Introductory description

This undergraduate final-year module allows students to analyse the historical meanings of ‘arts’ - in which luxury objects are considered alongside painting, sculpture and architecture - by placing them in the context of early modern European society. Its ample geographical focus (Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France and England) is designed to highlight the different paths by which Europe acquired a shared visual culture.

Module web page

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.

Term 1
Week 1: Introduction: Arts, History and Social Change
Week 2: Art in Theory
Week 3: The Artist’s Practice
Week 4: From Guilds to Academies:The Changing Status of the Artist
Week 5: Female Artists
[Reading week]
Week 7: Objects and Material Culture
Week 8: The World of Glass and Silk
Week 9: Courts and Republics: Patrons and Spectators
Week 10: Religion and Art: Catholics and Protestants

Term 2
Week 1: Arts and State Building
Week 2: Aristocratic Collectors
Week 3: Displaying Art and Nature: Kunstkammern and Wunderkammern
Week 4: The Birth of the Art Market
Week 5: Visual Culture, the Natural World and Technology
[Reading week]
Week 7: Mapmaking and Cartography
Week 8: The Empire of Luxuries
Week 9: Europe and Global Arts
Week 10: Distant Perspectives: Arts and Society in Ming China

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the historical meanings of ‘arts’ - in which luxury objects are considered alongside painting, sculpture and architecture - by placing them in the context of early modern European society, as well as the different paths by which Europe acquired a shared visual culture.
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources (ranging from printed correspondence to political and religious treatises, literary evidence and visual/ material culture) relating to the historical meanings of ‘arts’.
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the historical meanings of ‘arts’.
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the historical meanings of ‘arts’.

Indicative reading list

Primary Sources

• Alberti, Leon Battista, On Painting, New Haven-London 1966 [ND 49.A5]
• Cellini, Benvenuto, Autobiography, Harmondsworth 1956 [NB 623.C3]
• Cellini, Benvenuto, The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture, New
• York 1967 [NB 623.C3]
• Cennini, Cennino, The Craftsman’s Handbook: The Italian ‘Il libro dell’arte’, New York 1960
• [ND 1130.C3]

Secondary Works:

• Chambers, David S. (ed), Patrons and Artists in the Italian Renaissance, London 1970 [N
• 6915.C4]
• Condivi, Ascanio, The Life of Michelangelo, ed. Helmut Wohl, Philadephia 1999 [other edition
• NB 623.M4]
• Denvir, Bernard (ed), From the Middle Ages to the Stuarts: Art, Design and Society before
• 1689, London 1988 [N 6765.D3]
• Edwards, Steve (ed), Art and its Histories. A Reader, London 1999 [N 6350.AZ]
• Enggass, Robert - Brown, Jonathan (eds), Italian and Spanish Art, 1600-1750: sources and
• documents, Evanston, Ill., 1992 [N 6916.E6]
• Gilbert, Creighton E. (ed), Italian Art 1400-1500. Sources and Documents, Englewood Cliffs,
• N.J., 1980 [N 6915.G4]
• Harrison, Charles – Wood, Paul – Gaiger, Jason (eds), Art in Theory, 1648-1815. An Anthology
• of Changing Ideas, Oxford 2000 [N 6420.A7]
• Holt, Elizabeth (ed.), A Documentary History of Art. Vol. 1: The Middle Ages and the
• Renaissance, Princeton 1981 [N 5940.H6]
• Holt, Elizabeth (ed.), A Documentary History of Art. Vol. 2: Michelangelo and the Mannerists.
• The Baroque and the Eighteenth Century, Princeton 1982 [N 5940.H6]
• Klein, Robert - Zerner, Henry (eds.), Italian Art, 1500-1600: sources and documents,
• Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966 [N 6915.K5]
• Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo on Painting, sel. and trans. by Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker,
• New Haven-London 1989 [ND 1130.L3]
• Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. Irma A. Richter, Oxford 1980 [ND
• 623.L3]
• Michelangelo Buonarroti, Michelangelo: Life, Letters and Poems, ed. by George Bull, Oxford
• 1987 [NB 623.M4]
• Stechov, Wolfgang, Northern Renaissance Art, 1400-1600: sources and documents, Englewood
• Cliffs, N.J., 1966 [N 6370.S8]
• van Mander, Carel, Dutch and Flemish Painters, New York 1969 [ND 631.M2]
• Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 2 vols., London 1996 [N
• 6922.V2]

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.