetry

Visual Arts courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

Drawing
Oil Painting
Sculptural Ceramics

ORV 101: Italian Language Studies
Because culture and language are inextricably linked, a 2-credit course in Beginning Italian language will unfold throughout the semester, with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in life of the Orvieto community. (All students without previous Italian study are expected to enroll in this course.)

ORV 241: Cultural History of the Renaissance
Instructor: John Skillen
The interdisciplinary course that provides a framework for the Orvieto program takes as historical point of departure the conditions of community life that promoted the rich production of religious and civic art in Italy during the Renaissance era.  Students are invited to compare these earlier conditions with those of the past century in order to imagine how the cultural arts may be fostered by globally-sensitive communities of faith in the future.

ORV 260: Dante
Instructor: Greg Peters
Study of Dante's Divine Comedy (in a dual-language edition), focusing on plot, underlying theological and philosophical concepts, and historical and political background, with attention to epic tradition and Dante’s relation to visual epics such as Signorelli’s Last Judgment in the Orvieto cathedral.

ORV 344: Special Topics in History: Education in classical, medieval and Renaissance Europe
Instructor: Christopher Perrin
This course offers a history of the liberal arts in classical-Christian Europe, presenting the curriculum and pedagogy in the context of the history of ideas and how education related to theology and the arts.

ORV 350: Poetry and Ekphrasis
Instructor:Mark Stevick
This course renews a conversation lively in the Renaissance concerning the relation between poetry and the pictorial arts, between word and image. Interest was reborn in the classical tradition of ekphrasis in which poets were invited to create verbal responses to, or even imitations of, works of visual art. In reverse, artists created visual representations of verbal artworks or drew from verbal descriptions of lost artworks of the past.

ORV 270: Drawing Studio at Orvieto
Instructor: Matthew Doll
Through intense in-studio drawing sessions that involve dynamic spatial constructions, still-life, the figure and the landscape, this course students emphasizes drawing as a way to engage, map and describe the details that are essential to any environment, but specific to the site of Orvieto.

ORV 371: Painting Studio at Orvieto
Instructor: Nicora Gangi
Advanced studio in the methods and materials of oil painting, with historical attention to the narrative tradition of Renaissance painting.

ORV 373: Ceramics Studio at Orvieto
Instructor: Marino Moretti
Ceramics in the context of Orvieto’s long history as a center of terra-cotta and maiolica production from the bucchero pottery of the ancient Etruscans to the sculptural ceramics of contemporary artists.
 

Spring 2011

Cultural History of the Renaissance [1st month, taken by all students]

Humanities courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

Introduction to Medieval Monasticism
Creative Writing: Poetry
Shakespeare in Italy

Visual Arts courses [offered sequentially during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months]:

Drawing
Oil Painting
Text & Image

ORV 241 Cultural History of the Renaissance
Instructor: John Skillen
The interdisciplinary course that provides a framework for the Orvieto program takes as historical point of departure the conditions of community life that promoted the rich production of religious and civic art in Italy during the Renaissance era.  Students are invited to compare these earlier conditions with those of the past century in order to imagine how the cultural arts may be fostered by communities of faith in our own epoch.

ORV 101: Italian Language Studies
Because culture and language are inextricably linked, a 2-credit course in Beginning Italian language will unfold throughout the semester, with the central purpose of assisting students' full participation in life of the Orvieto community. (All students without previous Italian study are expected to enroll in this course.)

ORV 342: Introduction to Medieval Monasticism
Instructor: LiesL Smith
Study of one of the most influential modes of spiritual life and intellectual thought in the Middle Ages focusing particularly on the Italian contribution to Western monasticism by people like Benedict and his sister Scolastica, Francis and Claire of Assisi, Bonaventure, and Catherine of Siena.

ORV 350: Poetry and Ekphrasis
Instructor: to be announced
This course renews a conversation lively in the Renaissance concerning the relation between poetry and the pictorial arts, between word and image. Interest was reborn in the classical tradition of ekphrasis in which poets were invited to create verbal responses to, or even imitations of, works of visual art. In reverse, artists created visual representations of verbal artworks or drew from verbal descriptions of lost artworks of the past.

ORV 364: Shakespeare in Italy
Instructor: to be announced
Focus on the extensive influence of Italy on Shakespeare’s theater, exhibited through the many plays set in Italy, plots taken from sensational Italian literature, and the influence of Italian humanism.

ORV 270: Drawing Studio at Orvieto
Instructor: Matthew Doll
Through intense in-studio drawing sessions that involve dynamic spatial constructions, still-life, the figure and the landscape, this course students emphasizes drawing as a way to engage, map and describe the details that are essential to any environment, but specific to the site of Orvieto.

ORV 371: Painting Studio at Orvieto
Instructor: Philippe Fretz
This course in the studio practice of narrative painting will give historical and theoretical attention to the conventions of narrative painting in the Renaissance, the widespread suspicion of narrative in the era of modernism, and the problems and challenges facing painters of narrative in a ‘postmodern’ cultural context.

ORV 374: Special Topics in Art: Text & Image
Instructor: Jeremy Botts
With reference to the close relation of images to textual sources in the Renaissance, this course will explore contemporary modes of design that merge words with image, restoring word or logos to corporal experience through art.