Undergraduate Course: History of Art 1A: Images and Identity, 500-1700 (HIAR08029)
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 | This course explores the diversity of artworks produced across the world prior to modernity and provides 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 does not provide a comprehensive global survey, but normally includes material from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Case studies are chosen to elucidate how objects shape and are shaped by peoples' understandings of identity, society, power and more. |
| Course description |
This course introduces students to an expanded canon of premodern art. We consider traditional European material spanning from the Late Antique through the Renaissance and Baroque periods, whilst also looking in depth at simultaneous artistic developments in places such as East and South Asia, Africa, the Indigenous Americas and the Islamic world. Art historical touchstones by famous artists like Michelangelo, van Eyck and Dürer are examined alongside works by artists of earlier and non-Western cultures whose names less well known or lost to us. The aim, in all cases, is to understand the diverse ways that artistic practices intersected with issues of, for example, identity, gender, sexuality, nationality and religion. These issues continue to reverberate into the present in profound ways, shaping contemporary discourses of heritage and cultural patrimony.
The course is delivered in three hour-long lectures per week over ten weeks, and weekly one-hour small-group tutorials. Lectures address genres and 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 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
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify and describe artworks from diverse regions of the world as carriers of meaning and value.
- Interpret a range of visual sources within their historical, cultural, institutional and intellectual contexts.
- Explain the various ways in which artistic practices relate to broader issues of, for example, identity, place and religious belief.
- Make constructive use of formative feedback to communicate information, arguments and ideas relative to the discipline of art history.
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Reading List
Cook, Edward S. Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History. Princeton University Press, 2022
Johnson, Geraldine A. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2005
Nees, Lawrence. Early Medieval Art. Oxford University Press, 2002
Robertson, Jean, and Deborah Hutton. The History of Art: A Global View: Prehistory to Present. Thames & Hudson, 2021 |
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 | Global,Premodern Art,Material Culture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Forde
Tel:
Email: Jamie.Forde@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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