Undergraduate Art History 2015-2016

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.

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, and the rise of American painting with Abstract Expressionism. The move to postmodernism will be traced through Pop Art and beyond. For further information please see course guide.

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. 

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 HA2008 (materials; techniques; settings; religious iconography; patronage; classicism) continue to be explored, and are, once again, fully embedded in the chronological coverage. For further information please see course guide.

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. For further information please see course guide.

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.

This module develops students' knowledge and understanding of early modern European painting, providing a chronological overview of elite portraiture and diplomatic commissions in England between 1530 and 1650.  Artists studied in their English contexts include Hans Holbein, Nicholas Hilliard, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck. Furthermore, this module asks important questions about the persuasive and diplomatic possibilities of the visual arts, the relationship between painter and patron, and the impact and legacy of foreign artists on British painting and visual culture through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and beyond.

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. 

The course will explore the principal developments in Venetian painting from c1400 until c1600. Aiming to understand the special characteristics of painting in Venice, this course will examine the extraordinary topographical, social, economic and political conditions that influenced artistic production in the city. Studies of individual artists and specific genres will be linked to major themes such as gender, sexuality, devotional practice, religious reform and individual self-fashioning. Students will acquire a familiarity with the works of art, knowledge of the socio-economic and cultural conditions, and the ability to analyse paintings in terms of contemporary literature, art-theory and Christian theology.

The course is devoted to the revolutionary paintings of Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610), and the immense impact which he had on subsequent art. Beginning with a detailed look at the work of Caravaggio himself, we proceed to examine his influence on Italian, Dutch, French and Spanish artists during the first half of the seventeenth century (e.g. from Italy – Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi; from the Netherlands – Honthorst and ter Brugghen; from France – Valentin and La Tour; from Spain -Ribera). Issues addressed include the nature of Caravaggesque “realism”, the uses of “chiaroscuro”, and the idiosyncracies of Caravaggesque iconography. For further information please see the course guide.

This course traces the twentieth-century rise of American painting, in relation to contemporary developments in Europe.  Beginning with America's own art tradition and its initial responses to European Modernism, the course will capture the spirit of 1920s’ Realism and 1930s’ Regionalism and Social Realism before the outbreak of World War II.  We will examine how the Abstract Expressionism of Pollock and Rothko made post-war New York the new centre of Western art.  Finally, the course will consider 1960s’ Pop Art and the arrival of the post-modern climate. For further information please see course guide.

This module develops students' knowledge and understanding of early modern European painting, providing a chronological overview of elite portraiture and diplomatic commissions in England between 1530 and 1650.  Artists studied in their English contexts include Hans Holbein, Nicholas Hilliard, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck. Furthermore, this module asks important questions about the persuasive and diplomatic possibilities of the visual arts, the relationship between painter and patron, and the impact and legacy of foreign artists on British painting and visual culture through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and beyond.

In Part 2 of the course, you will continue your study of works of art and architecture in situ by undertaking a final fieldtrip. This can be as part of a tutor-led group visit, to Paris for example, or as a planned and agreed independent trip. You will complete your Flog with reflections on summer activities and then begin selecting the material for your Fieldwork ePortfolio.  Unlike the Flog, this must be written in an academic style and will give you the opportunity to show how your thoughts and ideas as an art historian have been developing throughout the course.  

The course will explore the principal developments in Venetian painting from c1400 until c1600. Aiming to understand the special characteristics of painting in Venice, this course will examine the extraordinary topographical, social, economic and political conditions that influenced artistic production in the city. Studies of individual artists and specific genres will be linked to major themes such as gender, sexuality, devotional practice, religious reform and individual self-fashioning. Students will acquire a familiarity with the works of art, knowledge of the socio-economic and cultural conditions, and the ability to analyse paintings in terms of contemporary literature, art-theory and Christian theology.

The course is devoted to the revolutionary paintings of Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610), and the immense impact which he had on subsequent art. Beginning with a detailed look at the work of Caravaggio himself, we proceed to examine his influence on Italian, Dutch, French and Spanish artists during the first half of the seventeenth century (e.g. from Italy – Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi; from the Netherlands – Honthorst and ter Brugghen; from France – Valentin and La Tour; from Spain -Ribera). Issues addressed include the nature of Caravaggesque “realism”, the uses of “chiaroscuro”, and the idiosyncracies of Caravaggesque iconography. For further information please see course guide.

This course traces the twentieth-century rise of American painting, in relation to contemporary developments in Europe. Beginning with America's own art tradition and its initial responses to European Modernism, the course will capture the spirit of 1920s’ Realism and 1930s’ Regionalism and Social Realism before the outbreak of World War II. We will examine how the Abstract Expressionism of Pollock and Rothko made post-war New York the new centre of Western art.  Finally, the course will consider 1960s’ Pop Art and the arrival of the post-modern climate.

 

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. For further information please see course guide.