Week 1: 12-16 July 2010

Course 5: Dr Richard Williams

Dürer and Venice

£420

When Albrecht Dürer arrived in Venice artists there received him with great honour but also with a degree of jealousy. The technical brilliance of his graphic work had made a big impact in Italy, yet his paintings were said to lack such qualities as the deep, rich colour for which Venetian art was renowned. Dürer was determined to learn from Italian art before returning to effect a revolution, a ‘renaissance’ in the arts back in Germany. Close links between Venice and Germany had been long established and this course will examine this direct cultural cross-fertilisation. The works of Dürer and other German painters and sculptors influenced by Italian art will be contrasted with others, such as Cranach, who seemed determined to create a more distinct Germanic style. Paintings by Venetian artists such as Bellini and Giorgione will also be studied for their indebtedness to Dürer and Northern art. Original works will be examined at first hand during visits to major museum and gallery collections in London.



Week 2: 19-23 July 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 13: Dr Christian Weikop

German Romanticism to Expressionism: From the Nazarenes to the Brücke

£420

 

This course examines the 19th-century artistic quest for the origins of Germanic identity, and the romantic-idealist roots of early Expressionism.  We will use Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s essay ‘On German Architecture’ (1772) as a starting point, and discuss how his interest in the idea of a Gothic German identity reverberated in the visual culture of the long 19th century, from the Nazarenes to the Brücke group.  We will consider the ideals of the German Romantic movement, from early organic theories of art to an ‘aesthetics of inwardness’, which might be what unites the work of artists as diverse as Philip Otto Runge and Franz Marc.  The course will cover a wide range of subject matter: from the forest cult in prints and paintings by artists like Caspar David Friedrich and Ludwig Richter, to the anti-urban ‘back-to-nature’ tradition of representing rural peasants as seen in the art of Wilhelm Leibl and Paula Modersohn-Becker, among others, and the visual expressions of a ‘free body culture’ in the Symbolist canvases of artists like Hugo Höppener. We shall also investigate the enduring Romantic cult of Albrecht Dürer as ‘the’ German master par excellence, and his influence on both 19th- and early 20th-century German artists.  By the end of the week students will have a much better idea of how Expressionism connected with and departed from the ideals of Romanticism.  This course will involve trips to print rooms in London, including those of the British Museum and V&A.



 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.

Week 4: 2-6 August 2010

NEW COURSE

Course 31: Dr Stephanie Porras

Bosch and Bruegel: Grotesque, Fantasy and the World of the Everyday

£420
N.B. We regret that due to unforeseen circumstances this course had to be cancelled

The work of Hieronymus Bosch, in its curious iconography and fantastical imagination, has led art historians to seek answers in occult philosophies, religious sects and alchemical texts. Bosch's pictures, in their unique sketchy painting style and strange subject matter, seem to challenge conventional interpretation. Yet Bosch is

also the progenitor of the painting of everyday life, picturing the otherworldly realm of hell populated by familiar, even mundane objects. For Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who styled himself as a 'second Bosch,' the world of peasant feasts and children's games is also a kind of grotesque fantasy; painted and printed spectacles made to adorn the homes of Antwerp's middle classes. Bosch and Bruegel, two of the most debated artists of the 16th century, have become synonymous in art history with 'grotesque' and 'genre.' Utilising London's as well as The Courtauld's own collection of works, this course seeks to investigate the apparent oddities of both artists' work, exploring the variety and the fantasy of both the grotesque and the everyday as pictured by Bosch and Bruegel and considering the functions of both artists' work with regards to the religious, social and political contexts of the Low Countries in the 16th century.