THIRD YEAR COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 09/10
SEMESTER 1
The Rise of Islamic Art
(Dr Alain George)
When they conquered the Near East in the 7th century, the Arabs came from the distant confines
of its great civilisations. Within two centuries of that date, they had created a brilliant culture that
flourished from Spain to the borders of China. This course explores the astonishing rise of Islamic
art and its relation to the worlds of classical Antiquity, Byzantium, Persia – and beyond. The
topics under study will range from mosque and palace architecture to figural painting, the
decorative arts and calligraphy. In each instance, we will attempt to use artefacts as windows on a
given historical period and on the civilisation that created them. Among the underlying themes
will be the roots of Islamic art, its social, political and cosmopolitan dimensions, as well as the
perceived correspondences between earthly and heavenly beauty in classical Islam.
Sexual Politics and the Image
(Dr Angela Dimitrakaki)
Widely encountered in late 20th-century criticism, the term ‘sexual politics’ has revolutionised
our approach to the image - in the visual arts and beyond. ‘Sexual politics’ is a key term in the
humanities because it positions sexuality, as well as the production of the sexed/gendered subject,
as complex political issues that are neither fixed nor exclusively private. Instead, the term ‘sexual
politics’ implies that these issues are actively negotiated in the public domain of culture, including
visual culture. The deployment of the word ‘politics’ in this context suggests that the interests of
diverse social groups may be expressed in the image, which can therefore never be ‘neutral’ and
completely autonomous -even if it appears so. On the contrary, within the framework of ‘sexual
politics’ ‘making’ and ‘looking at’ images are understood as social practices. The discourse of
sexual politics makes evident the immediate relevance of images, and of art, to our private and
public existence. Ultimately then the term ‘sexual politics’, far from displacing the allure of the
image, empowers us as spectators by helping us grasp the very complex processes that draw us to
the image as such. The unit will place particular emphasis on the production and consumption of
the image in the visual arts and related spaces of representation, such as film. We will concentrate
on work produced during the last quarter of the 20th century when ‘sexual politics’ became a key
concept in the practice and theory of art, and also in relation to the analysis of visual culture. The
unit will consider a variety of media and practices currently defining the expanded field of the
visual. Key moments in this review include: theoretical discussions on the ‘pleasure’ principle of
the image; the connection between gendered identities in real life and spaces of representation;
debates concerning feminist politics and art practice; the production and viewing of ‘subversive’
artworks; the emergence of ‘alternative’ media such as video and their impact on challenging
mainstream attitudes in relation to gender; post-feminist approaches to the utopian body; the
gendered subject, technology and globalisation.
The Detailed Imagination: Netherlandish Painting in the Age of Jan van Eyck
(Dr Tom Tolley)
The course will consider the work of the leading Netherlandish painters of the fifteenth century,
in particular the Van Eyck brothers, Robert Campin, Petrus Christus, Rogier van der Weyden,
Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling and Bosch. It aims to introduce students to the principal
surviving paintings of the period and the main issues art historians have addressed in relation to
their study. The work of Jan van Eyck (d. 1441), his contemporaries and followers, is
distinguished by an extraordinary attention to detailed naturalism of the most microscopic kind,
unprecedented in the history of Western painting, and rarely employed by artists in subsequent
periods. The rapid rise of this detailed naturalism is an artistic phenomenon that presents those
who study it with many problems of historical interpretation. To what extent can these paintings
be understood as reflections of the world as viewed by their artists directly from life? Or are they
essentially works of the imagination, contrived to appear 'real' because of their attention to detail?
Despite having been the subject of considerable study, art historians remain unclear about why
this brand of naturalism appeared where and when it did. The course will engage with this issue
throughout, investigating the historical contexts of the paintings, and asking what legacy this
detailed vision bequeathed to the ensuing development of Western Visual culture, from Dutch
painting of the seventeenth century to the advent of photography and its impact. Other issues
addressed include: developments in patronage from the court to the marketplace; the theological
social implications of naturalistic painting; the introduction of new genres and their function;
problems in iconographic interpretation; the eye of the spectator and changes in viewing habits;
and distinctions between devotional and secular purposes of painting. The social position of
artists and the development of new techniques of painting will also be investigated.
Scottish Art in the Age of Change 1945-2000
(Mr Bill Hare)
The central purpose of this course will be to examine the complex and shifting relationship
between the work of the major post-war Scottish artists and the wider developments of modern
and postmodern art and society. The structure of the course will be broadly chronological. It will
examine the development of the post-war Scottish and international art scenes, concentrating on
the dominant characteristics and themes in the art of this period. This will require the students to
focus their critical attention on how Scottish artists have responded and contributed to such
aspects of modern and contemporary art as – realism/surrealism, expressionism, abstraction,
constructivism, conceptionalism, neo-figuration, feminism, etc. The major figures for individual
study will include – Joan Eardley, Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi, William Turnbull, Ian Hamilton
Finlay, Boyle Family, John Bellany, Steven Campbell, Jenny Saville, Alison Watt, Christine
Borland, Douglas Gordon and Martin Creed (the last two, both winners of the Turner Prize).
These topics will not only be examined in terms of their thematic concerns, stylistic features and
innovative techniques, but also within the context of socio-historical study and visual critical
theory. The course is designed so that seminars and essay topics complement one another. It is
hoped that some of the seminars will take place in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
and other appropriate venues.
Art and Belief in China
(Dr Elaine Buck)
This seminar examines visual works from the lst to the 16th century that are linked with the
philosophical and religious traditions of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.
These include works created in the service of religion as well as secular works inspired by
philosophical and religious ideas. The course will consider how factors such as texts, practice,
patronage, and mutual influence affected form and function, subject matter, iconography and
style. Topics include: use of narrative to promote philosophical and religious ideas; the
relationship between Buddhist and Daoist images, the role of immortality beliefs and the
relationship between these traditions and popular religious art.
Where practical, dated materials and case studies of works in situate (e.g. cave temples, tombs,
and monastery complexes) will be used to help elucidate the rational for the art created.
Consideration will also be given to methodological approaches and problems (e.g. limited
understanding of how a work was used and received, reliance on potentially non representative
works etc.) that hamper an understanding of the art.
The Death and Life of Painting
(Mr Peter Rimmer)
In the early 1980s, painting, which had come to represent a diminished presence at the cutting
edge of the international art scene, was finally declared dead by a number of influential American
art critics. The death of painting, however, turned out to be a curious affair. While those who had
come to bury the medium attempted, in their critical writings, to dispose of the aesthetic remains,
others began to claim that, far from being dead, painting was actually showing vital signs of
renewed life.
These seminars will examine the crisis which brought about painting’s premature burial and
explore the reasons behind its cultural resurrection.
Through a critical analysis of texts by writers such as Archille Bonito Oliva, Thomas Lawson,
Donald Kuspit, Douglas Crimp, Benjamin Buchloh and Yves Alain Bois, together with an
exploration of painting by a wide range of artist including Ryman, Guston, Twombly, Schnabel,
Salle, Basquiat, Baselitz, Keifer, Polke, Richter and Clemente, we will scrutinise the claim that
painting represented a stagnant bastion of a redundant modernist tradition, and consider its
capacity to remain a relevant cultural force in a word where new forms of media and new theories
of art were becoming increasingly influential.
Along the way, we will examine a variety of ideas relating to the nature of the avant garde and the
meanings of post modernism.
SEMESTER 2
Antiquity Recovered: Imag(in)ing Pompeii and Herculaneum (Dr V Coltman)
This course covers a wide historical period and focuses on a series of art historical highlights
unearthed from Pompeii and Herculaneum during the last two hundred years, from the eighteenth
to the twentieth century. Case-studies will reflect the wealth and diversity of the materials
exposed by excavation, including the Alexander mosaic, the painted frescoes from the Villa of the
Mysteries and the Villa of the Papyri with its collection of bronze sculptures. We will explore
how the artefacts recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum have not only revised an ancient
Greek and Roman art historical canon, but have simultaneously inspired works in painting (e.g.
by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema), fiction (Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii) and
film (Up Pompeii!). In considering the (precarious?) relationship between antiquity and
modernity, two sessions on pornography will use the so-called erotic artefacts from Pompeii to
argue how such phallic, pagan items threatened to undermine the idealised status of the classical
canon. Finally, we will turn from British media to Malibu in the USA, to look at J. Paul Getty's
'reconstruction' of the Villa of the Papyri as a home for his collection of furniture, paintings and
antiquities.
Key themes for this course include the use and abuse of the classical tradition and the relationship
between antiquity and modernity, art and text. A proposed visit to the National Library of
Scotland will introduce students to some of the illustrated texts (e.g. Le Antichit` di Ercolano)
from the eighteenth century that have preserved and disseminated other image(s) of Pompeii and
Herculaneum to posterity.
The Modern Portrait
(Mr Martin Hammer)
The course will focus on reinventions of the portrait and self-portrait genres as fields for
innovatory and experimental practice in the period since c. 1960 (as opposed to commercial
portraiture), and on how these artistic manifestations connect with shifting notions of personal
identity. Painting and photography will feature more or less equally, and crossfertilizations and
distinctions between the two media will be a recurrent theme. Certain formats will also recur,
such as the mug-shot, naked portraiture, intimate images of loved ones and family, the serial
portrait, and portraiture of the famous and powerful. We shall consider painters such as Lucian
Freud, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Alice Neel, Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, David Hockney,
Tracey Emin, Jenny Saville; photographers such as Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, David Bailey,
Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesca Woodman, Nan Goldin, Helen
Chadwick, John Coplans, Nicholas Nixon, Rineke Dijkstra, Gary Schneider; and moving image
portraits from Warhol's Screen Tests to Douglas Gordon's recent 'Zidane'.
City as a Work of Art: Western Urbanism 1945-Now
City (Dr RJ Williams)
The course provides a broadly chronological history of the relationships between the postmodern
city and the visual arts in western Europe and the United States from c.1960 to the present day.
The primary concerns are the following: how was the city represented in art (painting,
photography and film) in the period? How did architects represent the city? How did artists
inhabit and use the city? What city institutions and spaces did they depend on? What was the
subject position adopted by these creative people vis-a-vis the city? Key moments in this history
include: the critique of the modernist city by Jane Jacobs; LA and Las Vegas in the writings of
Reyner Banham and Robert Venturi; Robert Smithson's interventions in 1960s New York; Fredric
Jameson and utopianism; gentrification and art in contemporary London; the city and the art
museum; Tati's Playtime and the loss of faith in the modernist city. The course is
interdisciplinary, making use of source material from the fields of art criticism, art history,
architecture, urban theory, and film studies. No previous knowledge of the field is required,
however. The course is primarily taught through image and texts available through university
resources, but there will be a number of visits to sites in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Rubens: Master in Europe
(Dr David Howarth)
This course offers a survey of the principal aspects of Rubens’career. It begins by setting the
artist in the context of Antwerp humanism. Full attention is then given to the years Rubens spent
in Italy; with emphasis on his relationship with the art of his contemporaries in the peninsula.
The development of the Antwerp altarpiece, 1610-1620, is considered in relation to the
‘Flemishness’ of Rubens. Thereafter Rubens as a painter on an international stage is examined in
the light of his commissions for: Maria de’ Medici, Charles I of England, Philip IV of Spain, and
the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. Rubens as antiquarian and book designer is a subsidiary area of
study and the course concludes with two themes. The first is a consideration of the central place
of landscape painting in the oeuvre of the artist. The final session considers Rubens’ relationship
with Titian as mediated through the genre of mythological painting and expressed through the last
great commission of Rubens’ life, a cycle of pictures created for Philip 1V of Spain at the Torre
de la Parada, a hunting lodge outside Madrid.
Sinners, Saints and Seers: Scottish, Irish and English Art from 600-900
(Dr Heather Pulliam)
In the 1990’s Umberto Eco described the Book of Kells as ‘the product of a cold-blooded
hallucination’, but in the medieval period Gerald of Wales proclaimed it ‘the work not of men,
but of angels’. This course considers how applicable either of these claims might have been in the
time when the manuscript was made: What was the purpose of the complex illuminations in
manuscripts such as the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels? How were these otherworldly
visions of ‘angels and the damned’ perceived and by whom? Insular art incorporates elements
from Celtic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon material culture, but the peoples of Britain and Ireland
perceived themselves as occupying the edge of the known world. Did Insular art and culture, as
some art historians have suggested, look beyond Rome towards similarly isolated Christian
communities in North Africa and Syria? This course makes full use of the incomparable
collections of Scottish and Anglo-Saxon material available in the National Museum of Scotland
and the surrounding areas, considering the various issues involved in displaying Insular stone
sculptures such as the Ruthwell Cross. Central issues include questions of preservation and
exhibition but also, more controversially, whether the sculptures kept in national collections
should be given back to the local communities that are campaigning for the return of these stones
to their original find-sites.
Europe 1900: Nationalism and Decadence at the Fin-de-siecle
(Professor Richard Thomson)
The course will cover the period c.1885-1910. This is an exciting field with an increasingly
challenging bibliography. The course deals with a wide variety of media - painting, drawings,
prints, posters, sculpture, and to a certain extent the decorative arts - in a variety of primarily
western European countries, including France, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany,
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary. This range introduces
art in unfamiliar countries and by little known artists. The course is organised around themes.
Nationalism, internationalism, and regionalism are considered as rivals and counterparts; the
notion of centres (e.g. Paris) and peripheries (e.g. Switzerland and Scandinavia, via Hodler,
Gallen-Kallela, and Hammershoi) is also considered. Different nations' rivalries over the classical
tradition is a key area (Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, Cézanne, Von Stuck). Public health
and its counterpoint, decadence (Toulouse-Lautrec, De Feure), is dealt with, particularly with
reference to the social Darwinism which was such a prevalent contemporary discourse. Both these
themes link with notions of city and country, the former growing and becoming dangerous
(Kollwitz), the latter seen increasingly as a repository of nostalgic values (Zorn). Spirituality was
widely acknowledged to be a fin-de-siècle concern, and this is considered not only in relation to
explicitly Christian art (Corinth, Maurice Denis) but also to Theosophy (Mondrian, Kandinsky,
Kupka), which encouraged artists to find new expression in abstraction. Music is also considered,
as an 'abstract' form capable of expressing deep emotion and also a vehicle for nationalism
(Klinger, Klimt). Finally, the course plays off artist's fascination with modernity and its
articulation as anxiety (Ensor, Munch, Spilliaert).
FOURTH YEAR COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 09/10
SEMESTER 1
France, 1850-1900: Visual Culture and Social Change
(Professor Richard Thomson)
The course will be about art and history, and their inter-relationships. It will involve the reading
of historical as well as art historical material, and will consider art as an essential part of the
processes of historical change. The course begins with the 1848 revolution, considering the role
of the revolution in the emergent realism of Courbet, Breton, and Millet. Manet will be studied as
an artist who both 'opposed' the academic hierarchy and the political regime. Particular attention
will be given to Baron Haussmann and the rebuilding of Paris. The ramifications of the
rebuilding, in terms of social engineering, will be analysed in the inner city paintings of
Caillebotte and the suburban subjects of Monet, Renoir, and Raffaelli. The Franco-Prussian War
and the Commune will come into play, both as events which challenged artists in the depiction of
their uncomfortable subjects and also in relation to their legacy in both politics and art. The
politics of gender will be a vital component of the course. Not only will the work of women artists
be considered, but representations of the feminine and the masculine according to the
contemporary doctrine of the 'separate spheres' will be studied. The Third Republic will be
particularly considered in relation to social control eg. the promotion of republican values in
public art will be assessed. Landscape and rural life painting will be discussed in terms of regions
versus the centre, the specifically 'local' art against the more city-orientated canvases. Landscape
painting will also be tackled in relation to tourism and the 'construction' of local values both by
native artists and visitors. Consumption and consumerism in the modern metropolis, with the
entertainment culture of Montmartre, will be tackled in relation to the work of Seurat. The course
will deal primarily with painting, printmaking and sculpture, though photography and urbanism
will have a part.
Sexuality and Space: Art, Film and the City 1900-Now
(Dr Richard Williams)
Defined in a broad terms, sexuality has been the defining discourse of western cultures since the
Enlightenment, with debates around hygiene, policing, and personal freedom all defined out of a
desire to understand, control and sometimes restrict sexual conduct. The discourse of sexuality
has also been a discourse about spaces, both public and private, where sexuality is enacted.
Freud’s earliest writings about sex are as much reflections about a city – Vienna - and its social
mores as they are about behaviour or pathology. The polemical work of modernist architects such
as Le Corbusier hinted at a newly liberated world, in which free-flowing interior spaces somehow
framed a liberated attitude to sex, informed by a knowledge of psychoanalysis. The explosion of
single-family suburban housing all over the developed world in the 1950s represents in the
clearest material terms the ideal of the nuclear family, and the internalisation of sexuality. And
more recently, in Britain, there has been an emerging consciousness in government of a need to
supply millions of extra housing units in the near future, a direct representation of long-term
changes in family life and patterns of attachment. Our cities are shaped by our changing attitudes
to sexuality.
Key questions in this course include: how have changing attitudes to sexuality informed the
design of buildings? How has the design of public space responded to fears about sexual license,
prostitution in particular? How have buildings and spaces been adapted, post-realisation, to
accommodate changing sexualities? How did architecture respond to the so-called sexual
revolution? How have these things been represented in art and film? The course is organised
around a series of clear case studies, from buildings, to films, to artworks
Francis Bacon and His Artistic Affinities
(Mr Martin Hammer)
The course will address, within the framework of a chronological account of Bacon’s work, such
issues as:
• The overall development of Bacon’s work, in relation to its imagery, creative processes,
techniques, formats, and artistic language.
• The interactions and affinities that his work displays with a wide range of major twentiethcentury artists, including Pablo Picasso, Graham Sutherland, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti,
Jean Fautrier, Chaim Soutine, Mark Rothko, Frank Auerbach, R B Kitaj, Andy Warhol etc.
• The impact on Bacon’s art of work in other media, such as the films of Sergei Eisenstein, the
poetry of T S Eliot, the literary/philosophical writings of Georges Bataille and Jean-Paul Sartre
(opening up the wider topics of his responses to Surrealism and Existentialism).
• The distillation in Bacon’s art of larger historical forces of the period (responses to World War
2, the Cold War, changing attitudes towards the body and homosexuality)
• The interrelationship between art and personal biography in the case of Bacon (including the
role of his homosexuality).
• The role of many kinds of photography (and cinema) as creative stimuli for Bacon.
• His appropriations from the Old Masters (Grünewald, Velasquez, Degas)
• The varieties of interpretation that his work has generated, including his own (the famous
interviews with David Sylvester); that of critic friends such as Sylvester, Robert Melville, and
Michael Peppiatt; the process of historicising his work by academic art historians both before and
especially after the artist’s death in 1992; more ‘philosophical’ commentary associated with
writers such as Michel Leiris and Gilles Deleuze; and the interpretation implicit in the work of
other artists inspired by Bacon’s example, from David Hockney to Damien Hirst.
Eve’s Children: Art and Gender 600-1400
(Dr Heather Pulliam)
Discussions of gender in the medieval period frequently lapse into the pairing of opposites, such
as Virgin/Whore, Adam/Eve, sinner/saint, courage/compassion, etc. This course examines the
portrayal of gender in art and literature, asking to what extent this binary system operated in the
early medieval period. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on medieval Britain, we will
analyze key portrayals of gender, for example: the Virgin Mary and the Whore of Babylon in the
illuminated apocalypses owned by thirteenth-century kings and queens such as Eleanor of
Provence and Henry III; Adam and Eve on the Irish high crosses; courtly love on fourteenthcentury ivories; Mary Magdalene on the Ruthwell Cross; knightly virtues in tomb sculpture;
marginal images of male and female genitalia on the Bayeux tapestry and Book of Kells; and
Theodora, the courtesan who became a Byzantine empress. Additionally, we will discuss images
of rape, the third sex, childhood, war, readership, and death within the context of more
contemporary approaches to gender.
From Jacobitism to Romanticism: The (re)invention of Scotland in visual and material culture
(Dr V Coltman)
In recent years, literary historians and to a lesser extent, art historians, have written of(f) aspects
of Scottish culture as part of a 'myth' fabricated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Perhaps most controversially for Scots, part of their national dress - the tartan kilt - has been
(mis)understood as an English invention of the late eighteenth century. This course aims to get to
grips with the peculiarities and particularities of these so-called 'romantic' myths of Scotland as
they were (re)invented in visual and material form. It will go beyond the theoretical framework of
Roland Barthes' Mythologies to reinstate their antiquity and also their much-neglected basis in
reality. We will examine a number of paintings by distinguished alumni of the Scottish School,
including works by Raeburn and Wilkie. But the course privileges a thematic approach to these
Scottish artists and their painted output rather than a biographical one. Our timeframe will be
hinged on key historical events in Scotland's history: from the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions,
to the visit of George 4th to Edinburgh in 1822 and on into the later nineteenth century when the
'land of cakes and whisky', the 'region of mist and snow' became the favoured retreat of Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert. The visual and material culture generated in response to these
historical events will be extended into that surrounding the literary phenomena that was the
publication and illustration of Sir Walter Scott's poems and novels. Scott's many representations in portraits, marble busts and sculptures and his monument in Princes Street - will be studied as
part of the transformation of Scotland into 'Scott-land'.
Key themes for this course include the relationship between Highland and Lowland culture as
well as that between art history and material culture. Visits will be arranged to Traquair House
and to Sir Walter Scott's house, Abbotsford, also in the Borders.
Nicolas Poussin in Rome, c.1620-1660: ‘Ancient Simplicity and Epick Style’
(Dr David Howarth)
The purpose of this course is to situate the great French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
within the cultural milieu of Baroque Rome where he lived from the early sixteen twenties until
his death in the mid sixteen sixties. Through acquaintance with a selection of his greatest works
spanning his career, students will be introduced to the response of Poussin to: the Classical
heritage of Rome through its surviving material culture; the genres of sacred history; pagan
history; myth; contemporary poetry; landscape; the modes of epic, elegiac, pastoral and heroic
poetry mediated through Greek and Latin text (in translation). Poussin’s relationship with his
patrons, a subject about which we are unusually well informed, will be a central thread throughout
the course. Patronage will create a dialogue with the critical reception afforded the artist by art
theorists amongst his contemporaries. The presence of the Second Series of Seven Sacraments in
the National Galleries of Scotland will provide the opportunity of first hand study of one of the
most intellectually challenging multiple projects in the career of the painter. Poussin will also be
compared with Titian and Rubens.
SEMESTER 2
Expanding Vision: Visual Culture in France from the Limbourgs to Leonardo
(Dr Tom Tolley)
This course considers the most significant painters and patrons active in France from the time of
the Limbourg brothers (d.1416) until the period spent by Leonardo da Vinci in France between
1516 and 1519. While attention is paid to examining general problems in the attribution and
dating of works of art, as well as to the development of style and influences from abroad, the
emphasis of the course is on exploring ways in which general practices of looking were shaped by
a range of new cultural experiences involving vision. Among topics addressed in the course are:
the relevance of optical aids, such as spectacles and mirrors; changing attitudes to the natural
world and to beauty; the development of viewing habits associated with architecture, especially
windows; ways in which sculpture and other works of material culture changed conceptions of the
use of space; and broadening uses of images across the social spectrum. The role of France in the
broader development of visual culture in late medieval and Renaissance Europe is one of the
major issues that the course seeks to define. The course is structured by examining in
chronological sequence a series of key works of art, beginning with illuminated books of hours
associated with the duke of Berry and ending with tapestries, stained glass and printed books
designed by artists active in Paris during the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Important personalities in the development of French culture during this period, such as Christine
de Pisan, Joan of Arc, René d’ Anjou, Jean Fouquet and Anne of Brittany will be investigated.
Since relatively few large-scale paintings survive from this period from France, manuscript
illumination is a prominent feature of the course. Study will make extensive use of both modern
facsimiles of important books of the period and also original manuscripts in Edinburgh collections
Persian Painting
(Dr Alain George)
This course traces the development of Persian painting from its emergence in the wake of the
Mongol invasions until the apogee of its classical style in the 16th century. Focusing on a cultural
area stretching from Baghdad to Samarqand, it explores the way in which this masterly tradition
was gradually articulated by a succession of patrons, artists and workshops. We will investigate
the fertile encounter of the Arab pictorial tradition with the arts of China, Byzantium and Europe
during Mongol rule; the extreme refinement reached by miniature painting under the descendants
of Timur in Central Asia; and the spectacular transformation of this art form, in the early modern
era, under the Safavid dynasty in Iran and the great Mughals in India. Among the major themes
considered will be cultural exchange and the relation between painting, literature and society.
Myth and History in Scottish Modern and Contemporary Art 1945-2000
(Mr Bill Hare)
This course will focus on the work of those artists, who, although included in the recent history of
Scottish art, are better looked at within the wider context of the British and International art
scenes of the second half of the 20th century. Thus a good understanding of the major movements
of later modernism – such as Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptualism
Modern Realism and Feminism etc. will be an important part of the course material. The major
figures for individual study will include – Joan Eardley, Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi, William
Turnbull, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Boyle Family, John Bellany, Steven Campbell, Jenny Saville,
Alison Watt, Christine Borland, Douglas Gordon and Martin Creed (the last two, both winners of
the Turner Prize). The other important feature of this course is the distinctive methodological
approach which will be involved in the study of this subject. A range of different types of critical
theories concerning the nature of myth and history will be used to examine and analyse the work
of these artists. These critical sources will include the writings of Freud, Jung, Frazer, Eliade,
Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Barthes, Jameson, Baudrillard, Kristeva and Warner – see
Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century ed. Chris Murray (Routledge 2003). For this aspect
of the course there will be a core text, Theories of Mythology, by Eric Csapo (Blackwell 2005).
The Aesthetics and Politics of Contemporary Art
(Dr Angela Dimitrakaki)
What is contemporary art and how can we approach it as art historians? The course will take an
elliptical route to answering this question by examining five specific issues of exemplary
relevance to the many and complex practices comprising the field of contemporary art. These five
issues are: 1. The Rise (and Fall?) of Postmodernism. 2. The End of Art? 3. The Turn to the
Moving Image. 4. The Aesthetics and Politics of the Everyday. 5. Art and Geography. We will
devote one to two weeks to each of these issues. In general, the course does not attempt to
prioritise specific media but is structured instead around concepts and ideas that have played an
important role in defining or challenging our understanding of contemporary practice. In the
course of examining these concepts and ideas, we will have the opportunity to reflect on other
topical issues such as the post-medium condition, advanced technology, art and documentation,
(post)feminism, globalization, relational aesthetics etc. For Week 1 you are asked to think of an
artist (or group of artists) whose work exemplifies, in your view, ‘contemporary art practice’. The
questions you should begin thinking about are: a) what is it that makes this work ‘contemporary’?
and, b) given your knowledge of art history so far, if and how it relates to practices of the past.
You are also advised to read Julian Stallabrass’s book Contemporary Art: A Short Introduction,
Oxford University Press.
Impressionism, Decadence and Rhythm: Artists in France and Britain 1870-1914
(Dr Frances Fowle)
This course explores the cultural, social and artistic links between France and Britain in the period
1870-1914, examining the ways in which artistic ideas were disseminated through exhibitions and
contemporary journals, as well as through artistic friendships, networks and artists’ colonies. It
explores issues such as nationalism, critical reception (including the use and misuse of art
historical labels) and the theme of decadence and revival.
In 1870, at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, a number of French artists, including Monet
and Pissarro, took refuge in London. In the next two decades, British-based artists such as John
Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and John Lavery travelled to France and developed their own
brand of British impressionism. Groups of artists and writers gathered in northern France and
formed artistic colonies and collectives at Grez-sur-Loing, Pont-Aven (around Gauguin) and
Dieppe. Concurrently individuals such as Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley provided a bridge
between the two cultures, absorbing French Symbolist theory and announcing a more aesthetic
and even decadent phase of art. In the first decade of the twentieth century a new generation of
artists emerged, including J.D. Fergusson in Scotland and the Bloomsbury Group in London. The
French philosopher Henri Bergson published Creative Evolution, Diaghelev’s Ballet Russes
performed in Paris and London, and ‘Rhythm’ became the new buzz word. The focus switched to
Cézanne and Matisse and Roger Fry was the first to coin the term ‘Post-Impressionism’.
Goya: “The last of the old maters and the first of the new”
(Dr Claudia Heide)
Arguably one of the most versatile Post-Renaissance artists, Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is a
pivotal figure in European art of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This course places
his oeuvre within both the Spanish and European context. It also considers the continued
relevance of his work to the present day. We will explore the full range of his pictorial expression
- from Goya’s light-hearted tapestry designs, glittering portrayals of the royal family and figures
of state, religious paintings, controversial depictions of the nude and the horrors of war to
personal images of beggars, madmen, witches, monsters and dark creatures of the artist’s
imagination.
We will focus on the following themes: How do we explain Goya’s transformation from a
provincial (and at first unsuccessful) painter to a confident artist who infiltrated the most
exclusive aristocracy in Spain and became court painter to the king? To what extent can Goya be
defined as an artist of the Enlightenment? A series of works provide the opportunity to look at the
dialogue which existed between the painter and key figures interested in the reform and
modernisation of the Spanish monarchy. To what extent can Goya be described as a ‘Spanish’
artist, and how did he position himself vis-à-vis his Spanish heritage? What is Goya’s place
within the wider European context? For instance, what is the relationship between Goya’s graphic
work and Hogarth’s satirical prints in England? What makes Goya a ‘Romantic’ artist? What
were the personal, political and social issues that impinged upon his art? Here we will look in
particular at Goya’s position as a painter in Madrid during the years of political turmoil and war.
It seems he painted for whatever faction (French, British and Spanish). Can we define his
attitude? A visit to the Print Room (National Gallery of Scotland) will introduce the student to
Goya’s most fascinating graphic work – the Proverbios and the Disasters of War. Cases of
censorship (and the artist’s means of escaping it) under the oppressive regime of Ferdinand VII
will be discussed. Finally, we shall turn to the critical reception of Goya’s work, the construction
of certain ‘myths’ surrounding the artist, and his immense influence on artists from the 19 th to the
21st centuries (from Odilon Redon, Picasso, Dali, the Chapman brothers to the film directors
Carlos Saura and Guillermo del Toro).
Fractures: The Origin, Development and Influence of Cubist Painting
(Mr Peter Rimmer)
The function of this course on the origins and development of Cubist painting will be to give
students the opportunity to explore and discuss both the aesthetics of Cubist imagery and a range
of political and philosophical concepts in circulation during the period which informed and
influenced the shift away from conventional modes of figurative representation. As such, the
course will examine certain aesthetic and social innovations arising in the 19th century which
contributed to the emergence of Cubism in the first decade of the 20th century. Towards the end
of the semester, after concentrating on the particularities of Cubist painting and its influence on
various other artistic movements, students will also be asked to consider the development of pure
abstract painting, much of which is indebted to the aesthetic and conceptual breakthroughs
initiated by Cubist pioneers such as Picasso and Braque.
Chinese Art and the Silk Road
(Dr Elaine Buck)
For centuries the main links between China and the west were the overland routes that passed
through Central Asia. Known collectively as the Silk Road, these routes were travelled by
merchants, soldiers, monks, and craftsmen among others. Coming from places as far away as
Antioch (modern Turkey), Silk Road travellers brought with them new goods as well as new
styles and motifs, skills, customs and ideas. Using both written and visual material, this seminar
examines these commercial and cultural exchanges and their contribution to Chinese art and
culture during the period from the 3rd through the 9th centuries. Topics will include: how
influences were transmitted; Turfan under the Chinese; the impact of Iranian luxury goods; the
Sogdians as both traders and Chinese residents; Dunhuang as a melting pot and Chinese responses
to foreigners as reflected in painting and ceramics
ARCHITECTURE COURSES
AVAILABLE TO 3RD AND 4TH YEAR STUDENTS
SEMESTER 1
Cultural Landscapes
Angus and Patricia Macdonald
The course will provide an introduction to the theory and practice of cultural-landscape studies.
The range of the cultural-landscape spectrum covered will include, at one end, ecologically
altered, 'semi-natural' landscapes with no 'material culture' (built artefacts), through to almost
wholly artificial cityscapes at the other end. The (often cryptic) relationships between the parts of
this spectrum, and the concept of the 'environmental footprint', will be explored. The course will
consider the various methods of reading, de-coding and interpreting different landscape types and
their 'structures of signification', using global and local examples.
The course will emphasise the mid-range of landscapes commonly thought of as 'cultural',
including:
- archaeological and historic landscapes
- landscapes managed for agriculture, forestry, water supply, flood control, mining and waste
disposal;
- areas dedicated to specific recreational uses;
- gardens, parks and designed landscapes;
- village-, town- and cityscapes;
- retail parks, industrial estates and landscapes of heavy industry and military use, past and
present.
The course will examine the perception and iconography of cultural landscapes and questions of
objectivity/subjectivity, 'intertextuality', hegemony and politics. It will also consider the value to
society of cultural landscapes, and examples of re-assessment of value associated with changing
economic and demographic patterns, lifestyles, ecological awareness and international legislation.
The administrative contexts of cultural landscapes will also be discussed, together with
approaches to their management and design, and the creation of policy in terms of their protection
and enhancement, all with the assistance of appropriate visiting professionals.
Georgian Architecture 1715-1830
John Lowrey
By the early eighteenth century the search for definitive cultural precedents brought British
architects to the European continent where they studied the buildings of early western civilization
in Rome, and later at the Greek fountainhead. Influenced by these Classical models architects
returned to Britain and adapted concepts of the Antique to their own styles. This course will study
the Palladians, James Gibbs, the impact of the Grand Tour, the neo-classicism of both William
Chambers and Robert Adam, architectural publications, the Greek Revival, the Picturesque
Movement and will culminate with an analysis of the personal style of Soane, whose eclecticism
foreshadowed the architectural debates of the nineteenth century.
Vienna around 1900
Iain Boyd Whyte
The course will focus on the architectural avant-garde in Austria at the turn of the twentieth
century, with particular reference to the work of Otto Wagner, the 'Wagnerschule', Josef
Hoffmann, Joseph-Maria Olbrich, Adolf Loos, and Ludvig Wittgenstein. In studying the
evolution of a modern architectural language and polemic, the course will locate these
developments in the historical context of Viennese architecture and relate them to contemporary
developments in the other arts.
SEMESTER 2
Leon Battista Alberti: Theory and Practice in the Visual Arts in 15th Century
James Lawson
Alberti (1404-72) wrote treatises on painting, sculpture and architecture. In intending to be a
comprehensible voice on matter for which a familiar critical and theoretical language was not
generally current, he set himself a difficult task. By education at Padua and Bologna and as a
scholarly employee of the Papal court, he was equipped for it. But no less was he prepared by his
close familiarity with the practice of the arts themselves. He was moved to undertake the task by
his confidence that moral and social life are sustained by the visual arts.
The course considers Alberti as an observer of contemporary practice and as the advocate of a
practice to some extent aiming at a revival of classical values, one, at the same time, systematic
and naturalistic. In addition, Alberti, though by background and education, entitled to depreciate
the mechanical arts, painted, it is reported, sculpted, it is argued, and designed as an architect, it is
universally acknowledged. As an educator, Alberti was also an advocate of architecture as an
activity worthy of an erudite patron. He was instrumental, in the longer spread of history, in
establishing the credentials of the visual arts, perhaps especially architecture, as proper concerns
(bringing corresponding rewards in esteem) of the prince. The standing of the artist himself was
raised by Alberti’s advocacy. Alberti’s practice and his advocacy was peripatetic. The spread of
Renaissance values beyond Tuscany was in part owing to his travels around the courts of Italy.
Following in Alberti’s footsteps, the course will trace this process of colonisation or
evangelization from Florence of the Rucellai to Rome of the Popes, Ferrara of the Este, Rimini of
the Malatesta, Urbino of the Montefeltro and Mantua of the Gonzaga.
Victorian Architecture 1830-1910: themes and ideas
Alex Bremner
Often referred to as the 'age of improvement', the Victorian era was one of unprecedented growth
and development. The Victorians not only benefited from the technological advantages afforded
by the full flowering of the Industrial Revolution but also enjoyed the profits that came with
Britain's economic and political rise to world dominance. With this rise came profound social
change as politicians, academics, social reformers, manufacturers, and religious leaders vied to
institute new sensibilities regarding morality, spirituality, science, charity, education, and political
representation. This transformation naturally affected the type and style of buildings that were
erected during this period, dramatically altering the character of Britain's rural and urban
landscapes. This course considers the architectural consequences of these transformations by
exploring the development of theories and practices in architecture in the context of the social and
cultural changes (and challenges) that gave rise to them. Although the Victorian era may be seen
to have come to a close with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the course will conclude by
examining how these transformations were carried through and further developed in the first
decade of the twentieth century leading up to the First World War.
Structure and Architecture: Technology, Design and Construction
Remo
This course surveys the relationship between structural engineering and architecture from the late
nineteenth century until the present day. The course deals with the manner in which engineers
utilised the new materials, construction processes and design tools that emerged during this
period; Specific themes that are covered are the emergence of new structural forms, the conflict
between analysis and intuition in the design of structure, the increasing industrialisation of the
construction industry and the engineer as architect and builder.
CLASSICS COURSES
Only available to 3RD and 4TH year students who have taken Classical
Art 2A
SEMESTER 1
The Athenian Akropolis
Judy Barringer
This course examines the history of the Athenian Akropolis and its slopes from its earliest
habitation in the Neolithic period until the late antique period. The focus will be on the
monuments and religious rituals evidenced there, including not only large-scale architecture, but
also sculpture, smaller votives, altars, inscriptions, and topographical features. Emphasis will be
given to technical archaeological matters, the use of ancient written sources in interpreting the
material remains, and the role of the Akropolis in the life of the city.
Death and Burial in Republican and Imperial Rome
Glenys Davies
This course is concerned with the methods of burial of the dead, tombs, funerary art and its
iconography, and afterlife beliefs of the inhabitants of the ancient city of Rome. It is a multidisciplinary course, but there will be special emphasis on the study of art and architecture in its
social context. The period covered stretches from the earliest burials in Rome to the Christian
tombs of the time of Constantine.
SEMESTER 2
Hellenistic art
Judy Barringer
An exploration of Greek art and architecture from c. 323-31 B.C. in its political, religious, and
social context. Of special interest are the development and political manipulation of portraiture,
the rise of the Hellenistic baroque style, wall painting, theatrical architecture, and interactions
with non-Greek cultures (including the Romans), which produce a hybrid art in response to new
concerns.
Roman Interior Design
Glenys Davies
Many sites across the Roman world retain evidence for the decoration of the interiors of buildings
in the form of wall paintings, mosaics, stucco, statuary and furniture. This course focuses on the
ways in which these media were used, both singly and in combination, the extent to which they
were designed to fit the shape and purpose of the spaces they occupy, and the social meaning and
importance of interior decoration.
The surviving remains from Pompeii, Herculaneum and the city of Rome itself will be studied in
some detail, but other sites in Italy and the provinces will also be studied from the point of view
of the spread of ideas about interior design from Rome and the development of distinctive
regional/local styles and workshops. Much of the decoration will come from houses, but
consideration will also be given to the specialist needs of other types of buildings (such as baths
and tombs).