Visual Culture and Empire in Early Modern Venice
30 credits
Content
This module investigates the connections between empire building and visual culture in Venice from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. It examines both the ways in which trade and colonisation influenced Venetian artistic and cultural production and how images, texts and objects made empire visible at home ant motivated new imperial projects abroad. Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines cultural history, visual studies and postcolonial criticism, the module covers the following themes: representations of the Venetian 'State of the sea'; art and print culture in the Venetian-Ottoman wars; imperial ceremonies and rituals; colonial cartography; antiquarian collections; the Byzantine heritage; cross-cultural contacts with the Islamic world; early modern Orientalism. In discussing these themes, the module places metropolitan visual media and communication in the context of Venetian empire formation and treats the production and consumption of images as an integral part of Venice's commercial and political presence in the Mediterranean. There is no foreign language requirement for this module.
Learning Outcomes
- Advanced knowledge and understanding of the reciprocal relationships between metropolitan Venice and its overseas empire.
- Increased awareness of the relevance of empire in the study of Venetian visual culture.
- Comprehensive understanding of the role of images and visual artefacts in particular historical, geographical, cultural and socio-political contexts.
- Heightened awareness of key methodologies and theoretical debates in the field of visual culture studies.
- Ability to analyse and interpret visual documents in a creative and imaginative manner
Introductory Reading
- Stefano Carboni (ed.), Venice and Islamic World, 828-1797, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007)
- Maria Georgopoulou, Venice's Mediterranean Colonies: Architecture and Urbanism, (Cambridge UP, 2001)
- Frederic C. Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic, (Baltimore & London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1973)
- David Rosand, Myths of Venice. The Figuration of a State, (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2001)
Module convenor
Dr Antonio Cartolano (Spring Term)