Art History

This course examines central concerns that have arisen in late modernist art, exploring the moves, intensifications and political implications of art in the post-1968 period: dematerialization of the art object, site-specificity, the artist in a commodity culture, activism, questions of identity, notions of looking and spectatorship, interactivity, new media, contemporary censorship and debates about the place of the aesthetic.

This course analyzes the history of archaeological discoveries, from antiquity to the present day, relating these discoveries to the different historical stages in which they occurred, taking into account the social, political, philosophical, and ideological contexts of each of the stages, and how this has been reflected in the collecting of antiquities, in the history of museums, and in the formation of current museum heritage.

What was the attitude of European culture towards non-Europeans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? How were African, Arab, Turk, Mongol, but also Native American and Jewish people represented in Western art and why? From the fabulous East described by Marco Polo to the myth of Prester John, from the clash with the Islamic world to the conquest of America, the imagery of non-European peoples reveals a broad spectrum of symbolic, social, and religious meanings. The analysis of these portrayals provides insight into the processes of self-identification of Western Europeans and the emergence and development of categories of "otherness". This course enables students not only to understand the classification of human groups in the past, but also to better assess critically the modern and present-day use of such categories. The course takes a thorough multidisciplinary approach, encompassing social, political, religious, and broader cultural history. Florence offers a unique opportunity to analyze on-site, and often in their original context, works representing non-Europeans from the 13th to the 17th century. 

Since ancient times, people have traveled to sacred places in search of sacred power, listened to the legends of these places and the miraculous experiences of the gods and Buddha. Particularly in the Middle Ages, engi-e, paintings of the origins and history of a temple or shrine, which glorified miraculous experiences and visualized the stories of the gods and Buddha; and pilgrimage mandalas, which skillfully depicted the past and present of sacred places, were actively produced, and were sometimes displayed in front of people. This course discusses religious paintings such as engi-e and pilgrimage mandalas, as well as related stories and legends, to decipher the beliefs in sacred places and the stories that support them. The course aims to acquire the ability to read narrative pictures while exploring the origins of power spots that attract even modern people and the spiritual culture of the Japanese people, and examining methods of picturing sacred places and the specific aspects of faith.

This course introduces art, images, and vision in the digital field and various aspects of the roles technology plays in our creation, circulation, and use of images today. The main focus of the course is how contemporary image technologies shape us culturally on an everyday basis and how contemporary visual art can help us understand this. The course introduces works of art and theoretical approaches in the field and concretely analyzes how works of art and other image practices use specific image technologies. By combining theoretical insights and concrete analyses of works of art and everyday image practice, the course provides critical understandings of how humans and machines make sense of images today.

Like the human body, the human skin has an elaborate history, and now—perhaps more than ever—it calls for serious critical study. This course takes skin as a point of contact between historical and contemporary encounters. Skin troubles notions of identity, notably in legend and art. In more recent times, skin is a contentious site of systemic racism. Thematically structured, this course addresses a wide range of issues, including skin as corporeal and conceptual threshold; skin as multisensory organ; skin as artistic support; architectural skin; flaying; sacred skins; skin as anatomical curiosity; skin art; skin pigment; the skin of materials; second skins; literary skin; skin and the self.

This course focuses on Chinese art and visual culture from the late imperial period to the 21st century against the backdrop of major socio-political and economic changes in China and the world. Through the study of material forms and the contexts in which they were created, the course looks at the ways in which art, artists, and their audiences responded to the challenges of modernity, reform, revolution, war, marketization, and globalization. The phenomenon of Chinese contemporary art, its collection, and connoisseurship, and the role of art schools, museums, bienniales, galleries, and auction houses is also examined.

This course considers art from around the world in order to understand the ways in which different religions, power structures, and intercultural relations impacted upon artists, objects, and audiences. Students learn about the key works and ideas that underpin this period in the history of art. Lectures are supported by readings and activities on the course website. In tutorials, students put ideas and skills into practice. Some of the tutorials take place in Edinburgh's museums and galleries. 

Teaching objectives of this course:

To guide students to appreciate Chinese bronzes, and understand the thoughts, technology, aesthetic intention, cultural beliefs contained in the bronzes, and understand the cultural status of Chinese bronzes in the material history of the world.

Expected learning gains of this course:

(1) By training students' observation and cognitive ability of bronze ware, students can basically understand the emergence, use and development of bronze ware and their historical and cultural background, and master the knowledge system of bronze ware.

(2) Students have a general understanding of the type characteristics, technical connotation and artistic characteristics of Chinese bronzes, have some thoughts about the culture carried by ancient Chinese bronzes, some experience and inheritance of traditional culture, and some understanding of the expression of beauty.
(3) Taking ancientbronze ware as an example, students are guided to deepen their understanding of the status of Chinese material culture and civilization in the history of world civilization.