SURVEY OF
DECORATIVE ARTS I (AH6010)
Masters Program in the History of Decorative Arts
Corcoran College
of Art & Design / The Smithsonian Associates
Fall 2007
Tuesdays, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Professor: Angela S. George
Email: asgeorge@umd.edu
Website: www.oocities.org/wren_dc/
Office hours: by appointment
This course provides
an overview of European decorative arts from the fifteenth through the
eighteenth centuries, with a focus on objects produced and used in Italy,
France and England. During the first
half of the semester we will examine the role of the decorative arts in the
formation of familial and cultural identity among the elite of the Italian
Renaissance. Attention will also be
given to decorative arts at the court of Francois I at Fontainebleau and at the
royal palaces of Tudor England. The
second half of the course will concentrate on European decorative arts produced
and used during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with an emphasis on
the stylistic centers of Paris and London.
Riley, Noël, ed. The Elements of Design. New York: Free Press, 2003.
Thornton, Peter. Form and Decoration: Innovation in the Decorative Arts, 1470-1870. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998.
Additional reading assignments will be drawn from books placed on reserve as well as articles the instructor will distribute in class.
Course requirements include two short papers, a midterm exam and a final exam. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Paper 1 = 25%
Paper 2 = 25%
Midterm = 25%
Final
= 25%
Students are expected to attend all class sessions and course-related activities for each course in which they register. Students may not attend any class for which they haven’t officially registered. Three absences within a given semester are grounds for automatic failure of the course. In exceptional circumstances, the Director of Student Affairs in coordination with the Administrative Chair may approve emergency absences for medical or other legitimate reasons. In such cases, students are required to provide medical or other supporting documentation. Absences due to religious holidays must be pre-approved by the instructor one week in advance of the absence.
Although students may miss up to two class sessions, they are not relieved of the obligation to fulfill all course assignments, including those that can only be fulfilled in class. Of special note to all students: Instructors may modify the standard attendance policy (stated in the student handbook) according to how they weigh various components of the curriculum throughout the semester.
October 2 – paper 1 due (15th- or 16th-century object)
October 30 – midterm examination (Note: November 7 is last day to withdraw with a “W”)
November 27 – paper 2 due (17th- or 18th-century object from Hillwood’s collection)
December 11 – final examination
(Please note: the weekly readings are the minimum that should be read for the course and students are encouraged to consult the supplemental books on reserve. Additionally, the instructor reserves the right to assign further readings throughout the semester.)
1. September 4: Introduction to the Course
Furniture and Woodwork of Renaissance Italy
Pope-Hennessy, John and Keith Christiansen. “Secular Painting in Fifteenth-Century Tuscany:
Birth Trays, Cassone Panels, and Portraits.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Summer 1980).
**Available through JSTOR, a
full-text database available on computers at the Smithsonian (Masters program
and libraries) and the Corcoran Library (on site only).
Riley, Noel, ed. The Elements of Design. New York: Free Press, 2003; 8-15.
Thornton, Peter. Form and Decoration: Innovation in the Decorative Arts, 1470-1870. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998; chapter 1.
2. September 11: Ceramics and Glass of Renaissance Italy
Riley, 20-29.
Thornton, chapters 2-3.
Kingery, David W. “Painterly Maiolica of the Italian Renaissance.” Technology and Culture,
**Available through JSTOR.
In addition to the above readings, students are required to familiarize themselves with the collection of Renaissance ceramics on view at the National Gallery of Art and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
3. September 18: Textiles of Renaissance Italy and Tapestry Production in Europe to 1600
Campbell, Thomas P. Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence. New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002; 3-11, and
Luchinat, Christina Acidini, ed. Treasures of Florence: The Medici Collection, 1400-1700.
Munich and NY, 1997; 29-72.
Riley, 30-37.
Thornton, chapter 5.
Pollard, J. Graham. “The Italian Renaissance Medal: Collecting and Connoisseurship.” In
Italian Medals: Studies in the History of Art 21 (1987); 61-69.
In addition to the above readings, students are required to
familiarize themselves with the collection of Renaissance medals on view at the
National Gallery of Art.
6. October
9: No
class
Riley, 16-19.
8. October 23: Renaissance
France and Fontainebleau
Thornton, chapter 4.
In addition to the above readings, students are required to
familiarize themselves with the collection of Limoges enamels and
Saint-Porchaire ceramics on view at the National Gallery of Art.
Riley, 40-47.
Thornton, chapters 7, 8, 10, 11.
Riley, 48-79.
Thornton, chapters 9 and 12.
Thornton, Peter. Seventeenth-Century Interior in England, France, and Holland. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1978; peruse entire volume.
12. November 20: Regence and
Rococo in France; the Development of Porcelain in Europe
Riley, 80-87, 102-103, 108-109, 114-121.
Thornton, chapter 13.
In addition to the above readings, students are required to familiarize themselves with the collection of French decorative arts on view at Hillwood Museum and Gardens.
13. November 27: Eighteenth-Century
England
Riley, 94-99, 104-107.
Thornton, chapter 15.
14. December 4:
Eighteenth-Century
Neoclassicism in France and England
Riley, 126-145
Thornton, chapter 14.
To promote academic
integrity as a core value for our learning community, we, the members of the
Corcoran College of Art & Design, have set forth the following code of
honor. The Honor Code addresses
cheating and attempted cheating, plagiarism, lying, and stealing.
I. Cheating encompasses the following:
1. The use of unauthorized materials,
information, study aids, or unauthorized collaboration on in-class
examinations, take-home examinations, or other academic exercises. It is the
responsibility of the student to consult with the instructor concerning what
constitutes permissible collaboration. Cheating or assisting another student to
cheat in connection with an examination or assignment is academic fraud.
2. The above may be accomplished by any means
whatsoever, including but not limited to the following: fraud; duress;
deception; theft; trick; talking; signs; gestures; and copying from another
student.
3. Attempted cheating
II. Plagiarism encompasses the following:
1. Plagiarism, in any of its forms, and
whether intentional or unintentional, violates standards of academic integrity.
Plagiarism is the act of passing off as one’s own the ideas or writings of
another. Students are responsible for
educating themselves as to the proper mode of attributing credit in any course.
Faculty may use various methods to assess the originality of students’ work.
Note: plagiarism can be said to have occurred without any affirmative showing
that a student’s use of another’s work was intentional.
2. False citation is academic fraud. False
citation is the attribution of intellectual property to an incorrect or
fabricated source with the intention to deceive. False attribution seriously
undermines the integrity of the academic enterprise by severing a chain of
ideas which should be traceable link by link.
3. Submitting work, either academic or
studio, for multiple purposes. Students
are not permitted to submit their own work (in identical or similar form) for
multiple purposes without the prior and explicit approval of all faculty
members to whom the work will be submitted. This includes work first produced
in connection with classes at the Corcoran or at other institutions attended by
the student.
III. Lying encompasses the following: The willful
and knowledgeable telling of an untruth, as well as any form of deceit,
attempted deceit, or fraud in an oral or written statement relating to academic
work. This includes but is not limited to the following:
1. Lying to college staff and faculty members.
2. Falsifying any college document by
mutilation, addition, or deletion.
Any attempt to
forge or alter academic documentation (including transcripts, letters of
recommendation, certificates of enrollment or good standing, and registration
forms) concerning oneself or others is academic fraud.
3. Lying to Honor Committee members during
investigation and hearing.
This may constitute a second charge, with the committee members who
acted as judges during that specific hearing acting as accusers
IV. Stealing encompasses the following:
Taking or appropriating without the permission to do so, and with the intent to keep or to make use of wrongfully, property belonging to any member of the Corcoran community or any property located on the college campuses or Student Housing. This includes misuse of college computer resources. This section is relevant only to academic work and related materials.
Survey of
Decorative Arts I (AH6010)
Fall 2007
Books On Reserve:
Campbell, Thomas P. Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence. New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Distelberger, Rudolf, et al. Western Decorative Arts, Part I. Washington, DC: National Gallery
of Art, 1993.
Hayward, Helena, ed. World Furniture: An Illustrated History. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell, 1990.
Luchinat, Christina Acidini, ed. Treasures of Florence: The Medici Collection, 1400-1700.
Munich and NY, 1997.
Musacchio, Jacqueline Marie. The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Odom, Anne and Liana Parades Arend. Taste For Splendor: Russian Imperial
& European
Treasures from the Hillwood Museum. Washington, DC: Hillwood Museum & Gardens, 1999.
Schroder, Timothy. The Art of the European Goldsmith. New York: American Federation for
the Arts, 1983.
Snodin, Michael and John Styles. Design and the Decorative Arts: Britain, 1500-1900. London:
Victoria and Albert Museum, 2001.
Thornton, Peter. Seventeenth-Century Interior in England, France, and Holland. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1978.
_____. The Italian Renaissance Interior 1400-1600. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991.
Trench, Lucy, ed. Materials and Techniques in the Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Dictionary.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.