Topics change each semester.
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”
This course is based on the study of old treatises, their analysis and interpretation. Students will develop a methodology of reconstitution: by comparing and covering different sources, by a critical interpretation and by a framed implementation.
In the first part of the semester, students will work from the manuscript of Cennino Cennini (before 1437). They will do a copy of a painting of the Italian Quattrocento or Trecento by applying advice from Cennino: to prime their panel, to make their gesso, their materials and tools for drawing, painting and gilding.
The second part of the semester will be spent on the study of a colour and a piece of art. Each student will choose one colour in pictorial work before the XIXth century (painting on panel or canvas, wall painting, limning, graphic arts). He/she will try to replicate the pigment and the medium based on reading of contemporary treatises and recipes of the piece of art (a large bibliography will be proposed by the professor). He/she will use these materials in his/her own copy of the chosen painting.