University of Essex

AR116-4-AU-CO:
Ways of Seeing

The details

Year: 2024/25

Department: Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)

Campus: Colchester Campus

Term: Autumn

Level: Undergraduate: Level 4

Status: Current

Start date: Thursday 03 October 2024

End date: Friday 13 December 2024

Credits: 15

Last updated: 10 April 2024

Requisites for this module

Pre-requisites: (none)

Co-requisites: (none)

Pre and / or co-requisites: (none)

Prohibited modules: (none)

Key module (requisite for): (none)

Key module for

BA V314 Art History,
BA V315 Art History (Including Placement Year),
BA V31B Art History (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
BA V350 Art History (Including Foundation Year),
BA V35A Art History (Including Year Abroad),
MARTV399 Art History,
MARTVB98 Art History (Including Placement Year),
MARTVB99 Art History (Including Year Abroad),
BA VV40 Art History, Heritage and Museum Studies,
BA VV41 Art History, Heritage and Museum Studies (Including Foundation Year),
BA VV42 Art History, Heritage and Museum Studies (including Placement Year),
BA VV43 Art History, Heritage and Museum Studies (including Year Abroad)

Module description

This introductory module examines the relationship between visual culture and social life through case studies spanning more than two millennia of history.

The module focuses on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasising the ways that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artefacts and forces.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

To introduce students to a wide range of methods, research materials, scholarly approaches and relevant terminology associated with a study of art history and the visual.

To stimulate students to develop skills in oral and written communication through essays, debate in seminars and written exercises.

To introduce students to original works of art and architecture in galleries, museums and in situ as appropriate, in addition to their classroom studies.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.

Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.

Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.

Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.

Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.

Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.

Think 'laterally' and creatively (i.e., to explore interesting connections and possibilities, and to present these clearly rather than as vague hunches).

Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position based on feedback.

Think critically and constructively.

Utilise their skills in visual memory.

Module information

From sculptures of ancient Roman politicians and Renaissance Florentine narrative paintings, to virtuoso engravings and feats of Baroque illusionism, if you have an interest in the visual and would like to know more about `why` and `how` art and society interrelate, then this module will be of interest to you.

Designed to foster the skill of visual analysis, which will enable you to engage with a broad range of art works, this module is intended to develop your understanding of why images and things appear as they do.

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

One 2-hour lecture/seminar per week.

There will also be a Reading Week.

Bibliography

Introduction: Learning to look and think critically (1 of 2) (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/introduction-learning-to-look/.
Introduction: Close looking and approaches to art (2 of 2) (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/introduction-close-looking-approaches/.
D’Alleva, A. (2010) How to write art history. 2nd ed. London: Laurence King.
Pottery, the body, and the gods in ancient Greece, c. 800–490 B.C.E. (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/pottery-body-gods-ancient-greece-early/.
Kouroi and Korai, an introduction (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/kouroi-korai/.
War, democracy, and art in ancient Greece, c. 490–350 B.C.E. (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/war-democracy-art-ancient-greece/.
The Roman empire in a connected world, 27 B.C.E.–330 C.E. (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/roman-empire-in-a-connected-world/.
Nodelman, S. (1975) ‘How to read a Roman portrait’, Art in America, 63, pp. 27–33.
Freeman, Dr.E. (no date) Building new Romes: The Eastern Romans, Umayyads, and Carolingians. smarthistory. Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/building-new-romes-eastern-romans-umayyads-carolingians/.
Architecture and monumental art after iconoclasm (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/architecture-and-monumental-art-after-iconoclasm/.
Art in the Italian Renaissance Republics, c. 1400–1600 (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/art-italian-renaissance-republics/.
Baxandall, M. (1988) Painting and experience in fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history of pictorial style. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Noble, Dr.B. (no date) Printing and painting in Northern Renaissance art. smarthistory. Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/printing-painting-northern-renaissance-art/.
Svetlana, A. (1997) ‘Picturing Dutch Culture’, in Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art: realism reconsidered. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Secular matters of the global baroque (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/global-baroque-secular-matters/.
The sacred baroque in the Catholic world (no date). Available at: https://smarthistory.org/reframing-art-history/sacred-baroque-catholic-world/.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam	Description	Deadline	Coursework weighting
Coursework	In-class Slide Quizzes Total		20%
Coursework	In-class slide test: week 11		30%
Coursework	In-class Quiz Week 3		0%
Coursework	In-class Quiz Week 6		0%
Coursework	In-class Quiz Week 9		0%
Coursework	500-word Formative Assignment	28/10/2024	0%
Coursework	1500 word essay	02/12/2024	50%

Exam format definitions

Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Reassessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Module supervisor and teaching staff

Supervisor: Prof Diana Presciutti, email: dbpres@essex.ac.uk.

Teaching staff: Professor Diana Bullen Presciutti

Contact details: PHAIS General Office - 6.130; arugadmin@essex.ac.uk.

Availability

Available to incoming Essex Abroad / Exchange students: Yes

Available to Outside Option: Yes

Available to Audit: Yes

External examiner

No external examiner information available for this module.

Resources

Teaching materials: Available via Moodle

Lecture recording: Of 12 hours, 12 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.

Further information

Department website: Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)

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Module Directory

AR116-4-AU-CO:Ways of Seeing