Introduction to Art History and Museum Studies (2024/2025: Semester 2 – Spring)

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Course aim

After completing this course students are able to:
  1. identify the major protagonists and a number of key works
  2. distinguish some of the practical problems artists had to confront
  3. approach, describe and assess a work of art in its appropriate historical context
  4. judge material conditions and essential aesthetic qualities of paintings
  5. identify main trends in art historical research
  6. conduct a small-scale research using secondary sources
  7. gain an initial understanding of the institutional context of collections

Course content

If art, as Gombrich suggests, be taken to mean such activities as building temples and houses, making pictures and sculptures, or weaving patterns, then we come to realize that there is no people in the entire world without art. Nor has there been a period in history which did not yield fascinating creations of artistic virtuosity and imagination. Human expression in a visual form can be traced back to its strange beginnings in caves and on rock faces, and it is safe to say that it has not lost a bit of its appeal since. Starting from the oldest images that have come down to us decorating the ceilings of Altamira and Lascaux, from then on to delve into the documented history of art covering the period from the ancient world till the 1960s, this course will introduce the students to the fascinating world of visual arts and its most important monuments in the domains of architecture, sculpture and painting, as rendered in Gombrich’s Story of Art.

Format
During the fifteen weeks of the course, meetings are held twice a week (lectures and/or seminars and/or museum visits). Apart from these meetings, individual meetings may be scheduled to discuss the progress of the paper or other matters. Students write a paper on a particular work of art for which the literature has been assembled in a reader. Written exams will also take place to test the knowledge and understanding of the topics and items that have been discussed. Students practice a number of fundamental techniques of painting and drawing themselves. Such practical work sharpens the student’s eyes for qualities that were compared and discussed during the long and diverse discourse on painting as an art.

Instructional formats

UCU hum 1 course

Examination

Participation

Required | Weight 10% | ECTS 0.75

Catalog entry

Required | Weight 30% | ECTS 2.25

Final paper

Required | Weight 30% | ECTS 2.25

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Not required

Final exam

Required | Weight 30% | ECTS 2.25

Entry requirements and preknowledge

Entry Requirements

No data about mandatory entry requirements is available.

Preknowledge

No data about preknowledge is available.

Languages

  • English

Competences

  • Academic writing
  • International and intercultural orientation
  • Critical reading
  • Research skills

Course Iterations

Related studies

Exams

There is no timetable available of the exams

Required Materials

  • BOEK
    The Story of Art, E.H. Gombrich, London 1995, 15th edition 1995 or later, ISBN 0714832470
  • BOEK
    Art History and Its Methods, E. Fernie, London 1995, 1st edition or later, ISBN 0714829919
  • DIVERSE
    The basic materials for the art classes are provided by UCU; however, the costs for the excursions (transport and entrance fees) must be paid for by the students themselves.

Recommended Materials

No information available on the recommended literature

Coördinator

dr. T. Zakula T.Zakula1@uu.nl

Lecturers

dr. L. Costiner l.costiner@uu.nl
dr. T. Zakula T.Zakula1@uu.nl

Enrolment

Attention: this course is not open to students from other faculties, so subsidiary students can't enroll for this course.

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