Introductory description

This module aims to introduce students to some of the media and techniques used by painters over the centuries, and to some of the debates among artists and scholars around issues of artistic practice

Module aims

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.

Drawing and the science of art
The art of fresco
Tempera and painting on panel
The medieval aesthetics of light
The oil revolution
The disegno vs. colorito debate
Painting technique in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries
Light, air and colour: Pre-Raphaelites, Impressionism and changes in paint production

Learning outcomes

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

• Identify and distinguish between different types of painting media and techniques.
• Show an understanding of how painting techniques affect the final aspect of a work of art
• Put other art historical knowledge in context.
• Present an argument, initiate, sustain and contribute to group discussion through questioning and debate.
• Demonstrate ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level.
• Demonstrate familiarity with essential ICT skills.
• Demonstrate ability to collaborate effectively with others.
• Show understanding of diverse concepts and viewpoints.
• Find, select, organise and synthesise relevant information.
• Formulate a sustained argument.
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level.
• Carry out sophisticated visual analysis.
• Produce a sustained argument following academic conventions.
• Demonstrate ability to carry out critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context.

Indicative reading list

John Gage, Colour and Culture (Thames & Hudson, 1993).
Jill Dunkerton, Susan Foister, Dillian Gordon and Nicholas Penny, Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1991).
Stephen Hackney (ed.) Paint and Purpose: A Study of Technique in British Art (London: Tate Gallery, 1999).
Colin Hayes, The Complete Guide to Painting and Drawing Techniques and Materials (London: Phaidon, 1981).
Waldemar Januszczak, Techniques of the World’s Great Painters (Oxford: Phaidon, 1980).
Frederick Malins, Understanding Paintings: the Elements of Composition (Oxford: Phaidon, 1980).
Ann Bermingham, Learning to Draw: Studies in the Cultural History of a Polite and Useful Art (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000)
Joyce H.Townsend, Turner’s Painting Techniques (London: Tate Publishing, 2004).
Anthea Callen, Techniques of the Impressionists (London: Orbis Publishing, 1982).
Philip L. Sohm, Pittoresco: Marco Boschini, his Critics, and their Critiques of Painterly Brushwork in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Italy (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

• Identify and distinguish between different types of painting media and techniques.
• Show an understanding of how painting techniques affect the final aspect of a work of art.
• Put other art historical knowledge in context
• Demonstrate ability to carry out critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context.

Transferable skills

• Present an argument, initiate, sustain and contribute to group discussion through questioning and debate.
• Demonstrate ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level.
• Demonstrate familiarity with essential ICT skills.
• Demonstrate ability to collaborate effectively with others.
• Show understanding of diverse concepts and viewpoints.
• Find, select, organise and synthesise relevant information.
• Formulate a sustained argument.
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level.
• Carry out sophisticated visual analysis.
• Produce a sustained argument following academic conventions.