production
Skip to Content

Log In

  1. University Home
  2. Catalogue of Courses
  3. Undergraduate
  4. 2014-2015
  5. Art History
Return to Subject List

Undergraduate Art History 2014-2015

HA1004: INTRODUCTION TO ART HISTORY

15 credits

Level 1

First Term

This introductory course will trace major developments in the history of art in the western world from Classical art and architecture in ancient Greece to the beginnings of photography in the nineteenth century.  Aspects of European art to be explored, through painting, prints, sculpture and architecture, will range from the Classicism of Greece and Rome to the rise of the Medieval Gothic cathedrals, the rebirth of Classicism in the Renaissance to the grandeur of the Baroque and the ornament of the Rococo, and the revolutionary order of Neo-Classicism to the imagination and emotion of Romanticism.
More Information

HA1506: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART

15 credits

Level 1

Second Term

Beginning with art and architecture in mid-Victorian Britain, this course will trace major developments in Western art through to the present day. Nineteenth-century modernism and modernity in France will be explored through Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the art of fin-de-siècle Paris. Twentieth-century modernist movements will include the primitivism of German Expressionism, the wildness of Fauvism, the analytical eye of Cubism and Futurism, the anarchy and dreams of Dada and Surrealism, building Utopia and the rise of American painting with Abstract Expressionism. The move to postmodernism will be traced through Pop Art, Land Art, Installation and Performance Art. 
More Information

HA2008: ROMANS TO RENAISSANCE: GOTHS TO GOTHIC

30 credits

Level 2

First Term

This course focuses on Western European art between 400 and 1550. It traces the repeated revivals of Classical culture and the sometimes subversive reactions against this tradition (from Christian and non-Christian perspectives). Topics covered will include Sutton Hoo, the Lindisfarne gospels, Pilgrimage, the Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral, and art in the margins . Discussion of Italian and Northern Renaissance art will include works from van Eyck to Michelangelo. Relevant for History and Divinity students, it underpins the chronological survey of art for Art History students. 
More Information

HA2506: EUROPEAN BAROQUE: CARAVAGGIO TO REMBRANDT

15 credits

Level 2

Second Term

The course offers a detailed examination of the visual arts of the Baroque age in Europe (c.1580-1670). While not intending to be comprehensive, it is wide-ranging, dealing selectively with sculpture, prints and drawings, in addition to its main focus on painting. It builds upon the brief introductory coverage of the seventeenth century provided in HA1004, but aspires to a deeper engagement with the material. All of the topics addressed in HA2007 (materials; techniques; settings; religious iconography; patronage; classicism) continue to be explored, and are, once again, fully embedded in the chronological coverage.
More Information

HA2806: IN THE FLESH: ART ON LOCATION

15 credits

Level 2

Second Term

This course is organised around a series of tutor-led class visits to sites of special art historical significance. The class will visit key locations in and around Aberdeen, and there is also a trip to Edinburgh. A range of important works of art and architecture will be studied in situ, and this study will be supported by staff lectures on related topics. The material on the course will be organised in relation to broad themes that will introduce students to major issues in the discipline of art history.
More Information

HA3012: ART AND SOCIETY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course focuses on English art across the eighteenth century, and addresses developments across a range of genres, from portraiture and historical narratives to sporting art and political satires. Artists studied include William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby. This course also considers the broader impact on the visual arts of a burgeoning exhibition culture, the collecting ethos of the Grand Tour and greater European travel, and the intellectual reforms of the Enlightenment age.
More Information

HA3079: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE HISTORY OF ART

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

Unlike most other art history courses, this is a text‐based course, which will focus on a number of selected ‘key texts’ by a range of authors from the history of art.  In most classes, the chosen texts, which you will read in advance, will be examined in relation to a small number of pre‐chosen images.  Discussion will focus on the way in which the issues raised in a prescribed text can usefully illuminate (or otherwise!) the given images.
More Information

HA3088: FIELDWORK 1

0 credits

Level 3

First Term

Throughout the honours programme, you will be encouraged to reflect on your developing skills and knowledge as an art historian.  Through tutor-led and self-directed visits to various locations, the Fieldwork course will foster a wide appreciation of past and current issues in the art world, beyond the classroom.  The course will include not only a study of art and architecture but also a consideration of their context, display, function and interpretation. 
More Information

HA3095: RENAISSANCE ART IN FLORENCE AND ROME

30 credits

Level 3

First Term

This course focuses on artistic production in the cities of Florence and Rome from c1400 to c1530. Moving from Early Renaissance, to High Renaissance, and concluding with Mannerism, it will include the work of artists such as Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Painting and sculpture during this period will be related to specific religious, political and social contexts. Seminars will analyse artists' works alongside major themes such as humanism, theology, antiquity, gender, sexuality and identity, while interrogating the traditional narrative of Italian Renaissance art by critiquing the idea that this period witnessed the birth of modern society and individualism.​

More Information

HA3586: ART IN FRANCE: SYMBOLISM TO SURREALISM

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course will analyse how French art of the latter nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century relates to social and cultural evolution and characterises the changing artistic relationship between artists and the public in the period.  From the Symbolists’ fascination with dream-like states of being to the Surrealists’ Freudian-based dream imagery, students on the course will also encounter the colour and form of Post-Impressionists van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Cézanne, the decadence of Toulouse-Lautrec’s fin-de-siècle Paris and the new visual language of Cubism.
More Information

HA3587: THE CARRACCI AND THEIR SCHOOL

15 credits

Level 3

Second Term

The course offers a detailed examination of the work, aesthetic standpoint, and historical importance of the Carracci family of painters from Bologna [Ludovico (1555-1619); Agostino (1557-1602); and Annibale (1560-1609)], and of their leading pupils [notably Guido Reni (1575-1642) and Domenichino (1581-1641)].  Particular attention will be paid to the nature and significance of the Carracci Academy, widely perceived as heralding the institutionalized art academies of subsequent centuries; to the issue of the Carracci's supposed `Eclecticism'; and to their influence on the development of `Baroque' and `Baroque Classical' aesthetics.
More Information

HA3594: THE WORK OF ANGELS

30 credits

Level 3

Second Term

This course will examine the exquisite art of northern British Isles from seventh to ninth centuries.  It will show how the introduction of Christianity both from Ireland and Rome, produced a creative cultural melting pot in which artistic designs from Ireland, Pictland and Northumbria fused into the Insular Style. Technology, literary sources, historical and liturgical evidence are all required to interpret this dramatic era of transition form paganism to Christianity. Highlights are the Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Tara Brooch, the Pictish stones. Some fieldtrips. Will appeal to students of Archaeology, Celtic, History, English, as well as Art Historians.
More Information

HA3890: WALL PAINTING: PAINTING WALLS

15 credits

Level 3

Second Term

More Information

HA4012: ART AND SOCIETY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course focuses on English art across the eighteenth century, and addresses developments across a range of genres, from portraiture and historical narratives to sporting art and political satires. Artists studied include William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby. This course also considers the broader impact on the visual arts of a burgeoning exhibition culture, the collecting ethos of the Grand Tour and greater European travel, and the intellectual reforms of the Enlightenment age.
More Information

HA408A: FIELDWORK 2

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

Throughout the honours programme, you will be encouraged to reflect on your developing skills and knowledge as an art historian.  Through tutor-led and self-directed visits to various locations, the Fieldwork course will foster a wide appreciation of past and current issues in the art world, beyond the classroom.  The course will include not only a study of art and architecture but also a consideration of their context, display, function and interpretation. 
More Information

HA4095: RENAISSANCE ART IN FLORENCE AND ROME

30 credits

Level 4

First Term

This course focuses on artistic production in the cities of Florence and Rome from c1400 to c1530. Moving from Early Renaissance, to High Renaissance, and concluding with Mannerism, it will include the work of artists such as Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Painting and sculpture during this period will be related to specific religious, political and social contexts. Seminars will analyse artists' works alongside major themes such as humanism, theology, antiquity, gender, sexuality and identity, while interrogating the traditional narrative of Italian Renaissance art by critiquing the idea that this period witnessed the birth of modern society and individualism.​

More Information

HA4586: ART IN FRANCE: SYMBOLISM TO SURREALISM

30 credits

Level 4

Second Term

This course will analyse how French art of the latter nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century relates to social and cultural evolution and characterises the changing artistic relationship between artists and the public in the period.  From the Symbolists’ fascination with dream-like states of being to the Surrealists’ Freudian-based dream imagery, students on the course will also encounter the colour and form of Post-Impressionists van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Cézanne, the decadence of Toulouse-Lautrec’s fin-de-siècle Paris and the new visual language of Cubism.
More Information

HA4587: THE CARRACCI AND THEIR SCHOOL

15 credits

Level 4

Second Term

The course offers a detailed examination of the work, aesthetic standpoint, and historical importance of the Carracci family of painters from Bologna [Ludovico (1555-1619); Agostino (1557-1602); and Annibale (1560-1609)], and of their leading pupils [notably Guido Reni (1575-1642) and Domenichino (1581-1641)].  Particular attention will be paid to the nature and significance of the Carracci Academy, widely perceived as heralding the institutionalized art academies of subsequent centuries; to the issue of the Carracci's supposed `Eclecticism'; and to their influence on the development of `Baroque' and `Baroque Classical' aesthetics.
More Information

HA4588: HISTORY OF ART DISSERTATION

30 credits

Level 4

Second Term

Your dissertation is intended to give you the opportunity to carry out a piece of sustained research on a topic of your own choice and to demonstrate to the examiners your ability to present the results of such research in a proper, scholarly manner. Your research may be of various kinds.  It may address works of art (or a single work of art) directly, through first-hand study in galleries, museums, or private collections, or it may be of a more literary kind, addressing critical or theoretical problems.  Or it might involve both.
More Information

HA4594: THE WORK OF ANGELS

30 credits

Level 4

Second Term

This course will examine the exquisite art of northern British Isles from seventh to ninth centuries.  It will show how the introduction of Christianity both from Ireland and Rome, produced a creative cultural melting pot in which artistic designs from Ireland, Pictland and Northumbria fused into the Insular Style. Technology, literary sources, historical and liturgical evidence are all required to interpret this dramatic era of transition form paganism to Christianity. Highlights are the Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Tara Brooch, the Pictish stones. Some fieldtrips. Will appeal to students of Archaeology, Celtic, History, English, as well as Art Historians.
More Information

HA4889: PERFORMANCE ART EAST AND WEST

15 credits

Level 4

Second Term

This course will examine the phenomenon of performance art as it developed both in the capitalist West and the communist East. By considering the artistic production of Western artists in light of what their contemporaries were doing behind the Iron Curtain, we will arrive at a more nuanced understanding of performance art in general, and in the West. Furthermore, by examining these performances from the East in the context of theories expounded on the avant-garde, we will reconsider the idea of the end of the avant-garde and develop an expanded understanding of postmodern art practice.
More Information

HA4890: WALL PAINTING: PAINTING WALLS

15 credits

Level 4

Second Term

More Information
 

Compatibility Mode

We have detected that you are have compatibility mode enabled or are using an old version of Internet Explorer. You either need to switch off compatibility mode for this site or upgrade your browser.