The institute Teaching Syllabus
Pract. matters Diversity History Literature
Timetable Openness Arts Institutions
Contacts Modernity Sociology Hist. of ideas
© 2011 IFUPE (Institut de Formation Universitaire Pour Etudiants étrangers, Paris). Etablissement privé d'enseignement supérieur.
Throughout the centuries, the history of French painting and sculpture unfailingly traces a singular curve in its search for sensitivity and balance, a curve which it is fascinating to follow in its high points, its schools and its individual geniuses. The unity of French taste can be traced in the very diversity of the masterpieces which create its tradition.
Frenchy art, from the Middle Ages
through today: roots and models
French classicism: fervor
and order in creation
N.B. Remember that in direct conjunction with this teaching module devoted to the development of the arts in France, a whole series of extramural cultural modules are offered to students as essential adjuncts, adding a “living” component to the taught classes: guided visits to French museums, concerts and plays, not forgetting screenings linked to the history of French cinema.
The religious Middle Ages and
innovations during the Renaissance
French baroque; court
music and genre music
The brainchild of Louis Lumière, the inventor of cinematography, French cinema was for a long time at the forefront of innovation in the narration and the forms of the 7th art. It will be interesting to examine the extent to which aspects of French cinema resonate with other forms of expression of the « French spirit », and in light of specific examples, how the development of French filming never stops marrying a persistent tradition with its renewal.
The theater is undoubtedly one of the privileged sites of the French mind, from the establishment of tragedy during the "Grand Siècle" (the 17th century), through modern(ist) productions in the 20th century. A profound connection with the great currents of thought, but also the place where links are made, sometimes antagonistically but always fruitfully, between tradition et modernity.
Court music, spiritual expression, gallant variations, Romantic projections of the ego: a huge diversity characterizes the very evolution of French music. Between a variety of influences and the Italian mold, French composers have gradually defined and refined a recognizable style. The approach cannot therefore be purely chronological, and we shall try to define the characteristics of a French musical style equally through a thematic look at the genres, how they are appropriated, and the inventiveness that they suggest.
By various approaches students will be sensitized to the development of different artistic practices in France. We present visually and palpably the evolution of attitudes towards the arts in a country with a keen esthetic sense, and this involves a generous view of art history understood as a history of sensibility and creation. Artistic expressions at the heart of French culture, each in its specific manifestation, but all combining to define French taste.
