PIMSPontifical Institute
of
Mediaeval Studies

These lectures will explore some aspects of the relationship between poetry and the visual arts from the 12th to the 15th century by analysing the description of art works in literary texts. Focusing on Italian texts from the Age of Dante to Humanism, we will ask ourselves how poets looked on pictures and try to identify the aesthetic and moral values that they attributed to the visual arts. The way poets describe works of art reveals their fascination with the visual arts and their power to raise emotions in the beholder. By integrating the visual dimension in epic and narrative texts, the medieval poets initiate a new aesthetic thought that will be at the very heart of Renaissance culture.

Lecture Series:
Week 1 (March 1)
Week 2 (March 8)
Week 3 (March 15)
Week 4 (March 22)

A reception to follow.
Everyone is welcome and admission is free.
Please RSVP at italian.studies@utoronto.ca

Johannes Bartuschat is Full Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Zurich. He was educated in the Universities of Munich, Bologna, Berlin and Paris where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1996. He has been previously Assistant Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Full Professor at the University of Grenoble. He specialises in Medieval and Renaissance Literature and he has extensively published on Italian Literature and Culture from the 13th to the 16th century. His research interests include Dante and his cultural context (especially Brunetto Latin), the Latin and vernacular works of Boccaccio, the Biographies of Poets, the reception of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, allegorical and didactic literature. He has recently co-edited “Il Convivio di Dante” (with Andrea Robiglio, Ravenna, 2015) and “Carlo Magno in Italia e la fortuna dei libri di cavalleria” (with Franca Strologo, Ravenna, 2016).