Art & Classical Subject Matter
The revived interest in the classical past that began with the Renaissance, had a legacy that lasted into the nineteenth century; resulting in all educated people having a background in both the myths and histories of Graeco-Roman culture. This class aims to expand your visual literacy by giving you a broad introductory understanding of the stories behind classically inspired works of art. Learn to identify specific myths and histories and gain further context for their depiction within the history of art.
DELIVERY MODE
Online Delivery
COURSE OUTLINE
PLANNED LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
SUGGESTED READING
When:
Thursday 8 July 2021
1.00 PM - 3.00 PM
Where:
WEA Sydney
72 Bathurst Street
DELIVERY MODE
Online Delivery
COURSE OUTLINE
- Beyond the literary: We will consider purely visual sources for classical narrative. In particular, black and red figure vase painting that often preserves alternative oral accounts, or those missing from the surviving written classical texts.
- *The literary sources for myth: We will explore the depiction of classical myth from the context of Hesiod’s Theogony – “genealogy of the gods” to Ovid’s quasi-definitive Metamorphoses.
- Visually depicting epic poetry: We will explore the early-modern depictions of Virgil’s Aeneid and the Neoclassical depictions of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
- Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics: We will explore the effect of the pastoral poetry of Virgil upon the early-modern classical landscape tradition.
- Eminent Statesmen and Philosophers: We will look at Plutarch as a historical source for artists and Diogenes Laertius for the depiction of the lives of Greek philosophers.
PLANNED LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Be able to visually identify classical myths and histories in works of art.
- Gain an understanding of how classical written sources have been appropriated by art-ists from the Renaissance onwards.
- Learn how to visually analyse works of art.
SUGGESTED READING
- Hesiod, Theogany and Works and Days, trans. M.L. West (Oxford World’s Classics: 2008).
- Homer, The Iliad: The Verse Translation by Alexander Pope, illustrated by John Flaxman (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform: 2012).
- Homer, The Odyssey: The Verse Translation by Alexander Pope (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform: 2013).
- Homer, The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics: 1999).
- Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics: 1997).
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (Penguin classics: 1978).
- Sophocles, The Complete Plays of Sophocles: A New Translation (Harper Collins: 2011).
- Euripides, Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women, trans., Diane Arnson Svarlien (Hackett Clas-sics: 2012).
- Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics: 2008).
- Virgil, The Georgics: A Poem of the Land, trans., Kimberley Johnson (Penguin Classics: 2009).
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Arthur Golding (Penguin Classics: 2002).
- Plutarch’s Lives, Vol. 1 and 2, trans. Arthur Hugh Clough (Digireads.com: 2018).
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. P.G. Walsh (Oxford World Classics: 2008).
- Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius, trans. Pamela Mensch (Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2018).
- Natale Conti’s Mythologies: A Select Translation, trans. Anthony DiMatteo (Garland Publishing: 1994).
- Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (Pearson: 2014).
When:
Thursday 8 July 2021
1.00 PM - 3.00 PM
Where:
WEA Sydney
72 Bathurst Street