The course is an engagement with art history as an academic discipline. It will discuss the study of art across the traditional period categories of ancient, medieval, and early modern and modern art. It will consider the historical development of the field as well as some of the directions within the field since the mid-20th century.

The first half of the course follows a chronological framework and considers individuals and methods that informed the field; that is, it structured as a historiographic investigation. The second half of the course is structured around a series of thematic aspects that throw light on current methodological approaches to the study of art across the various period categories.

Throughout, the aim is two-fold: Firstly, to gain insight into the development of the field of Art History: how this was shaped by contemporary historical concerns, and how theories – also from outside the discipline – affected the methodological approaches. Secondly, to gain an awareness of how this was not necessarily a uniform development: how the nature of the material studied conditioned the methods used, and how the perception of this material influenced the questions asked of the material.

The aim of the course is to build up a well-rounded understanding of art historical traditions and the methodologies of the field; that is, the aspects that have formed and hindered the study of art. The course will also provide good insight into current approaches to art historical investigation and the methods being adopted and explored in the 21st century.

You are expected to participate in all scheduled classes. Absences and late arrival will be noted and may affect your grade.

You are expected to have dealt with food, drink and bathroom needs before class. During class, please do not leave the classroom except for emergencies

No electronic devices are permitted to be used in class except when specified by the instructor.

On-line attendance is permissible only by prior approval. If you join the class on-line you are expected to be present by having your camera on

Make-up work is not offered, except in exceptional circumstances and after consultation with the Dean of Academic Affairs.

Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Students should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed.

Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam: a major exam (midterm or final) cannot be made up without the permission of the Dean’s Office. Permission will be granted only when the absence is caused by a serious impediment or grave personal situation. Absences due to conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, etc. will not be excused.

Details of further reading suggestions as well as a relevant bibliography for the course will be provided at the start of the semester.

Bibliographic works referred to as Set Reading:

D'Alleva, A. (2012). Methods and Theories of Art History. London, Laurence King Publishing.

Dyson, S.L. (2006) In pursuit of ancient pasts a history of classical archaeology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yale University Press.

Haskell, F. and Penny, N. (1982) Taste and the antique: the lure of classical sculpture 1500-1900. Yale University Press. NB85.H34

Hatt, M. and C. Klonk (2006). Art History. A Critical Introduction to its Methods. Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Preziosi, D. (ed.) (2009) The Art of Art History. A Critical Anthology. Oxford University Press: 13-21; 22-26

Rudolph, C. (2019) Introduction. A sense of loss: An overview of the historiography of the Romanesque and Gothic. In C. Rudolph (ed.), A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe (2nd ed.): 1-44. Blackwell.

Course schedule

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction to the course

Set reading       Hatt and Klonk 2006: 1-6 (introduction)

2. Introduction to art historical thinking

Set reading       D'Alleva 2012: 5-10 (thinking about theory); Preziosi 2009: 7-11 (Art History: Making the visible legible)

MONOCAUSAL APPROACHES / THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ART HISTORY

3. The first art historian (Vasari).

Renaissance tools and rules of representation (Alberti, Ripa). Institutions and canon-formation (Zuccari, Félibien, Le Brun).

Set reading: Preziosi 2009: 22-26 (Vasari: Preface to third part)

4. Rules and canons; discovery and invention

Renaissance tools and rules of representation (Alberti, Ripa). Institutions and canon-formation (Zuccari, Félibien, Le Brun). Reformation and Counter reformation; antiquarians and nationalists of medieval art

Set reading: Rudolph 2019: 4-16 (historiography of western Medieval art)

5. The father of classical archaeology: Winckelmann

Art history beyond biography and style. Enlightenment and Grand Tour (collectors and collecting; excavation and restoration)

Set reading: Dyson 2006: 1-6 (Winckelmann; Grand Tour)

6. Grand Tour and collecting

Enlightenment aesthetics between knowledge and taste (Kant, Diderot); birth of art criticism; subjective vs. objective data (Empiricism, Positivism); history vs context? (Zeitgeist; Historicism).

Set reading: Haskell and Penny 1982: 37-52, 79-91 (early antiquarians, casts and copies)

7.  Thinking about art: Hegel and Kant / Discussion of critical review format

Aesthetics and sensory knowledge; Hegel (dialectics of history, Zeitgeist and Volksgeist)

Set reading: Hatt and Klonk 2006: 21-38 (Hegel);

8. International ‘cultural heritage’ – classical art

Scientific study of ancient art; art and nationalism (big digs, international academies, and national collections); Greek art, Roman art, and the ancient artist; Furtwängler (Kopienkritik and connoisseurship)

Set reading: Dyson 2006: 157-59 (Furtwängler)

9. Connoisseurship

Photography and academia. Taxonomies / classifications in ancient art (new media, new patrons, new approaches?), Morelli and Beazley (taxonomies of art and artists, connoisseurship)

Set reading: Fernie 1995:103-5 (Morelli); Hatt and Klonk 2006: 40-42, 48-50 (connoisseurship, Morelli)

10. International ‘cultural heritage’ – medieval art

19th-early 20th century concepts about the art and architecture of a ‘Middle Age’; western concepts of Islamic art; Nationalism; Collections and Exhibitions; Riegl, Wickhoff, Rivoria, Berenson, Strzygowski

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 16-19 (Formalism)

11. Discipline emerges: systematic art history

Form and style (Riegl, Wölfflin); compendium of transcultural forms (Warburg); the iconological method (Panofsky)

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 16-19 (Formalism); Hatt and Klonk 2006: 65-70 (Formalism)

12. ‘Scientific’ and interpretative strategies: iconography

The ‘birth’ of late antiquity: Riegl's Kunstwollen; concepts about a ‘Middle Age’: Didron, Viollet-le-Duc, Mâle; keys to interpretation: Panofsky

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 19-26 (Panofsky); Hatt and Klonk 2006: 96-108 (Panofsky)

13. Review

Discussion of material addressed in the course

14. Tues. Oct. 18    Psychology and reception studies

Historical canons as psychological expectations (Gombrich). Reception and viewing; Jauss, Iser

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 105-10 (reception theory); Fernie 1995: 223-5 (Gombrich)

15.  Mid-term exam

APPROACHES SINCE 1960S

16. Materialism and a “New Art History”

Marxism; the start of a social history of art (Hauser, Hadjinikolaou, Clark)

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 48-58, 88-105

17. The Avant-garde and the New Art History

Avant-garde and ideology; art as passive reflection of context or artist as cultural critic; formal innovations as political engagement

Core reading:: D'Alleva 2012: 54; Lamoureux 2006: 191-207 (Avant-garde);

18. The contextual turn

New Archaeology (Renfrew, (post)processualism and ‘the great divide’); The contextual and historical turn; visual communication (Hölscher)

Set reading: Smith 2002: 67-74, 96-97 (the ‘contextual turn’)

19. Semiotics and the “New French Thought”

From semiotics (Saussure, Peirce, Barthes) to structuralism (Lévi-Strauss) and “New French Thought” (Foucault, Derrida).

Set reading: D'Alleva 2012: 126-44 (structuralism, poststructuralism, deconstruction)

CONTEXTS OF ART

20. Style and materiality

Ancient art in a ‘global’ approach: semiotics of style and image-transmission. Approaches to objects as ‘global’ and local: code-switching, entanglement, object networks

Set reading   Hallett 2015: 13-21 [4-16 pdf] (defining Roman art)

21. Feminism(s) and gender studies

Feminism(s)/post-feminism, gender/post-gender, queer studies

Set reading   D'Alleva 2012: 59-67, 68-74 (feminisms and gender)

22. Agency

Agency of objects and viewers; Gell; the complicity of objects and viewers

Set reading   Dietrich 2018: 464-89 (viewing, viewers and objects)

23. Displaying histories of art – museum studies

History of history of art vs. traditional historiography; art exhibitions as narratives; the experiential turn in museology; decolonizing the museum

Set reading   D'Alleva 2012: 145-50 (challenging master narratives); Crinson 2006: 450-66 (postcolonial theory in practice)

24. Space and framing – works in situ

Framing and viewing as process; agency of space; code-switching

Set reading   Bal 2002: 74-76 (framing and the matter with context)

PRESENTATIONS

25. Presentations to class

26. Presentations to class

27. Presentations to class

28. Presentations to class

29. Taking stock: final discussion

Date and time to be confirmed