HISTORY OF ART

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Students intending to follow the History of Art programme at Honours level must take two of the three Level 1 courses offered.

Overview

This course is organised around a pre-selected sequence of times and countries (eg. Italy 1400) in which key developments in art history took place. These are presented each week in chronological fashion and extend from pre-history to the mid-nineteenth century. Tutorials are closely related to the lectures, providing students with the opportunity to explore specfic works in detail.

Structure

2 lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour visual based examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%): continuous assessment consists of 1 essay of 1,000 words at 30% and computer assignment at 20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour examination (100%). NB All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Open door policy of all staff involved in course.

Feedback

Essay marking and return; responses in class; online quizzes; responses in class discussions.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Co-requisites

This course can only be taken together with HA 1004 or HA 1506.

Overview

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.

Structure

4 one-hour trips to take place locally on Wednesday afternoons; one day trip to Edinburgh (Saturday); 1 one-hour lecture every other week; one IT on-line assignment every other week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%), continuous assessment (50%). Continuous assessment consists of 1 essay 1,000 words (30%) and computer assignments (20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%). NB All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Through engagement with the team of tutors and with peers.

Feedback

Through essay and exam marking; through online quizzes.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Students intending to follow the History of Art programme at Honours level must take two of the three Level 1 courses offered.

Overview

This course will consider the emergence and development of the phenomenon of Modernism in Western Art from 1850 to the present day. The following areas will be discussed: Landscape painting in Britain and France; industrial design; Gothic revival: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; Realism; Impressionism; Symbolism; Post-Impressionism; 21st century art movements.

Structure

2 lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%); continuous assessment of 1 essay of 1,000 words at (30%) and computer assignment at 20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour examination (100%). NB All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Open door policy of all staff involved in course.

Feedback

Essay marking and return; online quizzes; responses to student work in tutorials.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

30 credits at Level 1 History of Art courses.

Co-requisites

None. History of Art students are recommended to take this course together with HA 2005 'Making Masterpieces'.

Notes

This course will run concurrently with HA 2005 'Making Masterpieces' in the first half-session.

Overview

This course focuses on Western European art between 400 and 1500. 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 Rosslyn Chapel. Discussion of Italian and Northern Renaissance art will include works from Van Eyck to Leonardo da Vinci.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures per fortnight. 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st attempt: 1 two-hour visual-based exam (50%); continuous assessment (50%): continuous assessment consists of one 1,500 word essay (40%) and class participation (10%).

Resit: Visual-based exam (100%). NB: all course work must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Class reflective discussion.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in oral and written contexts.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

30 credits at Level 1 History of Art courses.

Co-requisites

None. History of Art students are recommended to take this course together with HA 2004 Goths to Gothic: Roman to Renaissance.

Notes

The course will run concurrently with HA 2004 Goths to Gothic: Roman to Renaissance.

Overview

This course focuses on ten artistic masterpieces considered in their original and critical contexts. All the works considered have achieved fame or notoriety and have had a major impact on the history of art and culture. Works discussed may include the Bayeux Tapestry, Leonardo's Mona Lisa, Caravaggio's Calling of St Matthew, Courbet's Stonebreakers and Duchamp's Fountain.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures per fortnight. 1 one-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour visual based exam (50%); continuous assessment (50%): continuous assessment consists of 1 virtual exhibition (1,500 words plus illustrations) (40%) and class participation (10%).

Resit: Visual based exam (100%). NB: All course work must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Class reflective discussion.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in oral and written contexts.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

30 credits at Level 1 History of Art courses. 15 credits at Level 2 History of Art courses (if intending to progress to History of Art honours).

Co-requisites

None.

Notes

This course will be available in the second half-session.

Overview

This course focuses on Renaissance and Baroque art both in Italy and Northern Europe. Issues addressed will include the dialogue between realism and classicism; the range of style and genres; the analysis of period styles. The impact of Humanism, democracy, the Counter Reformation and political absolutism will also be covered. Artists will include Michelangelo, Durer, Titian, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Rubens, Bernini and Vermeer.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week; 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1 eight-hour compulsory fieldtrip.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written exam (30%); 1 one-hour visual based exam (20%). Continuous assessment (50%): continuous assessment consists of two 2,000 word essays.

Resit: Written exam (100%). NB. All course work must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Reflective class discussion.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in oral and written contexts.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

30 credits at Level 1 in History of Art courses.

Overview

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 day-long class visit 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/seminars on related topics. The material on the course will be organised in relation to broad themes that will enable students to develop and refine their understanding of major issues in the discipline of art history.

Structure

4 one-hour trips to take place locally on Wednesday afternoons; one day trip to Edinburgh (Saturday); 1 one-hour lecture every week.

Assessment

1 two-hour visual-based written examination (50%), continuous assessment (40%), field trip attendance and participation (10%). Continuous assessment consists of 1 essay of 1,500 words.

1 two-hour visual-based written examination (100%); all outstanding course work must have been submitted in advance.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment will be provided through verbal engagement with the team of tutors and with peers, and through written feedback provided by essay marking.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in verbal and written contexts.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

15 credits (minimum) at Level 1 History of Art.

Overview

This course focuses on Baroque art in Italy, Spain and Northern Europe. Issues addressed will include the dialogue between realism and classicism; the range of style and genres; the analysis of period styles. The impact of democracy, the Counter Reformation and political absolutism will also be covered. Artists will include Caravaggio, Velazquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, Bernini, Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week

1 one-hour seminar per week

1 Saturday full-day class visit to Edinburgh.

Assessment

1 two-hour visual-based written examination (50%), continuous assessment: 1 essay of 1,500-2,000 words (40%), field trip attendance and participation (10%).

1 two-hour visual-based written examination (100%); all outstanding course work must have been submitted in advance.

Formative Assessment

Reflective class discussion.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in verbal and written contexts.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to Honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Overview

This course focuses on English art across the eighteenth century. It addresses developments across a range of genres, from portraiture and historical narratives to sporting art and satires, in the work of artists including Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Wright of Derby. It also considers the broader impact on the visual arts of a burgeoning exhibition culture, the collecting ethos of the Grand Tour, and the intellectual reforms of the Enlightenment age.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be 18 classes altogether comprising
1 lecture
13 tutor-led seminars

Four student-led seminars based around group presentations. Students each participate in one group presentation across the course.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%: 2 essays of 2,000 words each [20% each] and 1 visual test of one hour [20%]); class participation (10%).

Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their group presentation. A choice of defined essay topics is provided for essay 2.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination.

Feedback

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor, with continuous verbal feedback provided in all teaching sessions.

Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art programme year 3. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course will introduce students to the major artists and key artistic movements in the Postmodern era, focusing on artists working in the United States and Europe, both East and West. The main focus will be on the issue of what Postmodernism in fact is, specifically with regard to Postmodern Art. From the explosion of conceptual art and the use of alternative media in the 1970s, to the return to painting in the 1980s and the eclecticism of the 1990s and after, this course will examine the vast array of artistic expression that developed in the latter half of the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to what it means to be Postmodern during this period of rapid and dynamic change with regard to the notion of art and artistic production. We will examine focused case studies of prominent artists from this period, as well as more general trends and movements that can be identified. Students will be familiarised with the most recent developments in the history of art, right up to the present day.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%), in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes class participation (10%), essays (two 2,000 (40%) and visual-based examination (10%) and the conception and presentation of a work of art (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour exam (100%).
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback will be given as a CAS mark and in the form of written comments.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course begins with an examination of the medieval building tradition and house plans. The effect of Renaissance thinking and political contacts with the continent during the 16th century are studied. The effect of the Grand Tour and arrival of classical styles are tracked, along with the assembly and display of acquired treasures. Issues of social behaviour and class strata are examined in terms of house plans through the ages. The advances of technology are discussed in terms of changing behaviour. Current issues of conservation, taxation, government and private funding for stately homes are discussed directly with current owners.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be up to 2 one-day field trips within Scotland.

Assessment

Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); class participation including presentation (10%); two 2,000 word essays, total (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%). NB All course work must be handed in.

Feedback

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor P Davidson

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate honours programmes for this course consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course is a study of garden history leading up to the period of the designed landscape (landscape garden) in Britain; followed by a consideration of the relations of landscape, landscape garden and landscape painting, both in eighteenth century Britain and during the twentieth century British picturesque revival. The course will also offer a comprehensive introduction to relevant rare book and manuscript materials in Aberdeen University Library Special Collections.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. NOTE: four of these hours to be occupied by rare book and manuscript sessions in Special Collections. Optional but recommended field trip.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, essays and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); 2 course essays (2,000 words each), the second of which is a development of the seminar presentation, (40%); class contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Individual written and verbal feedback will be given on each of the two course essays.

There will be informal group and individual verbal feedback on the presentations and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Compulsory for Single Honours students in History of Art at Level 3. Optional for Joint Honours students, but not available for the purposes of Enhanced Study in cognate Honours programmes.

Overview

This course considers topics and controversies in the literature of art of all periods. Each seminar will address particular problem or area by focussing on two or more 'key' texts. The ideological bases off the discourses of art history in different historical contexts will be examined. Typical themes include progress and decline, description and interpretation, idealism and naturalism, the question of style, iconography, Marxism, genius and gender and post-modernism.

Structure

1 or 2 hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (50%); two coursework essays of 2,000 words (50%).

NB. All course work must have been submitted.

Resit: Written examination (100%).

Feedback

Feedback is given in a formal manner in staff response to student coursework and in responses to student group contributions in the seminar context. Informally, it is given throughout the duration of the course in many exchanges with students concerning issues arising from the content.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The first half of the course is devoted primarily to the work of Caravaggio himself. It locates the roots of his art in the predominantly naturalistic traditions of Lombardy and Venice, but also stresses the aesthetic gulf that separates Caravaggio from his supposed artistic sources.

Central issues to be addressed in the seminars include the current debate about whether Caravaggio was a dutiful exponent or covert critic of Counter Reformation ideology; the extent to which he constructed his pictures without preparatory drawings by painting directly from posed models (an allegedly novel procedure); the nature and function of his famed 'chiaroscuro'; and the ways in which his 'realism' differed from the more 'classical' naturalism of his main rival, Annibale Carracci.

The second half of the course deals with Caravaggio's so-called 'followers'.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total of 36 teaching hours. These will predominantly take the form of seminars, but there will also be a significant proportion of lectures.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by 2 essays, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two 2,000-word essays (40%); class Contribution based on seminar presentations and contribution to discussion in seminars (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback occurs at various stages of the course and at different levels. The two essays are returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself. Students are then given the opportunity to discuss their essay with the lecturer.

The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are also designed to help students improve their skills.

Students are encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

Level 3 and Level 4 courses share the same name but have different learning outcomes.

Overview

This course will focus on painting and sculpture in Venice in the period 1450-1600. Artists covered will include the Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, the Lombardi, Lotto, Veronese and Tintoretto. The work of these individuals will be analysed in relation not only to both their art historical and socio-political context.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: Level 3

• 1 two-hour written examination (30%)


• 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%)


• 2 essays of 2,000 words (40%)


• Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Level 3
Examination (100%).
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

1st Attempt: Level 4

• 1 two-hour written examination (30%)


• 1 one-hour visual test (20%)


• 2 essays of 2,500 words (40%)


• Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Level 4
Normally no re-sit available

Feedback

Via tutor responses to coursework essays, the visual test and written examination. Also less formally through tutor interaction with students through the duration of the course. Peer feedback takes place through the formal student group presentation/ respondent sessions, as also throughout the course in the seminar context.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3082.

Overview

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; furthermore, it 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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

There will be 18 classes altogether comprising:

• 2 lectures


• 12 tutor-led seminars


• 4 student-led seminars based around group presentations.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%) [2 essays of 2,000 words each (20% each); 1 visual-based test of one hour (20%)]; class participation (10%).

Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their group presentation.

A choice of defined essay topics is provided for essay 2.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor.
Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course analyses in detail developments in North European art (especially paintings, sculptures and prints from Germany, the Netherlands and Britain) from c. 1480 to c. 1580. Stylistic, iconographic, technical and ideological connections and differences within the viusal material examined wil be highlighted, as will its vital (though changing) relation with contemporary artistic work in Italy.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two essays of 2,000 words (40%); class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Via tutor responses to coursework essays, the visual test and written examination. Also less formally through tutor interaction with students through the duration of the course. Peer feedback takes place through the formal student group presentation/ respondent sessions, as also throughout the course in the seminar context

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

Open to Levels 3 honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. These comprise all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English; MA English and Scottish Literature; MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course concentrates on twentieth-century American painting from the Armory Show in 1913 onwards. It considers the rise of American painting in relation to contemporary developments in Europe, from America's indigenous tradition and its initial responses to European Modernism, the Realism of Hopper, the Regionalism of Wood and Benton to the Abstract Expressionism of Pollock. The factors governing the triumph of American painting are examined. It then considers the works of Pop Art and Super-Realism and culminates in the post-modern climate of the 1990s.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, two course essays and class contribution/seminar presentation.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%); two course essays, one of which will derive from the seminar paper (2,000 words each) (40%); class contribution, based on tutorial participation and seminar presentations and participation (10%);

Resit: Examination (100%)
NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Group and individual verbal and written feedback will be given on the seminar presentations and discussions.

Individual verbal and formal feedback will be given on each of the two course essays. In order to focus feedback more directly on issues that concern individual students there will be a self-assessment form for each essay, which should be completed and submitted along with each essay.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The emergence in recent years of a cultural history of politics in early modern Britain is to be welcomed. As such, scholars have acquired a greater understanding of how cultural forms such as poetry, drama, literature and art informed and inspired political awareness, during a period of significant political and religious controversy and change. By considering how pictorial forms both shaped and challenged public opinion, this module builds upon this understanding in a survey of one of its richest, yet most understudied aspects: the visual. Through the close study of a range of art forms and genres from the Stuart reigns and the Interregnum, students examine aspects of continuity and change in representations of power and authority, the use of imagery in satirical and polemical, as well as celebratory and promotional contexts, and instances of adaptation and appropriation in response to the changing role of art in seventeenth-century Britain.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be 18 classes altogether comprising

• 2 lectures


• 8 tutor-led seminars


• 8 student-led seminars based around group presentations.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%): [2 essays of 2,000 words each (20% each) and 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%)]; class participation (10%). Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their first group presentation. A choice of defined essay topics is provided for essay 2.

Resit: Examination (100%)

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor.

Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3586.

Overview

This course analyses in detail developments in art in France from c1880 to c1939. Stylistic, iconographic technical and ideological connections and differences within the visual material examined will be highlighted, as will changing relations with contemporary artistic work elsewhere in Europe.

The course will consist of tutor-led seminars and student-led presentations and follow-up class question and answer sessions/discussions.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 teaching hours, which will include student presentations and class discussions.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual test, two course essays and class contribution/seminar presentation.
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two course essays, one of which will derive from the seminar paper (2,000 words each) (40%); class contribution, based on tutorial participation and seminar presentations and participation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Group and individual verbal and written formative feedback will be given on the seminar presentations and discussions.

Individual verbal and written feedback will be given on each of the two course essays. In order to focus feedback more directly on issues that concern individual students there will be a self-assessment form for each essay which should be completed and submitted along with each essay.

Credit Points

0

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

Notes

This course is compulsory for all Level 3 Single and Joint Honours students in History of Art. This Level 3 course, Fieldwork I, is an essential precursor to Fieldwork 2, which is compulsory for all Level 4 Single and Joint Honours students in History of Art.

The course is not available as an Enhanced Study option.

Overview

Fieldwork I comprises the study of works of art and architecture in situ. Compulsory elements are a residential reading party, a taught week in London, a tutor-led class visit to Edinburgh and an independent visit to Glasgow. Students are also expected to explore art galleries, museums and architecture on their own. They will record and reflect on their experiences in their Flog (Fieldwork Log) in MyAberdeen. They will also comment on their fellow students' Flog entries and reflect on those received from other students and staff throughout their Level 3 year and into Level 4.

Structure

The course will comprise a mixture of on site tutor-led visits plus independent visits to galleries and places of interest.

Compulsory level 3 fieldwork visits:

Two-day residential Reading Party at The Burn, Edzell
One day visit to Glasgow, which will be undertaken as an independent visit

One day visit to Edinburgh, which will have tutor-led options plus independent visits.

Four-day residential visit to London, which will have tutor-led plus independent visits.

Assessment

1st Attempt: There will be no summative assessments at Level 3. The summative assessment, which will take the form of an ePortfolio, will be submitted during Level 4 to achieve 30 credits.

Formative Assessment

Students will be required to complete reflective Flog entries on all compulsory visits during the year in order to be eligible to progress to Level 4 Fieldwork 2.

Feedback

There will be regular written feedback provided through the Flog throughout the whole year as well as verbal feedback during the visits.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course is not available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course covers the development of Scottish painting from the Act of Union to the accession of Queen Victoria. Throughout this period Scottish painting will be set in the context of Scotland's changing position as a cultural centre within the United Kingdom. Using the major art works of the period and the University's wide ranging eighteenth and nineteenth century visual collections, the developing national cultural identity is considered. Students on this course will make extensive use of learning technologies in the preparation and presentation of assignments.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

On-line discussion.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, interactive essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); an interactive presentation taking the form of an essay (2,000 words) mounted on MyAberdeen and visible to a group of 4 students. Over a set period members of the group read, critically analyse and question each other's essays. Interaction with this process is monitored. The essay is 20% of the course mark. The engagement and quality of the interaction is 20% of the course mark.

Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback takes place during the interactive component of the written assignment. The questions asked by the course coordinator will contain an element of feedback and will allow for further engagement with the topic in the student's responses to these matters raised.

Following the completion of the interactive element of the assessment there will be formal written feedback delivered on both the original essay and on the subsequent discussion.
There will be informal verbal feedback on the group presentation and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Overview

The course examines French painting from the Barbizon School and Realism through to Impressionism set in the context of social, political and cultural developments in France in the nineteenth century. Students on this course will make extensive use of learning technologies in the preparation and presentation of assignments.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

On-line discussion.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, interactive essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%). An interactive presentation taking the form of an essay (2,000 words) mounted on MyAberdeen and visible to a group of 4 students. Over a set period members of the group read, critically analyse and question each other's essays. Interaction with this process is monitored. The essay is 20% of the course mark. The engagement and quality of the interaction is 20% of the course mark. Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback takes place during the interactive component of the written assignment. The questions asked by the course coordinator will contain an element of feedback and will allow for further engagement with the topic in the student's responses to these matters raised.

Following the completion of the interactive element of the assessment there will be formal written feedback delivered on both the original essay and on the subsequent discussion.
There will be informal verbal feedback on the group presentation and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature,MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course provides a detailed introduction to Netherlandish painting during its so-called 'golden age'. Drawing and printmaking are also touched upon.

The great majority of the course deals with art in the Northern Netherlands, with the notable exception of Rubens, whose major stature, as well as his influence on many Dutch artists, including Rembrandt, warrants three seminars. Although much of Rubens's art enshrines the ideals of the Counter Reformation Roman Catholic Church, his work as a whole is deeply rooted in Netherlandish tradition and a Netherlandish milieu. The fluidity of the artistic situation is neatly conveyed by the career of Adriaen Brouwer who, though born in the South, worked mainly in Haarlem and Amsterdam, inventing a pungent new style of low-life genre that he later took back with him to Flanders, where it had an impact on David Teniers the Younger, court painter to the Catholic Archdukes in Brussels.

The course concentrates on leading figures (to several of whom it devotes anything between one and three classes), but also aims to give an accurate idea of the growing range of artistic genres that distinguish this period, especially in the Northern Netherlands (from landscape to the various sub-categories of genre painting).

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total of 36 teaching hours. These will predominantly take the form of seminars, but there will also be a significant proportion of lectures.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by 2 essays, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two 2,000-word essays (40%). Class Contribution based on seminar presentations and contribution to discussion in seminars (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback occurs at various stages of the course and at different levels. The two essays are returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself.

The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are also designed to help students improve their skills.
Students are encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art.

Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3092.

Overview

This course will introduce students to the major artists and artistic movements in Russia from the late 19th century until today. The main focus will be on the interrelation between art and politics in Russia during one of the most turbulent centuries in the country's history. From the social realism of the Wanderers to the propaganda art of Klucis and Rodchenko, through the Soviet years of repression and into the post-independent era, when artists continued to express their concerns about topical issues, art and politics in Russia have been virtually inextricable. We will pay particular attention to the function of the avant-garde and its efficacy throughout the twentieth century in Russia. We will also examine a second current throughout this course, that of the relation of Russian artists to their counterparts in the West, which at times they purposefully rejected, and at others aimed to emulate or at least appropriate.

Structure

3 hours of seminar teaching per week to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (30%); continuous assessment (70%) [two 2,000-2,500-word essays (20% each), presentation (10%), exhibition (10%), and poster creation (10%)].

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided on the School feedback sheets.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the school of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture. Available to students in Archaeology.

Overview

The course begins with an examination of a range of metalwork, developing a vocabulary of technical terms and understanding of status and function. Art will be used as a tool to explore the political, social and religious context of the 5-9th centuries.Various roles of patronage, secular and religious are examined. The function and design of the great Insular manuscripts are explored: the Lindisfarne Gospels and Book of Kells. The style and development of sculpture, particularly in Pictland and Ruthwell will be analysed. An approach will be made to methods of dating objects in this era.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be up to two one-day field trips within Scotland.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%);
Class participation including presentation (10%); Two 2,000 word essays, total (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB All course work must be handed in.

Feedback

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course examines Scottish painting's reflection of and contribution to the debate on Scottish national identity in the period 1840-1920. Through the work of key landscape, genre, history and figure painters, the evolution of national visual signifiers is analysed and discussed.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars a week for 6 weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); An essay (2,000 words) (40%). Class Contribution based on group analysis of given paintings in seminars and contribution in seminar presentation (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback takes place during the seminars. The questions addressed by the group presentations will be discussed with the tutor during the seminars and will contain feedback.

There will be formal written feedback delivered on the essay.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature; MA FIlm and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3579.

After 2012/13 this course will be taught simultaneously to Level 3 and Level 4, with different assessments and learning outcomes.

Overview

The student is introduced to British Romanesque architecture in stages which culminate in the construction of Durham Cathedral, and lead on to several related buildings in England and Scotland. A great cathedral is examined in its entirety, looking at its fabric, sculpture , furnishings and patrons in order to demonstrate both how it was constructed and how it was used. The close artistic relations between England and Scotland in this period are explored. The fundamental iconography and meaning behind ground plans and style are explored. The historiography of Romanesque architecture is analysed.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 18 seminar teaching hours. Compulsory 2-day field trip to Durham and elsewhere, which will involve overnight cost for students, and may involve weekend travel.

Assessment

Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); class participation including presentation (10%); one 2,000 word essay (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment. Students may request feedback on their exam performance.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature,MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3887.

Overview

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 is 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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total 18 teaching hours. These will mainly be seminars, but there will also be some lectures.

Assessment

Student performance in this course is assessed by 1 essay, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

1st Attempt: 1 one and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); one 2,000-word essay (40%); class Contribution based on a seminar presentation and contribution to discussion in seminars (10%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback occurs throughout the course. The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are designed to help students improve their skills. Students are also encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

The essay is returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art in Programme Year 3 or above. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes comprise all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English; MA English and Scottish Literature; MA Film and Visual Culture.

Overview

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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one-hour written examination (30%), in-course assessment (70%).

The in-course assessment includes presentations (a group presentation and a performance presentation) (10%), one essay 2,000 words (40%) and a visual-based test (20%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Feedback

Feedback will be provided in the form of a CAS mark and written comments.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
Available only to Single and Joint Honours candidates in History of Art in Programme Year 4.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2011/12 as HA 4302.

Overview

Covers the paintings, drawings and prints of Ludovico (1555-1619), Agostino (1557-1602) and Annibale (1560-1609) Carracci, as well as those of their more important pupils (Reni, Domenichino). Particular attention will be paid to the nature and significance of the Carracci Academy; the historiography of the Carracci's supposed 'Eclecticism'; and their influence on the development of 'Baroque' and 'Baroque Classical' aesthetics.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (30%) and in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes a visual-based test.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to Honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Overview

This course focuses on English art across the eighteenth century. It addresses developments across a range of genres, from portraiture and historical narratives to sporting art and satires, in the work of artists including Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Wright of Derby. It also considers the broader impact on the visual arts of a burgeoning exhibition culture, the collecting ethos of the Grand Tour, and the intellectual reforms of the Enlightenment age.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be 18 classes altogether comprising
1 lecture
13 tutor-led seminars

Four student-led seminars based around group presentations. Students each participate in one group presentation across the course.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%: 2 essays of 2,500 words each [20% each] and 1 visual test of one hour [20%]); class participation (10%).

Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their group presentation. The student is required to devise their own essay topic and question for essay 2, in order to encourage independent research and critical thinking. An increased essay length at Level 4 enables the demonstration of detailed knowledge and understanding of a specialist topic.

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Feedback

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor, with continuous verbal feedback provided in all teaching sessions.

Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. Available only to Honours students in History of Art in Programme Year 4.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13.

This course is compulsory to Single Honours students in History of Art. It is available for Joint and Combined degree students, or for Historical Studies students, with special permission from the Undergraduate Programme Coordinator.

Overview

This course considers topics and controversies in the literature of art of all periods. Each seminar will address a particular problem by focusing on a single "key text". The ideological bases of the discourse of art history in different historical contexts will be examined. Typical themes include progress and decline, description and interpretation, stylistic analysis, iconography and iconology, "genius" and the feminist critique, connoisseurship, censorship.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (50%) and in-course assessment (50%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching. Available only to Single and Joint Honours programme candidates in History of Art in Programme Year 4.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course introduces British Romanesque architecture in four stages: origins of the style; its peak expression in the construction of Durham cathedral; the influence of Durham cathedral on later buildings; and the symbolic meaning of medieval architecture. There will be a two-day bus trip to visit Durham and related buildings.

Structure

4 hours per week, seminars and talks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (30%) and in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes a visual-based test.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor P Davidson

Pre-requisites

Available only to Single and Joint Candidates in History of Art in Programme Year 4. Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course begins with an introduction and overview of relevant international garden history taught by lectures and seminars. After the garden visits there will be seminars closely focused on those gardens in relation to international tradition. The third part of the course will introduce students to the rich materials for garden history in Aberdeen University Library Special Collections.

Structure

3 two-hour seminars per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 1½-hour written examination (30%), essay (40%), visual-based test (20%), class participation (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Students are not permitted to register for the course after the end of week 2 of teaching. Available only to students in Level 4 or above.

Notes

This course will be available as HA 4361 in 2012/13.

Overview

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.

Structure

3 hours per week, divided into lectures and seminars.

Assessment

1st attempt: One 1½-hour written examination (30%), in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes class participation (10%), one 2,000 word essay (40%) and a slide test (20%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art programme year 3. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course will introduce students to the major artists and key artistic movements in the Postmodern era, focusing on artists working in the United States and Europe, both East and West. The main focus will be on the issue of what Postmodernism in fact is, specifically with regard to Postmodern Art. From the explosion of conceptual art and the use of alternative media in the 1970s, to the return to painting in the 1980s and the eclecticism of the 1990s and after, this course will examine the vast array of artistic expression that developed in the latter half of the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to what it means to be Postmodern during this period of rapid and dynamic change with regard to the notion of art and artistic production. We will examine focused case studies of prominent artists from this period, as well as more general trends and movements that can be identified. Students will be familiarised with the most recent developments in the history of art, right up to the present day.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%), in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes class participation (10%), essays (two 2,000 (40%) and visual-based examination (10%) and the conception and presentation of a work of art (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour exam (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment and Feedback Information.

Feedback

Feedback will be given as a CAS mark and in the form of written comments.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course begins with an examination of the medieval building tradition and house plans. The effect of Renaissance thinking and political contacts with the continent during the 16th century are studied. The effect of the Grand Tour and arrival of classical styles are tracked, along with the assembly and display of acquired treasures. Issues of social behaviour and class strata are examined in terms of house plans through the ages. The advances of technology are discussed in terms of changing behaviour. Current issues of conservation, taxation, government and private funding for stately homes are discussed directly with current owners.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be up to 2 one-day field trips within Scotland.

Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); Class participation including presentation, with topics which require greater critical analysis (10%); two 2,500 word essays which include critical review of sources, total (40%).

Essay questions will be more technically challenging, and require engagement with primary and secondary sources.

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor P Davidson

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate honours programmes for this course consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course is a study of garden history leading up to the period of the designed landscape (landscape garden) in Britain; followed by a consideration of the relations of landscape, landscape garden and landscape painting, both in eighteenth century Britain and during the twentieth century British picturesque revival. The course will also offer a comprehensive introduction to relevant rare book and manuscript materials in Aberdeen University Library Special Collections.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. NOTE: Four of these hours to be occupied by rare book and manuscript sessions in Special Collections. Optional but recommended field trip.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, essays and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%); 2 course essays (2,500 words each), the second of which is a development of the seminar presentation, (40%). Class contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Individual written and verbal feedback will be given on each of the two course essays.

Feedback

There will be informal group and individual verbal feedback on the presentations and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Compulsory for Single Honours students in History of Art at Level 3. Optional for Joint Honours students, but not available for the purposes of Enhanced Study in cognate Honours programmes.

Overview

This course considers topics and controversies in the literature of art of all periods. Each seminar will address particular problem or area by focussing on two or more 'key' texts. The ideological bases off the discourses of art history in different historical contexts will be examined. Typical themes include progress and decline, description and interpretation, idealism and naturalism, the question of style, iconography, Marxism, genius and gender and post-modernism.

Structure

1 or 2 hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (50%); two coursework essays of 2,000 words (50%).

NB. All course work must have been submitted.

Resit: Written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback is given in a formal manner in staff response to student coursework and in responses to student group contributions in the seminar context. Informally, it is given throughout the duration of the course in many exchanges with students concerning issues arising from the content.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The first half of the course is devoted primarily to the work of Caravaggio himself. It locates the roots of his art in the predominantly naturalistic traditions of Lombardy and Venice, but also stresses the aesthetic gulf that separates Caravaggio from his supposed artistic sources.
Central issues to be addressed in the seminars include the current debate about whether Caravaggio was a dutiful exponent or covert critic of Counter Reformation ideology; the extent to which he constructed his pictures without preparatory drawings by painting directly from posed models (an allegedly novel procedure); the nature and function of his famed 'chiaroscuro'; and the ways in which his 'realism' differed from the more 'classical' naturalism of his main rival, Annibale Carracci.
The second half of the course deals with Caravaggio's so-called 'followers'.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total of 36 teaching hours. These will predominantly take the form of seminars, but there will also be a significant proportion of lectures.

Student performance in this course is assessed by 2 essays, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two 2,500-word essays (40%); class Contribution based on seminar presentations and contribution to discussion in seminars evaluated at a higher level than for level 3 students (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback occurs at various stages of the course and at different levels. The two essays are returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself. Students are then given the opportunity to discuss their essay with the lecturer.

The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are also designed to help students improve their skills.

Students are encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Overview

This course will focus on painting and sculpture in Venice in the period 1450-1600. Artists covered will include the Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, the Lombardi, Lotto, Veronese and Tintoretto. The work of these individuals will be analysed in relation not only to both their art historical and socio-political context.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%); 2 essays of 2,500 words (40%); class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Normally no re-sit available.

Formative Assessment

Via tutor responses to coursework essays, the visual test and written examination. Also less formally through tutor interaction with students through the duration of the course. Peer feedback takes place through the formal student group presentation/ respondent sessions, as also throughout the course in the seminar context.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3082.

Overview

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; furthermore, it 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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

There will be 18 classes altogether comprising: 2 lectures; 12 tutor-led seminars;
4 student-led seminars based around group presentations.

Students each participate in one group presentation across the course.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%) [2 essays of 2,500 words each (20% each); 1 visual test of one hour (20%)]; class participation (10%).

Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their group presentation.

A single essay topic designed to encourage independent research and critical thinking is provided for essay 2. An increased essay length at Level 4 enables the demonstration of detailed knowledge and understanding of a specialist topic.

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor.

Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Nichols

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course analyses in detail developments in North European art (especially paintings, sculptures and prints from Germany, the Netherlands and Britain) from c. 1480 to c. 1580. Stylistic, iconographic, technical and ideological connections and differences within the viusal material examined wil be highlighted, as will its vital (though changing) relation with contemporary artistic work in Italy.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two essays of 2,500 words (40%);
Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Via tutor responses to coursework essays, the visual test and written examination. Also less formally through tutor interaction with students through the duration of the course. Peer feedback takes place through the formal student group presentation/ respondent sessions, as also throughout the course in the seminar context.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

Open to Level 4 honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. These comprise all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English; MA English and Scottish Literature; MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course concentrates on twentieth-century American painting from the Armory Show in 1913 onwards. It considers the rise of American painting in relation to contemporary developments in Europe, from America's indigenous tradition and its initial responses to European Modernism, the Realism of Hopper, the Regionalism of Wood and Benton to the Abstract Expressionism of Pollock. The factors governing the triumph of American painting are examined. It then considers the works of Pop Art and Super-Realism and culminates in the post-modern climate of the 1990s.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, two course essays and class contribution/seminar presentation.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%); two course essays, one of which will derive from the seminar paper (2,500 words each) (40%); class contribution, based on tutorial participation and seminar presentations and participation (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Group and individual verbal and written feedback will be given on the seminar presentations and discussions.

Individual verbal and formal feedback will be given on each of the two course essays. In order to focus feedback more directly on issues that concern individual students there will be a self-assessment form for each essay, which should be completed and submitted along with each essay.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The emergence in recent years of a cultural history of politics in early modern Britain is to be welcomed. As such, scholars have acquired a greater understanding of how cultural forms such as poetry, drama, literature and art informed and inspired political awareness, during a period of significant political and religious controversy and change. By considering how pictorial forms both shaped and challenged public opinion, this module builds upon this understanding in a survey of one of its richest, yet most understudied aspects: the visual. Through the close study of a range of art forms and genres from the Stuart reigns and the Interregnum, students examine aspects of continuity and change in representations of power and authority, the use of imagery in satirical and polemical, as well as celebratory and promotional contexts, and instances of adaptation and appropriation in response to the changing role of art in seventeenth-century Britain.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be 18 classes altogether comprising

• 2 lectures


• 8 tutor-led seminars


• 8 student-led seminars based around group presentations.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); continuous assessment (60%)[2 essays of 2,500 words each (20% each) and 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%))]; class participation (10%).

Essay 1 develops the student's response to the question addressed by their first group presentation. A single essay topic designed to encourage independent research and critical thinking is provided for essay 2. An increased essay length at Level 4 enables the demonstration of detailed knowledge and understanding of a specialist topic.

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Informal verbal feedback on group presentations will be provided by the tutor.

Formal written feedback will be provided by the tutor for both student essays, with verbal feedback also available to students as required.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3586.

Overview

This course analyses in detail developments in art in France from c1880 to c1939. Stylistic, iconographic technical and ideological connections and differences within the visual material examined will be highlighted, as will changing relations with contemporary artistic work elsewhere in Europe.

The course will consist of tutor-led seminars and student-led presentations and follow-up class question and answer sessions/discussions.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 teaching hours, which will include student presentations and class discussions.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual test, two course essays and class contribution/seminar presentation.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two course essays, one of which will derive from the seminar paper (2,500 words each) (40%); class contribution, based on tutorial participation and seminar presentations and participation (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Group and individual verbal and written formative feedback will be given on the seminar presentations and discussions.

Individual verbal and written feedback will be given on each of the two course essays. In order to focus feedback more directly on issues that concern individual students there will be a self-assessment form for each essay which should be completed and submitted along with each essay.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr M Pryor

Pre-requisites

This course can only be taken by Level 4 single and joint honours students in History of Art. It is the compulsory follow-on course to Fieldwork 1, which must be taken at Level 3.

Notes

Neither this course nor its predecessor, Fieldwork I, is available as an Enhanced Study option.

Overview

Fieldwork 2 continues the study of works of art and architecture in situ. It consists of a taught week in Paris during the Autumn semester. The visits are recorded in the students' Flog (fieldwork log). Selected reflections, reviews and analyses of works seen and public lectures attended during the course are presented in an ePortfolio, which is written in an academic style.

Structure

Fieldwork 2 includes a week-long visit to Paris during which the class will undertake tutor-led and independent visits to galleries, museums and sites of art-historical interest.

Assessment

1st Attempt: The students submit a 7,000 word ePortfolio, which accounts for (100%) of the course marks.

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Feedback

Ongoing from Fieldwork 1, there will be regular written feedback provided through the Flog as well as regular verbal feedback during the visits. Feedback will be given on a draft entry for the ePortfolio.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course is not available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course covers the development of Scottish painting from the Act of Union to the accession of Queen Victoria. Throughout this period Scottish painting will be set in the context of Scotland's changing position as a cultural centre within the United Kingdom. Using the major art works of the period and the University's wide ranging eighteenth and nineteenth century visual collections, the developing national cultural identity is considered. Students on this course will make extensive use of learning technologies in the preparation and presentation of assignments.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

On-line discussion.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, visual-based test, interactive essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%). An interactive presentation taking the form of an essay (2,000 words) mounted on MyAberdeen and visible to a group of 4 students. Over a set period members of the group read, critically analyse and question each other's essays. Interaction with this process is monitored. The essay is 20% of the course mark. The engagement and quality of the interaction is 20% of the course mark. Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback takes place during the interactive component of the written assignment. The questions asked by the course coordinator will contain an element of feedback and will allow for further engagement with the topic in the student's responses to these matters raised.

Following the completion of the interactive element of the assessment there will be formal written feedback delivered on both the original essay and on the subsequent discussion.
There will be informal verbal feedback on the group presentation and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Overview

The course examines French painting from the Barbizon School and Realism through to Impressionism set in the context of social, political and cultural developments in France in the nineteenth century. Students on this course will make extensive use of learning technologies in the preparation and presentation of assignments.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 seminar teaching hours.

On-line discussion.

Student performance in this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, interactive essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%). An interactive presentation taking the form of an essay (2,000 words) mounted on MyAberdeen and visible to a group of 4 students. Over a set period members of the group read, critically analyse and question each other's essays. Interaction with this process is monitored. The essay is 20% of the course mark. The engagement and quality of the interaction is 20% of the course mark.

Class Contribution based on contribution in tutorials and seminar response (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback takes place during the interactive component of the written assignment. The questions asked by the course coordinator will contain an element of feedback and will allow for further engagement with the topic in the student's responses to these matters raised.

Following the completion of the interactive element of the assessment there will be formal written feedback delivered on both the original essay and on the subsequent discussion.
There will be informal verbal feedback on the group presentation and on the response to the presentation.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature,MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

The course provides a detailed introduction to Netherlandish painting during its so-called 'golden age'. Drawing and printmaking are also touched upon.

The great majority of the course deals with art in the Northern Netherlands, with the notable exception of Rubens, whose major stature, as well as his influence on many Dutch artists, including Rembrandt, warrants three seminars. Although much of Rubens's art enshrines the ideals of the Counter Reformation Roman Catholic Church, his work as a whole is deeply rooted in Netherlandish tradition and a Netherlandish milieu. The fluidity of the artistic situation is neatly conveyed by the career of Adriaen Brouwer who, though born in the South, worked mainly in Haarlem and Amsterdam, inventing a pungent new style of low-life genre that he later took back with him to Flanders, where it had an impact on David Teniers the Younger, court painter to the Catholic Archdukes in Brussels.

The course concentrates on leading figures (to several of whom it devotes anything between one and three classes), but also aims to give an accurate idea of the growing range of artistic genres that distinguish this period, especially in the Northern Netherlands (from landscape to the various sub-categories of genre painting).

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total of 36 teaching hours. These will predominantly take the form of seminars, but there will also be a significant proportion of lectures.

Student performance in this course is assessed by 2 essays, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); two 2,500-word essays (40%). Class Contribution based on seminar presentations and contribution to discussion in seminars, evaluated at a higher level than for level 3 students (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback occurs at various stages of the course and at different levels. The two essays are returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself.

The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are also designed to help students improve their skills.
Students are encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art.

Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3092.

Overview

This course will introduce students to the major artists and artistic movements in Russia from the late 19th century until today. The main focus will be on the interrelation between art and politics in Russia during one of the most turbulent centuries in the country's history. From the social realism of the Wanderers to the propaganda art of Klucis and Rodchenko, through the Soviet years of repression and into the post-independent era, when artists continued to express their concerns about topical issues, art and politics in Russia have been virtually inextricable. We will pay particular attention to the function of the avant-garde and its efficacy throughout the twentieth century in Russia. We will also examine a second current throughout this course, that of the relation of Russian artists to their counterparts in the West, which at times they purposefully rejected, and at others aimed to emulate or at least appropriate.

Structure

3 hours of seminar teaching per week to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (30%); continuous Assessment (70%) (two 2,500 word essays (20% each), presentation 10%, exhibition (10%) and poster creation (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback will be provided on the School feedback sheets.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of enhanced study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the school of Divinity, History and Philosophy, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture. Available to students in Archaeology.

Overview

The course begins with an examination of a range of metalwork, developing a vocabulary of technical terms and understanding of status and function. Art will be used as a tool to explore the political, social and religious context of the 5-9th centuries.Various roles of patronage, secular and religious are examined. The function and design of the great Insular manuscripts are explored: the Lindisfarne Gospels and Book of Kells. The style and development of sculpture, particularly in Pictland and Ruthwell will be analysed. An approach will be made to methods of dating objects in this era.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 36 seminar teaching hours. There will be up to two one-day field trips within Scotland.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution. 1 two-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual test (20%);
Class participation including presentation (10%); two 2,500 word essays which include critical review of sources, total (40%).

Resit: Normally no resit opportunity.

Formative Assessment

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Students are not permitted to register for this course after the end of week 2 of teaching.
Available only to Single and Joint Honours programme candidates in History of Art in Programme Year 4.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course examines Scottish painting's reflection of and contribution to the debate on Scottish national identity in the period 1840-1920. Through the work of key landscape, genre, history and figure painters the evolution of national visual signifiers is analysed and discussed.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (30%) and in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes a slide test.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Morrison

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature, MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2012/13.

Overview

This course examines Scottish painting's reflection of and contribution to the debate on Scottish national identity in the period 1840-1920. Through the work of key landscape, genre, history and figure painters, the evolution of national visual signifiers is analysed and discussed.

Structure

2 two-hour seminars a week for 6 weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%). An essay (2,500 words) (40%). Class Contribution based on response to group presentations and contribution in seminar (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback takes place during the seminars. The questions addressed by the group presentations will be discussed with the tutor during the seminars and will contain feedback.

There will be formal written feedback delivered on the essay.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor J Geddes

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature; MA FIlm and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3579.

After 2012/13 this course will be taught simultaneously to Level 3 and Level 4, with different assessments and learning outcomes.

Overview

The student is introduced to British Romanesque architecture in stages which culminate in the construction of Durham Cathedral, and lead on to several related buildings in England and Scotland. A great cathedral is examined in its entirety, looking at its fabric, sculpture , furnishings and patrons in order to demonstrate both how it was constructed and how it was used. The close artistic relations between England and Scotland in this period are explored. The fundamental iconography and meaning behind ground plans and style are explored. The historiography of Romanesque architecture is analysed.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week, with a total of 18 seminar teaching hours. Compulsory 2-day field trip to Durham and elsewhere, which will involve overnight cost for students, and may involve weekend travel.

Student performance on this course is assessed by written examination, slide test, essay and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); class participation including presentation (10%); one 2,000 word essay (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

There will be interactive feedback on class participation. Essays will be handed back individually with comment. Students may request feedback on their exam performance.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art. Available as a level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes consist of all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy; MA English, MA English and Scottish Literature,MA Film and Visual Culture.

Notes

This course will be available in 2012/13 as HA 3887.

Overview

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 is 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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour sessions per week to a total 18 teaching hours. These will mainly be seminars, but there will also be some lectures.

Student performance in this course is assessed by 1 essay, a written examination, visual-based test, and class contribution.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one and a half-hour written examination (30%); 1 one-hour visual-based test (20%); one 2,500-word essay (40%); class Contribution based on a seminar presentation and contribution to discussion in seminars, evaluated at a higher level than for level 3 students (10%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Formative Assessment

Feedback occurs throughout the course. The lecturer's comments on student presentations in class are designed to help students improve their skills. Students are also encouraged to discuss their chosen essay topics in advance with the course convener.

The essay is returned with detailed comments both on the cover sheet and the body of the essay itself.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr H Pierce / Mr J Gash

Pre-requisites

Compulsory for all Single Honours students in History of Art. Optional for Joint-Honours students in History of Art.

Co-requisites

Joint-Honours History of Art students who do not do a dissertation in History of Art will be required to do one in their other discipline.

Overview

An 8,000-10,000-word dissertation on an art-historical topic of the student's choice, selected after discussion with the course convener and with the student's allocated supervisor. The topic may deal with painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative or applied arts. It need not necessarily be restricted to the areas taught within the Department of History of Art, or to works of the western tradition.

Structure

This course includes prior meetings in the third year and first half-session of the fourth year, even though the main body and focus of student effort falls in the second half-session of the fourth year, in which the course proper is scheduled.
In the first-half session of their fourth year, students are expected to agree with their supervisor on a definitive topic. At this point students sometimes change supervisor if necessary.
Students are encouraged to continue research on their topic in between other commitments in the first-half session of the fourth year, and to consult their supervisors for guidance regularly.
During the first three weeks of teaching in the second half-session of their final year, students are allocated to small groups in which they give a Power Point presentation of their dissertation plan and outline. This is in turn critiqued by the supervisor/tutor and by other students, with a view to helping the speakers improve the structure and content of their dissertation.
By the end of February in the final year, students submit to their supervisor a critical bibliography, with comments on the reasons for their selection of certain key items. This is read and handed back personally with oral and written comments by the supervisor.
During February and March, students are required to see their supervisor regularly to discuss the development of their project. They are also asked to submit up to six pages of written text as a sample which the supervisor will comment on, prior to the end of the Spring term.
Supervision meetings vary in length, but are usually one hour.
The disseratation is submitted in bound and electronic form right at the beginning of the Summer term.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 8,000/10,000 word dissertation (100%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

Feedback

Feedback takes the form of :

1. Regular supervision meetings with a supervisor, at which the student is given oral feedback on their developing ideas.
2. Comments by the supervisor and other students in response to a seminar presentation given by the candidates at the beginning of the second half-session of their fourth year.
Written and oral comments by the supervisor on a critical bibliography submitted by students before the end of February in their final year.
3. Written comments on a specimen piece of dissertation writing submitted by the student in the first eight weeks of teaching in the second half-session of their final year.
4. The mark sheets, with comments and marks, of the final degree assessment of the dissertation will be returned to students.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Bryzgel

Pre-requisites

Open to honours students in History of Art in Programme Year 3 or above. Available as a Level 3 option for the purposes of Enhanced Study to those with entry to cognate honours programmes. Cognate programmes comprise all honours programmes in the School of Divinity, History & Philosophy; MA English; MA English and Scottish Literature; MA Film and Visual Culture.

Overview

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.

Structure

1 or 2 two-hour seminars per week to a total of 36 teaching hours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one-hour written examination (30%), in-course assessment (70%). The in-course assessment includes presentations (a group presentation and a performance presentation) (10%), one essay 3,000 words (40%) and a visual-based test (20%).

Resit: Normally no resit available.

NB: All coursework must have been submitted.

Formative Assessment

Feedback will be provided in the form of a CAS mark and written comments.