Picture of Somerset House

FIRST YEAR


Students who choose to study abroad early into their academic careers or who wish to gain an introductory knowledge of art history are usually admitted into the first year of the BA History of Art, which offers broad coverage of the periods and regions of Western art. 


Students who study for one term only will participate in:

  • One term of the Foundation Lecture Course, which runs throughout the year and focuses on major themes and issues in the history of Western art from antiquity to the present; and
  • One Topic course, which is based on first-hand study of original works of art in London and involve visits to sites and museums


Students who study for a full year will participate in:

  • The full Foundation Lecture Course, which focuses on major themes and issues in the history of Western art from antiquity to the present; and
  • Two Topic courses, which are based on first-hand study of original works of art in London and involve visits to sites and museums

Topics courses offered change annually but have included:

  • Getting to Grips with Rembrandt
  • Central Italian Renaissance Art in London Collections
  • Victorian Institutions: Sites and Monuments
  • Contemporary Art in London

second YEAR


Students who are studying the history of art and who are further along in their academic careers are typically admitted into the second year of the BA History of Art, which introduces more specialised investigation and enables students to develop critical thinking and extend their detailed knowledge of art historical periods.

Students who are studying during the autumn term only will participate in:

  • One Frameworks for Interpretation course, which builds on the emphasis of first-hand encounters with works of art and approaches to the history of Western art; and
  • One Period course, which focuses in-depth on a specific period of art history

Period courses offered change annually but have included:                          

  • Decline and Fall: Art and Transformation in Late Antiquity
  • Art in Venice c. 1420-1510
  • Rococo to Revolution: Art and Society in France c.1715-1790
  • Histories of Twentieth-Century Art: American Art 1945-1972
  • Cathedrals in Context: Religion and the Great Church in England 1170 to 1350

Students who are studying during the spring term only will participate in:  

  • One Texts and Contexts course, which is designed to explore current debates in the theory and practice of art-historical scholarship and to examine the methods and approaches of key art hsitorans of the past; and
  • One Theme course, which entails consideration of a specific significant issue that crosses a wider historical span (i.e., Classicism)

Texts and Contexts courses may include:

  • The Metaphysics of Art History: German art history from Kant to Gombrich
  • Monuments and Memory
  • Man, Nature and the Construction of the Landscape Idea
  • Approaches to the Architecture of Michelangelo
  • Artists’ Writings 1960s to the Present

Students studying for the full year will join one of each type of course listed above.