Unit information: Revivals and Reception in Victorian Art in 2012/13

Unit name	Revivals and Reception in Victorian Art
Unit code	HARTM0018
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Prettejohn
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

This unit brings together the study of Victorian visual art, often configured as a series of `revivals` of the art of the past, and recent scholarly interest in theories of reception, developed initially in literary contexts. The unit explores two related research questions. How did Victorian artists draw on subjects and styles of the past to invigorate their modern artistic practices? And how did their work help to shape the modern understanding of the western artistic tradition? Topics may include the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's avowed engagement with the art of the Early Renaissance; revivals of interest in artists such as Botticelli, Leonardo, Giorgione, Mantegna, and Velazquez; Victorian classicism; the links between British Impressionism and the art of the eighteenth century. The unit draws on the abundant primary documentation that is available for the study of both Victorian art and the historiography of art in the Victorian period.

Aims:

This unit has three principal aims: to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the uses made of the art of the past in Victorian art; to enhance students’ skills in the use of primary research materials; to explore and assess the value of reception theory in the study of the visual arts, using Victorian art as the principal focus.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should have a broad knowledge of `revivalist` movements in Victorian art. They will be able to interpret and analyze nineteenth-century English texts on these movements and on the history of western art. They will be able to apply key insights of reception theory to the study of the visual arts.

Teaching Information

Two-hour weekly seminar

Assessment Information

5000-word essay

Reading and References

• Jennifer Graham, Inventing Van Eyck: The Remaking of an Artist for the Modern Age, Berg, 2007

• Francis Haskell, Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Tate, Fashion and Collecting in England and France, Phaidon, 1976

• Walter Pater, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry [1873 and often reprinted], ed. Donald L. Hill, U of California P, 1980

• Elizabeth Prettejohn, The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Tate Publishing, 2000

• John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1843-60 (and often reprinted)

• A. Richard Turner, Inventing Leonardo: The Anatomy of a Legend, Papermac, 1995