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HA1A5-15 Portraiture

Department
SCAPVC - History of Art
Level
Undergraduate Level 1
Module leader
Ilaria Bernocchi
Credit value
15
Module duration
10 weeks
Assessment
60% coursework, 40% exam
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

This module will introduce students to the development of portraiture from the early modern period onwards. Seminars will allow an opportunity to examine the techniques which artists have adopted, and the problems they have encountered, in representing their human subjects.

Module aims

The module will introduce the ways in which portraits have reinforced or subverted a range of social, political, gendered and artistic identities. Students will also gain an awareness of the aesthetic and theoretical issues surrounding the genre of portraiture, including issues of likeness and mimesis, and masking and role-play.
All first-year Short Options are especially geared towards first-hand, close study of works of art and architecture in museums, galleries or on site. They foster skills in visual analysis, and promote students’ ability to analyse artworks independently, thus providing them with skills necessary for their more advanced work.

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.

Theorising Portraiture
Portraiture and Gender
Self-portraiture and artistic identity
Likeness vs the Ideal
Portraiture and Power
Subjects vs Models
Portraiture and photography
Significant Forms?: Portraiture and Modernist Aesthetics
The meanings of portraiture: the origins and displays of the National Portrait Gallery

Learning outcomes

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

  • Distinguish between different types of portraits.
  • Analyse portraits in their historical context.
  • Show an understanding of how portraits reflect and inscribe different kinds of social identities.
  • Show an understanding of the ways in which portraiture has developed alongside broader artistic and technological trends.
  • Present an argumant, 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

Bernard Berenson, ‘The Effigy and the Portrait’ in Aesthetics and History in the Visual Arts, 1948, pp.190-200.
James Breckenridge: Likeness: A Conceptual History of Ancient Portraiture ((Evanston, IL, 1969)
Lorne Campbell, Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries (New Haven and London, 1990).
Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning from More to Shakespeare (Chicago and London, 1984)
Anthony Halliday, Facing the Public: Portraiture in the Aftermath of the French Revolution (Manchester, 2000)
Lara Perry, History’s Beauties: Women and the National Portrait Gallery, 1856-1900 (Aldershot, 2006)
Marcia Pointon: Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eigtheenth-Century England (New Haven and London, 1993)
Griselda Pollock, ‘Woman as Sign in in Pre-Raphaelite Literature: The Representation of Elizabeth Siddall’ in Pollock (ed.), Vision and Difference (London, 1990), pp.91-114.
Alois Regl, The Group Portraiture of Holland (various editions)
William Rubin (ed.), Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation (London, 1996)
Patricia Simon, ‘Women in Frames: The Eye, the Gaze and the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture’ in History Workshop Journal (Spring 1988), 4-30.
David Smith, Masks of Wedlock: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Marriage Portraiture (Epping, 1982)
Shearer West, Portraiture (Oxford, 2004)
Joanna Woodall (ed.) Portraiture: Facing the Subject (Manchester, 1997)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

  • Distinguish between different types of portraits
  • Analyse portraits in their historical context
  • Show an understanding of how portraits reflect and inscribe different kinds of social identities
  • Show an understanding of the ways in which portraiture has developed alongside broader artistic and technological trends
  • 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 presentations, 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 D1
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
1500 word essay 40% No

Assessed essay

Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
Engagement 20% No
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
Online Examination 40% No

~Platforms - WAS


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

Written feedback and dedicated feedback tutorials.

Past exam papers for HA1A5

Courses

This module is Option list B for:

  • Year 1 of UHAA-V401 Undergraduate History of Art