Week 1: 12-16 July 2010

Course 1: Dr Cecily Hennessy

Nike to Angel: The Inception of Early Christian Art

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

Christian imagery is central to our knowledge and experience of western art during the past two millennia.  This course explores the origins and influences of that imagery as it appears in wall paintings and monumental mosaics, in ivories, metalwork and manuscripts. In order to gain a perspective on its roots and influences, we look at key images and symbols from the pre-Christian world. We analyse their meanings and significance and discuss how they gained new interpretations when borrowed and adapted for fundamental aspects of Christian iconography. We also examine the role of art in religious belief and practice, focusing on key sites, such as Dura Europas in modern Syria and fascinating late antique cities, such as Ravenna, Rome and Constantinople as well as questioning major visual concepts such as the representation of Christ and of the Virgin. Visits include a special handling session at the British Museum.

 

Please note that Dr Hennessy is also leading a study tour to Byzantine Istanbul, with an optional added tour to Byzantine Cappadocia, from 1–4 September and from 5–8 September respectively.


Week 2: 19-23 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 15: Dr Cecily Hennessy

Away from the Centre: Byzantine Cities beyond Constantinople

£420

The richness of Byzantine art and culture was created in numerous vital political, social and religious centres throughout the Byzantine world. From the brilliance of early mosaics in Ravenna to the sophisticated late painting programmes in Mystra, this course explores the patronage, iconography, techniques and significance of art and architecture made during the Byzantine empire in centres other than Constantinople. Both artists and patrons sometimes originated in the capital, but created both traditional and innovative work in the cities and monastic sites in far flung places, such as Mount Athos, Cappadocia and Thessaloniki. Additionally, local artists perfected indigenous styles. Other cultures, such as the Venetians and the Normans in Sicily were strongly influenced by the authority and beauty associated with Byzantine art and incorporated elements of it into their buildings and treasured possessions. Visits include a handling session at the British Museum and a ‘behind-the-scenes’ visit to the British Library.

Please note that Dr Hennessy is also leading a study tour to Byzantine Istanbul, with an optional added tour to Byzantine Cappadocia, from 1–4 September and from 5–8 September respectively.


Week 1: 12-16 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 2: Professor Paul Crossley

‘A New Heaven and A New Earth’. The Gothic Cathedral in France and England

£445

The Gothic church, with its vast and complex architecture, its monumental sculpture, its richly ornamented stained glass and handsome textiles, is impressive both visually and intellectually.  The Gothic adventure begins in northern France, in and around Paris, in the mid 12th century, and reaches its political apogee a hundred years later. It elicited some of the most daring feats of structural engineering in the history of western Europe; but it combined this technology with a genius for invention, as much in its marginal grotesques as in its mainstream  spaces.   It housed the bodies of saints, whose cults attracted international pilgrimage, and it provided pantheons and platforms for the cults of kings.  At the same time, under its high vaults, it sheltered small-scale and infinitely precious works of liturgical art – ars sacra – which transformed these giant structures into shelters for public worship and private devotion. In a brutal and flawed world, these great churches erected a utopian vision of heaven, promulgated by the medieval Church and its ministers, but also supported by kings and their courts.

You may also be interested in Professor Crossley’s Study Tour to the cathedrals of Ely and Lincoln from 7-8 May 2010.

 

Week 3: 26-30 July 2010

Course 22: Dr Matthias Vollmer

17th-century Painting in the Low Countries: The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Art

£420

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.

As a result of the religious and political conflicts in the 16th century, the Low Countries were split into two territories with different theological and social developments. In both states, the production of art was strongly determined by patrons. In Flanders, artists like Rubens and Van Dyck celebrated the Catholic Church of the Counter Reformation and the Spanish Hapsburg monarchy with grandiose themes, lively compositions, and vivid colours in portraits, altarpieces, mythological scenes and allegories. The Protestant Republic of the United Netherlands, on the other hand, was dominated mainly by austere Calvinists. Dutch painters like Rembrandt and Jan Steen conveyed moral and often religious messages through elaborate symbolism in land- and seascapes, still life compositions, allegories and scenes of daily life. This course will offer an introduction into the vibrant art and culture of the separated Low Countries in the 17th centuries. We shall visit the National Gallery, the British Museum and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Matthias Vollmer´s study tour to Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam from 27–29 August will provide further opportunities to study the art of this period closely and in situ.

Week 3: 26-30 July 2010

Course 26: Dr Caroline Levitt

Encounters and Collaborations: Artists and Writers in 20th-century Paris

£420

Paris in the first half of the 20th century was a vibrant meeting-place for practically anyone who was anyone in the avant-garde art world. This course will examine not only who was meeting who, but how movements and tendencies clashed and interacted through a variety of different media and with dramatically creative effects. Beginning by tracing the progression from late 19th-century Impressionism to tendencies generally understood to be ‘modern’, we will challenge traditional narratives that differentiate between groupings such as the Cubists, the Dadaists and the Surrealists and will examine the links and interactions between such major groups of artists and writers through the written press, their apartment-studios and their collaborations on both books and films. Visits are to include The Courtauld’s collections of paintings and 20th-century journals, Tate Modern, Erno Goldfinger’s Modernist home at 2 Willow Road (Hampstead) and the National Art Library, where we will have the opportunity to examine some rare artists’ books firsthand.

Whilst this course is entirely freestanding, Caroline Levitt’s Autumn study tour, ‘At home in Paris’, from 17–19 September 2010, will develop a number of the themes approached during the week and will provide the chance to visit the homes and studios of some of the artists to be discussed.

Week 4: 2-6 August 2010

Course 29: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

The ‘High Renaissance’: Art and Architecture in Rome 1500–1527

£420

Rome in the first decades of the sixteenth century became a powerhouse of artistic production which set standards of excellence for centuries. Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael worked for the energetic Pope Julius II and his successor Leo X on projects of unparalleled grandeur and ambition, such as rebuilding St Peter’s and the painting of the Sistine chapel ceiling. These achievements are set within the framework of the urban renewal of the city inherited from the fifteenth-century papacy, the spread of the cult of the antique beyond the intellectual circles of the papal bureaucracy, the institution of permanent collections of antiquities and the patronal activities of the cardinals and bankers in Rome. The devastating Sack of Rome in 1527 and the origins of ‘Mannerism’ are also examined. Visits include the National Gallery, the Prints & Drawings Collections at the British Museum and the V&A.

You may also be interested in Dr Douglas-Scott’s study tour to Rome, 23 -- 26 September 2010.