DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART



DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART

First Year Single and Joint Honours 2005-6

Periodisation and Period Issues ARTH 10 18567 or 10 18629

GENERAL AIMS: The module addresses the notion of an artistic and cultural ‘period’ though the examination of a particular period, such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Modernism. The defining characteristics of the period will be examined, with some emphasis given to the historiography of the term used to define it. In addition, some key theoretical issues will also be identified and discussed. Much weight will be placed in the reading and discussion of important texts, dating from the specified period and from more recent art history. The module as a whole will therefore provide a greater historical understanding of the period and its place within art history as a whole.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of the module, students will have

(Knowledge and understanding)

• gained a broad knowledge of a particular period of art history, such as the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Modernism

• gained knowledge of the historiography of the period

• achieved some understanding of how the period relates to other periods of art history

• accrued a factual knowledge of specific works of art or architecture from the period, and gained an understanding of how these works relate to prevalent themes and issues associated with the period

• become familiar with specific ideas associated with the period found in important texts from or about the period

• been able to relate these ideas appropriately to particular works of art and architecture.

(Skills and competence)

• gained experience in performing bibliographic searches and in identifying and analysing secondary sources

• been encouraged to conduct further research from secondary sources through the writing of an assessed essay in the form of a review or comparison of selected texts.

DELIVERY: One one-hour seminar each week. Two different periods will be covered in the two terms.

ASSESSMENT: One essay of 2,500-3,000 words each term (see below)

TIMES AND DAYS: Groups meet as follows:

Seminar Group B: Tuesday 1-2 (Arts Building G14)

Seminar Group A: Thursday 2-3 (Arts Building G14)

MODULE COORDINATOR: David Hemsoll (DH)

CONTENT OF TERM 1 MODULE: During this term, we shall be investigating the historical concept of the Renaissance as it applies to art as well as to history and culture more generally. We shall consider the historical and cultural contexts of certain specific works of art, some exhibited in the Barber Institute galleries and others by figures such as Donatello, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Titian, and we shall identify some of the defining characteristics chief developments of the art from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Particular emphasis will be placed on the understanding of key historical terms, such as ‘Renaissance’ and ‘humanism’, and on certain key themes relating to them, such as the rise of ‘mythological’ art and the basing of art on antique prototypes. We will, furthermore, pay close attention to certain selected texts dating both from the Renaissance itself and from more recent times.

In the course of the module, you will learn how to find information about particular topics, using not only books and periodicals but also web-based material and web search engines. You will also be encouraged to adopt good practices in note taking and assignment preparation, and learn how to produce academic work with a proper scholarly apparatus.

ASSESSMENT: This term’s module will be assessed by a piece of written work of 2,500-3,000 words in length, which will take the form of a critique of modern writings on a subject of your own choice. The assignment is as follows:

Find a subject treated in two or three recent texts and compare their treatment of it

The essay is due by no later than 5.00pm on Friday 13 January 2006.

The assignment requires you, therefore, to identify your subject, which can be an artist or a particular art work or theme, and then to find and read some recent (post 1980) texts that deal with it, which can be scholarly books, parts of scholarly books, or scholarly articles. Having done this, the aim of the assignment is to choose two or three of these texts and to describe and compare their contents as well as defining areas of difference and also considering how each of then develop ideas found in previous works (such as those cited in their footnotes).

Your work should be undertaken in two phases:

1) Begin preparation by identifying a subject, such as an artist or a particular art work or theme, and then locating and reading some recent texts – books, parts of books, or articles – that deal with it. This will require you to use search engines (e.g. jstor; or the Bibliography of the History of Art) as well as the online and card catalogues. The initial task, therefore, is to identify your chosen texts, and record them in the form of an accurate bibliographic list. I expect you to have chosen your subject and listed your texts by week 8, so as to be able to discuss them briefly in class. Following this you may want to identify common themes that are tackled in your texts, so that you can focus on them.

2) Prepare and complete the essay, which will be entitled “Two/Three Recent Writings on *****.” The essay will involve describing and comparing the chosen texts and how particular themes are treated in them, and it will also involve identifying areas of difference, and considering how each od the texts develops ideas found in previous works that may be cited in footnotes. You are required to cite your own sources accurately in properly set out footnotes and to provide a properly set out bibliography; for guidance consult the Departmental Handbook. You may make use of quotations if you so wish.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 Introductory meeting.

The meeting will also include the setting of an assignment: Look at J. Burckhardt, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, and summarise its contents, focusing on two sections in greater depth. Your work here will provide the basis for a seminar discussion next week.

Further reading: E.H. Gombrich, ‘In search of cultural history’, in ibid., Ideals and Idols, Oxford, 1979, pp. 24-59

Week 2 Class discussion on 19th-century ideas of the ‘Renaissance’.

Introduction to assignment: (1) read T.E. Mommsen, ‘Petrarch’s conception of the “Dark Ages”’, in P. Findlen, The Italian Renaissance, Oxford, 2002; (2) find a modern definition of the Renaissance (from an encyclopaedia or other suitable reference book), and identify some of its key characteristics.

Week 3 Class discussion of modern ideas of the ‘Renaissance’, and their historical basis.

Introduction to assignment: Find some information on the work of art which has been allocated to you (which will be by Donatello, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian or another artist) , and consider the senses in which it may be described as a work of the ‘Renaissance’ . To do this, you may wish to look at a modern definition of the term ‘Renaissance’ in an art reference book

Week 4 Class discussion about the uses, meanings and limits of the term ‘Renaissance’ when

applied to art.

Introduction to assignment: Find out about ‘humanism’ by reading The Dictionary of Art, ed. J. Turner, vol. 14, pp. 866-70 (also available online); and then reading (but without becoming submerged in the details), A. Campana, ‘The origin of the word “Humanist”’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 9, 1946, 60-73.

Introduce written assignment (see below).

Week 5 Class discussion about the meaning of word ‘humanism’.

Week 6 No class. Assignment week

Week 7 N.B. Essay to be handed in by 5 pm on Monday 8 November

Visit to Barber Galleries to discuss the concepts of Renaissance and humanism in relation to particular works of art.

Introduction to assignment: Read L.B. Alberti, On Painting, ch. 2 and 3. Identify the key criteria of the sort of painting described here and find a painting in the Barber Institute Gallery that can be described as ‘Albertian’ (obtaining a slide of it for the class).

Week 8 Discussion of essay topics

Class discussion relating Alberti’s criteria to actual Renaissance works (with selected

slides).

Introduction to assignment: read the three prefaces to Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, and identify his central argument. Then choose three works of art you consider are representative of his three periods, finding slides of them you can bring to the next class.

Further reading, E.H. Gombrich, ‘The Renaissance conception of artistic progress and its consequences’, in Norm and Form, 1-10.

Week 9 Class discussion about artistic ‘improvement’ and other key ideas in Vasari’s analysis, using selected slides.

Introduction to assignment: Read Chapter 4 of E. Panofsky, Renaissance and

Renascences in Western Art; and also C. Hope and E. McGrath, ‘Artists and Humanists’, in J. Kraye, ed. Renaissance Humanism, Cambridge, 1996, pp.161-88. Choose a mythological painting by finding a slide of it to bring to the next class, and consider its meaning and significance.

Week 10 Class discussion on mythological paintings (with selected slides).

Introduction to assignment: read E.H.Gombrich, ‘The style all’antica: imitation and assimilation’, in Norm and Form. Consider what is meant my ‘imitation’.

Further reading: P.P. Bober and R. Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture, London, 1985: try to understand the methodology of this important book.

Week 11 Discussion and class exercise on Renaissance art and the Antique.

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