Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Aesthetics I
Other languages of instruction: Catalan
Teaching staff
Introduction
The emergence of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline must be dated, strictly speaking, to the 18th century, when Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten published his treatise Aesthetica. However, philosophical reflection on beauty and art has been present in philosophy since its beginnings. The course Aesthetics I presents the history of aesthetic conceptions of beauty and the theories of art from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early modern period. The study of modern and contemporary aesthetic theories will be reserved for the second part of this course, Aesthetics II.
The course consists of a theoretical section, in which the syllabus is developed, and a practical section in which students present their readings of texts or analyses of specific works of art.
Syllabus
I. Antiquity
1. Plato. Mimesis, beauty, art, and society
2. Aristotle. Poetics: mimesis, tragic emotions, catharsis
3. Evolution of Greek art: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods
II. The Middle Ages
1. Art, beauty, and images of the Christian Church. Mechanical and liberal arts
2. Saint Augustine. Beauty: unity, number, equity, proportion, and order
3. Saint Thomas Aquinas. The transcendentals: One, Truth, and Goodness. Beauty: integrity, proportion, and clarity
4. Literal and allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the world
5. Evolution of medieval art: Romanesque and Gothic styles
III. The Renaissance
1. Neoplatonism: Marsilio Ficino, Giordano Bruno
2. Theory of Painting: Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer.
3. Evolution of Renaissance Art: From the descovery of perspective to the Pinnacle of Art in the High Renaissance.
4. From the Renaissance to the Baroque (Fundamental Principles of the History of Art by H. Wölfflin)
IV. Rationalism and Empiricism. Classicism and Naturalism.
1. Rationalism. Classicism: Reason and the Universality of Nature in Art. Imitation and Expression.
2. Empiricism: Naturalism. The Experience of the Particularity of Nature.
3. Quarrel between Ancients and Moderns. Classical "Pousinists" and Modern "Rubenists."
4. Lessing's Laocoon.
Bibliography and resources
Alberti, Leon Battista. De Re Aedificatoria, 1485
Argullol, Rafael. El Quattrocento. Acantilado. 2025.
Aristóteles. Poética. Biblioteca clásica Gredos
Bayer, Raymond. Historia de la estética. Fondo de Cultura Económica. 1980.
Beardsley. Monroe C. Aesthetics. From Classical Greece to the Present. The University of Alabama Press. 1966.
Beardsley. Monroe C. Hospers, John. Estética. Historia y fundamentos. Cátedra. 1981.
Blumenberg, Hans. Las realidades en que vivimos. Paidós, 1999
Bozal, Valeriano (ed.), Historia de las idees estéticas y de las teorías artísticas contemporáneas, vol I. Antonio Machado Libros, 2010.
Gehlen, Arnold. Imágenes de época. Sociología y estética de la pintura moderna. Península, 1994
Hadot, Pierre. ¿Qué es la filosofía antigua?. Fondo de Cultura Económica. 1998
Huizinga, Johan. El otoño de la Edad Media. Alianza, 2001
Kaufmann, Walter. Tragedia y filosofía. Seix Barral, 1978
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Laocoonte o sobre los límites de la pintura y la poesía. Herder. 2014
Panofsky, Erwin. Arquitectura gótica y pensamiento escolástico. La Piqueta, 1986
Mumford, Lewis. Técnica y civilización. Alianza Editorial, 2006
Panofsky, Erwin. La perspectiva como forma simbólica. Tusquets, 2008
Platón. La República. Fedro, Simposio (El banquete). Biblioteca clásica Gredos
Scruton, Roger. Belleza. Elba, 2017
Sedlmayr, Hans. Épocas y obras artísticas I. Rialp, 1959.
Simson, Otto von. La catedral gótica. Los orígenes de la arquitectura gótica y el concepto medieval de orden. Alianza Editorial, 1980.
Tatarkiewicz, Wladislaw. Historia de seis ideas: Arte, belleza, forma, creatividad, mímesis, experiencia estética, Tecnos, 2002.
Valverde, José María. Breve historia y antología de la estética. Editorial Ariel, 2006.
Vasari, Giorgio. Las vidas de los más excelentes arquitectos, pintores y escultores italianos.
Weil, Simone. La Illiada o el poema de la fuerza. Trotta. 2023.
Wölfflin, Heinrich. Principios fundamentales de la historia del arte. Espasa-Calpe, 2007