Course Syllabus

JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "AS 110-2"
COURSE NAME: "Drawing - Rome Sketchbook"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2019

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Pola Wickham
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: T 3:30-6:15 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES:
OFFICE HOURS:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course makes use of the unparalleled resource that is the city of Rome itself; each class meets at a different site around the city. Students work in sketchbook form, creating over the course of the term a diary of visual encounters. Instruction, apart from brief discussions of the sites themselves, focuses on efficient visual note taking: the quick description of form, awareness of light and the development of volume in space. With practice and growing experience, students become capable of producing drawings governed by conscious intention.

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

Each class meets at a different site of historical and visual interest around Rome. Students make drawings from observation in their sketchbooks both in and out of class, thus creating a record of their experiences. The beginning of each class meeting is dedicated to a brief discussion of the site and a presentation of the issue to be addressed in the drawing. Some of the basic drawing issues include: thumbnail sketches and planning, the cultivation of line, rendering form in light and dark, creating space and visual drama through various kinds of contrast, practical advice on perspective, specifying point of view, creating atmosphere, faces and figures from classical statuary, organization of the page, and so on.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of the course students should be more visually alert to their surroundgins, capable of careful observation, familiar with significant sites in Rome, and capable of representing what they see in both quick sketches and longer studies. They will have acquired skill in using various technical approaches to drawing, and knowledge about some tradition in painting and drawing.

TEXTBOOK:

NONE

REQUIRED RESERVED READING:

NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:

NONE

GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Assignment	Guidelines	Weight
Completed sketchbook of drawings done over the course.	Grading is based on a judgment of the contents of the sketchbook created over the semester. Quantity of work produced is of great importance, since producing a large body of work by itself practically guarantees progress. Commitment, range of experimentation, resourcefulness, inventiveness, expressivity, acuity of observation, concision, complexity, improvement, spatial clarity, and other aspects of technical skill and artistic quality are also considered.	100

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality shows excellent mastery of the course content along with exceptional levels of technical skill, artistic awareness, originality, resourcefulness, commitment, quantity of work and improvement. There has been excellent collaboration and leadership in group projects, and there have been no attendance problems.
BA highly competent level of performance with work that directly addresses the content of the course, with a good quantity of work produced.
CAn acceptable level of performance: the work shows awareness of the course content, but is very limited in quantity, quality, commitment and skill.
DThe student lacks a coherent grasp of the course material and has failed to produce much work.
FNegligent in attendance, academic honesty, engagement with the course content, or production of work.

-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
This course makes use of the unparalleled resource that is the city of Rome itself; each class meets at a different site around the city. Students work in sketchbook form, creating over the course of the term a diary of visual encounters. Instruction, apart from brief discussions of the sites themselves, focuses on efficient visual note taking: the quick description of form, awareness of light and the development of volume in space. With practice and growing experience, students become capable of producing drawings governed by conscious intention.

ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.

SCHEDULE

1 () Introduction. Meet (this time only) at JCU Art Studio, Largo dei Fiorentini, 1. After introduction, drawing along the Tevere focused on the forground.

Assignment week 1: get all materials for class and make one sketch of interior and one

exterior focusing on forground.

2 () Meet outside the Villa Giulia. Lesson devoted to solving problems of perspective.

Assignment week 2: Five sketches of perspectives.

3 () Meet at the Campidoglio. Lesson will be about view- finding, looking down upon the forum and on the city.

Assignment week 3: Two far slower drawings that include more information.

4 () Meet at Il Giardino dell’arance on the Aventine Hill. Lesson will be devoted to drawing negative spaces.

Assignment week 4: .Five Roman views (can one still find a way to be personal in a city that has been depicted so many times before?)

5 () Meet at Palazzo Altemps, a museum of classical sculpture located outside the curved end of Piazza Navona. The entrance is in Piazza Sant’Apollinare 48, just off of Corso Rinascimento. Entry fee 13 Euro. Fast line drawings to begin with to slower drawings that include simple forms of chiaro/scuro (light and dark).

Assignment week 5: Roman antiquity or art from the past. Five drawings with light and shadows.

6 () Meet at Galleria Pamphili, with ticket money which will be 10 euros aproximately.

Assignment week 6: Draw a painting by Caravaggio from one of the five found in the churches in the city:

Chiesa di Sant’Agostino

Piazza Sant’Agostino / via della Scrofa, Rome. Near Piazza Navona. Open 7.45-12; 16.30-19.30
Madonna dei Pellegrini

San Luigi dei Francesi: Contarelli Chapel

Via Santa Giovanna d’Arco 5, Fri-Wed 8am-12:30pm and 3:30-7pm; Thurs 8am-12:30pm

Saint Matthew
Calling of Saint Matthew Martyrdom of Saint Matthew

Santa Maria del Popolo, Cerasi Chapel

giorni feriali 7,15-12,30 / 16-19, Venerdì-sabato: 7,30-19, Festivi 7,30-13,30 / 16,30-19,30 The Crucifixion of Saint Peter and The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Way to Damascus

7 () Meet at Guarini entry; we’ll go up the Gianicolo to draw Bramante’s Tempietto at S. Pietro in Montorio. Lesson drawing architecture: round forms in perspective.

Assignment week 7: Find an intimate interior space and make a drawing of it including

objects, from floor level looking up.

8 () Meet at Guarini entry; we’ll go up the Gianicolo to draw views of the city from above fontana dell’ acqua paola. Lesson drawing views over the city with the problem of atmosphere, the general and the particular.

Assignment week 8: Find a view of the city and make a panoramic drawing looking down.

9 (5) Meet at Guarini entry; we will walk to the Orto Botanico. Entry fee 6 Euro. Suggesting forms instead of being able to describe them, observation of nature, what is different and what is the same.

Assignment week 9: Make a drawing using different kinds of folliage as an integral part of the drawing.

10 () Meet at the Villa Medici to draw the Niobe Frieze in the garden of the Villa Medici, Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1, 00187 Roma

Assignment week 10: Make a drawing of figures in a landscape, like a piazza or public space, in the city.

11 () Meet by at the Isola di Tiburina . Lesson devoted to drawing landscapes with water.

Assignment week 11: Make a drawing of Bernini’s Fountain at Piazza Barberini, concentrating on the whole and the way the water falls.

12 () Meet in the courtyard outside the church of Sant Ivo. Lesson revisiting the importance of forground spaces.

Assignment week 12: Make a drawing that makes full use of an interesting and complex forground space.

13 () Meet on the Ponte Sant Angelo, beside the Castel Sant Angelo. Lesson about the baroque and expression in drawing.

Assignment week 13: Prepare for final crit, making sure all assignments from class and homeworks are complete.

14 () Musei Capitolini, Centrale Montemartini. Appointments made for individual meetings that take the place of a final exam.