Undergraduate Course: History of Art 1B: Making Meaning in the Premodern World (HIAR08030)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Art has shaped humanity's understandings of its place in the world for thousands of years. This course explores such issues while providing an introduction to Art History at the university level. Lectures generally cover material spanning from c.500 to c.1700, but range significantly earlier for certain parts of the world. The course builds on History of Art 1A, but can be also be taken independently. Material covered comes is global in scope, and is chosen to show how different premodern cultures made and used works of art and visual culture to more deeply understand their physical and spiritual worlds. |
| Course description |
This course introduces students to the discipline of Art History by looking at the intersections of art and knowledge amongst past cultures from across the globe. Virtually all human societies have long produced artworks to more deeply understand their worlds, grappling with natural life and what lies beyond, in scientific and spiritual terms. Case studies will come from places such as medieval and renaissance Europe and the Islamic world, premodern east and south Asia and Africa, and prehispanic and colonial Latin America. We will not only look at premodern works of art and visual culture themselves, but at the processes of their production in order to better understand relationships between making and knowing.
The course is delivered in three hour-long lectures per week over ten weeks, and weekly one-hour small-group tutorials. Lectures address key works of art from different parts of the world, and the ways scholars critically study them. Tutorials provide a chance to discuss and actively engage with ideas and objects presented in lectures, develop analytical skills and put these skills into practice with peers. Some tutorials will take place in Edinburgh's many museums and galleries and the University's own Heritage Collections.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | This Course does not require any additional costs to be met by the Student. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 30,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 9,
External Visit Hours 1,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
153 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components.
1) Portfolio, 2000 words, 50%, Weeks 9-11, relating to all Learning Outcomes
2) Exam, 3 hours, 50%, Spring exam diet, relating to all Learning Outcomes
Further information:
1) The portfolio comprises four written subcomponents totalling c. 2000 words. These subcomponents comprise different exercises and kinds of writing, for example, a literature review, a gallery label, a piece of visual analysis, a reflective statement. Students will be able to choose subcomponents from exercises undertaken in tutorials for revision and submission.
Resit Information
The resit arrangements for this course are as follows.
- The resit task for assessment component 1 is a Portfolio, 2000 words.
- The resit task for assessment component 2 is an Exam, 3 hours
Students will receive further resit information as per University regulations where necessary.
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| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
- Students will develop and share Portfolio components in tutorials and receive verbal feedback on these components from tutors and peers throughout the course. This feedback relates directly to the development of Portfolio components submitted for Summative assessment and applies as well to the Exam.
Summative Feedback
- Written feedback on the Portfolio will be provided by course tutors.
- Students will receive brief written summative feedback on the Exam, provided by course tutors. This feedback will be relevant to all future courses in History of Art with an exam component.
Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify and discuss the materials and processes of art making from diverse places in the premodern world.
- Critically assess diverse scholarly approaches to the study of premodern art history.
- Describe and analyse visual and other historical sources in relation to their cultural, institutional and intellectual contexts.
- Confidently engage in current conversations around the conservation, curation and display of premodern art.
- Construct a well-structured argument supported by relevant evidence, and/or a synthesis of scholarly literature.
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Reading List
Elsner, Jas, Stefanie Lenk, and Georgi Parpulov, eds. Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions. Ashmolean Museum, 2017
Ross, Leslie D. Art and Architecture of the World's Religions. Bloomsbury, 2009
Keen, Bryan C, ed. Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World Through Illuminated Manuscripts. J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019
Paine, Alina, ed. Vision and Its Instruments: Art, Science, and Technology in Early Modern Europe. Penn State University Press, 2015 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry - Formulating questions about historical sources and more recent scholarship will encourage you to handle complexity and ambiguity. You will develop habits of critical thinking and a robust, independent approach to scholarly research.
Personal and intellectual autonomy - Encountering a diverse range of sources and approaches to global premodern art will encourage an open-minded perspective and the ability to reflect on the ethical and political dimensions of art-historical scholarship.
Communication - By developing the ability to write clearly, for a range of audiences, you will become a more effective communicator, particularly regarding the language of visual analysis. |
| Keywords | Materiality,Global,Science,Religion |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Forde
Tel:
Email: Jamie.Forde@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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