Media, Materials, Techniques and Philosophies


Week 1: 12-16 July 2010

Course 4: Dr Susie Nash and Clare Richardson

Early Netherlandish Painting and Technical Art History

The fee for this course is £485 as the group will be limited to 10 students; this also includes the cost of course materials.

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

This course will examine the way early Netherlandish painters made their images, and the way we investigate aspects of that making. It will consider the properties of oil and egg tempera, how panels were made and prepared, how works were designed and underdrawn, and how they were brought to completion in the application of the paint layers. To consider these aspects we shall investigate works of art in the conservation studio of The Courtauld Institute of Art, as well as in the gallery there and in the National Gallery. We shall consider how we can discover various aspects concerning the making of panel paintings by different means from close looking with the naked eye and with magnification, through to paint sampling, x-radiography, and infrared reflectography and by replicating their techniques ourselves. The purpose is not just to understand how Netherlandish painters such as the Master of Flemalle, Jan Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes created their works, but also to understand the implications of how we study that creative process, how we understand and accommodate changes over time, and how technical methods can be used by the art historian in the service of investigating meaning, function and audience as well as the physical processes of making a work of art.

 



Week 2: 19-23 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 12: Dr Matthias Vollmer

Competition as a Source of Creativity: The Idea of ‘Paragone’ from the Renaissance to Modern Times

£420

The Renaissance concept of ‘paragone’ describes the competition between different arts (architecture, sculpture, painting and poetry) and sometimes also between individual artists. Until the 20th century, this competition between the arts undoubtedly acted as a driving force for artistic creativity and innovation; not so, however, in the case of modern and contemporary art.

In the latter the art medium (painting or sculpture for instance) is no longer paramount; more important is the conceptual aspect of creation. While the term ‘paragone’ is still occasionally in use, in the context of a mere comparison of artists and of the quality of their ideas, the traditional boundaries between the arts have become obsolete.

The course explores how the force of the Renaissance ‘paragone’ debate from Leonardo da Vinci to Giorgio Vasari and Lodovico Dolce determined the image of the artist as divine creator (divino artista) and how it informed the understanding of the artwork itself for centuries.  We shall then investigate how the modern discourse about new media from photography to Dick Higgins´ Intermedia-(art) has since challenged this concept. These developments are evident in works of art by such diverse artists as Leonardo, Dürer, van Eyck, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Malevich, Gerhard Richter and Yvonne Rainer. Visits include the National Gallery, the V&A, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.



Week 3: 26-30 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 21: Sarah Hyde and Dr Joanna Selborne

Six Centuries of European Prints: The Making and Meaning of Multiple Images

£445

Some of the most admired images in the history of European art have been prints: Dürer’s woodcuts, Rembrandt’s etchings, Hogarth’s engravings and Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithographs. This course will introduce students to the major printmaking techniques used from the 15th to the early 20th century, and consider some of the issues raised in the study of printmaking history such as the uses of prints, the business of buying and selling prints, deciphering inscriptions, their role as illustration, as well as such contentious issues as the concepts of ‘original’ and ‘reproductive’ prints.  Printmaking has always been a collaborative process, involving a range of specialists from engravers and etchers to artists, printers and publishers. We will look at the changing significance of these roles and the way reproductive prints have been such a vital means of circulating visual information across Europe and through all sections of society in the pre-photographic age. Students will have the chance to study prints in the Courtauld Gallery’s distinguished collection in close detail, as well as visiting the British Museum print room and a printmaking studio. The course will involve hands-on study of printmaking materials and tools, and a discussion of how these techniques affected the appearance, function and circulation of prints.

 

Week 4: 2-6 August 2010

Course 30:   Clare Richardson

Artists’ Materials: Invention and Innovation

The fee for this course is £485 as the group will be limited to 10 students; this also includes the cost of course materials

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

This course will consider artists' materials from the medieval to modern periods, exploring the aesthetic consequences of the availability of materials, new inventions, and new methods of preparing and applying materials. All aspects of the painter’s craft will be considered, from pigments and binding media to the canvas or panel support.  In exploring these themes we shall refer to historic documents as well as technical examination of paintings – including x-radiography and pigment analysis. We shall reflect upon the methods and materials used in the Renaissance on a visit to the collections of the National Gallery, London, and compare them to the cornucopia of artistic means provided by the Victorian colourmen on a visit to Cornellisen, established in 1855. Guest lecturer Dr. Maria Kokkori, who specialises in the painters of the Russian avant-garde, will bring the course up to the 20th century, exploring the materials and techniques of modernity.

The course will also offer students the opportunity to explore historic materials in a practical manner, through testing of alchemical methods to prepare pigments, experimenting with gilding techniques, grinding their own paints and comparing the handling properties and painting qualities of different pigments and media.