Unit information: Western Sculpture and the Classical Tradition (Level I Lecture Response Unit) in 2012/13

Unit name	Western Sculpture and the Classical Tradition (Level I Lecture Response Unit)
Unit code	HART25002
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Dent
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

As one of the most visible and compelling survivals of antiquity, classical sculpture has exercised a profound fascination over later societies. It has provoked responses ranging from repulsion and fear, through to awe and admiration. The Romans already saw sculpture as an art mastered by the Greeks, and in subsequent periods, right through to the modern age, attitudes have oscillated between rejection and revival. In this course we track these responses. We will be concentrating throughout on a set of key themes established in classical Greek sculpture, including the representation of the ideal body, the significance of sculptural media such as marble and bronze, and the role played by colour in sculptural aesthetics. We will also be thinking carefully about the beholder, as a viewer whose expectations of a ‘sculptural interaction’ have their roots in the ancient world.

This unit will enable students:

• to think critically about the legacy of classical sculpture within the western tradition
• to understand the most important phases of post-classical response to classical sculpture
• to be able to identify significant examples of classical and later sculpture and to place these in appropriate historical and cultural contexts
• to think critically about how the history of art as a discipline has been shaped by the survival of classical sculpture

Intended Learning Outcomes

• To provide a broad grounding of the history of western sculpture as it relates to classical art
• To provide a particular perspective from the tutor to which students can react critically and build their own individual views and interpretations.
• To provide an critical appreciation of changing responses to sculptural objects over time

Teaching Information

Weekly 2-hour interactive lecture sessions Tutorial feedback on essay Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in consultation hours

Assessment Information

A 3000 word essay (50%) and 2-hour unseen written examination (50%) will assess the student’s understanding of artistic developments in the field of study and of the ways in which art historians have interpreted developments in the field; test the student’s ability to think critically and develop their own views and interpretations; and test the student’s ability to relate specific works of sculpture to well-defined historical and cultural contexts

Reading and References

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: the lure of classical sculpture, 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981

M. Squire, The Art of the Body: Antiquity and its Legacy, London, 2011

L. Barkan, Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture, New Haven and London, 1999

V. Coltman, Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain since 1760, Oxford, 2009

Grafton, G. Most, S. Settis eds, The Classical Tradition, Cambridge Mass., London, 2010

V. Stoichita, The Pygmalion Effect: From Ovid to Hitchcok, Chicago, 2008