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HA1A4-15 Landscape

Department
SCAPVC - History of Art
Level
Undergraduate Level 1
Module leader
Paul Smith
Credit value
15
Module duration
10 weeks
Assessment
50% coursework, 50% exam
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

This module aims to introduce students to the variety of issues involved in interpreting landscape.

Module aims

This module examines the rise of landscape as a genre. It analyses landscape in its social and political context. It addresses issues of landscape aesthetics from both an historical and a theoretical perspective. And it examines the techniques artists employed in painting landscapes. It is also concerned to bring students face-to-face with examples of landscape paintings in local collections.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Poussin, Claude and the Historical Landscape
The Romantic landscape: the earthly and the divine
The Pre-Raphaelite landscape: colour
The Pre-Raphaelite landscape: the city
The Impressionist landscape: painting in the open air
The Impressionist landscape: the motif and the view
The Post-Impressionist landscape: absorption and correspondence
Landscape in the C20th?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  • Analyse landscape paintings in their historical context
  • Deploy knowledge on landscape aesthetics
  • Analyse the techniques employed in landscape painting
  • Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
  • Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
  • Familiarity with essential ICT skills
  • Ability to collaborate effectively with others
  • Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
  • Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
  • Ability to formulate a sustained argument
  • Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
  • Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
  • Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
  • Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

Malcolm Andrews, Landscape and Western Art (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Richard Brettell, Pissarro and Pontoise; the Painter in a Landscape (Yale University Press, 1990).
Steven Adams and Anna Gruetzner Robins (eds.), Gendering Landscape Art (Manchester University Press, 2000)
John Barrell, The Dark Side of the Landscape: The Rural Poor in English Painting, 1730-1840 (Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Anne Birmingham, The State and Estate of Nature: Landscape and Ideology (Thames and Hudson, 1987) .
Robert L. Herbert, Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867-1886 (Yale University Press, 1994).
John House, Impressionism: Paint and Politics (Yale, 2005).
Salim Kemal and Iwan Gaskell, Landscape, Natural Beauty, and the Arts (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Michael Rosenthal, Constable: the Painter in his Landscape (Yale University Press, 1983).
Allen Staley, The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape (Yale University Press, 2001).
Paul Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil (Yale Univesrity Press, 1984).
Richard Wollheim, Painting as an Art (Thames & Hudson, 1987).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

  • Analyse landscape paintings in their historical context
  • Deploy knowledge on landscape aesthetics
  • Analyse the techniques employed in landscape painting
  • Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
  • Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

  • present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
  • ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
  • familiarity with essential ICT skills
  • ability to collaborate effectively with others
  • show understanding of diverse viewpoints
  • ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
  • ability to formulate a sustained argument
  • think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
  • Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level

Study time

Type Required
Seminars 10 sessions of 2 hours (13%)
Fieldwork 1 session of 2 hours (1%)
Private study 128 hours (85%)
Total 150 hours

Private study description

Required and recommended reading for seminar preparation, research for written assessments and revision for examinations.

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group C1
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
1500 word essay 50% Yes (extension)

Assessed Essay

Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
1 hur examination 50% No

Image Comparison Exam


  • Online examination: No Answerbook required
  • Photographs
Reassessment component is the same
Feedback on assessment

Written feedback and dedicated feedback tutorials.

Past exam papers for HA1A4

Courses

This module is Option list A for:

  • Year 1 of UHAA-V401 Undergraduate History of Art

This module is Option list B for:

  • Year 1 of UHAA-V3R3 Undergraduate History of Art with Italian