Summer School 2010
Week 4: 2-6 August 2010
THEME I: ART, RELIGION AND SOCIETY
NEW COURSE
Course 27: Dr Elena Kashina
‘Faith and Power’: Icon-painting, Spirituality and National Identity in 11th–18th-century Russia
£420
Kolomenskoye, former royal estate, Moscow, photograph© Elena Kashina
Icon-painting remains one of the less easily interpreted art- and devotional forms outside of the regions where icons are a part of historical tradition. They tend to be regarded as ‘naïve art’, ‘primitivism’, or as downright poor painting. This course intends to look at graven images in the context of a particular culture. Russian icon-painting will be considered as an heir to the great Byzantine tradition of ecclesiastical expression, and at the same time as an encapsulation of Russia’s spirituality and morality.
We intend to explore how the Byzantine concept of ‘faith and power’ - of secular authority underpinned by religious terminology - was transformed in Russia in different epochs and under different rulers. One way of doing this will be to focus on the way historic circumstances were reflected within seemingly rigid boundaries of devotional expression. Our ultimate aim will be to understand the otherworldly appearance of the holy personages in icons as a deliberate antithesis to a naturalistic recreation of visible reality, intended to allude to the transcendent, and to induce reflection. It also seems correct to suggest that icons were a universally understood tool of communication within their countries of origin, and as such fulfilled a great unifying function.
THEME II: ART AND LIFE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Course 28: Dr Catherine Yvard
The Weird and the Wonderful: Illuminated Manuscripts in the Middle Ages
£445
When opening an illuminated manuscript, one always feels a tingle of excitement at the sight of the shimmering gold and vibrant colours that still grace its pages after so many centuries. And indeed, a study of Western medieval and early Renaissance painting would not be complete without taking into account the minute masterpieces preserved in the pages of the numerous manuscripts that have survived from this period, stretching from the fifth century to the mid 16th century.
Producing a manuscript required a quill, inks and colours, and animal skin to write on. How were these books made? By whom and for whom? What texts did they contain and how were they illustrated? This course will explore the medieval library, turning the pages of Bestiaries, Bibles, accounts of travels to faraway lands, history chronicles, chivalric romances and many more, thus discovering the medieval world and thought through their fascinating illustrations. General trends in book production will be outlined in relation to individual manuscripts considered in their artistic, social and historical context, with a special focus on the late Middle Ages. The lectures will be complemented by visits to prestigious collections including the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, where students will have the unique opportunity to examine manuscripts and early printed books at first hand.
THEME III: THE ARTS IN ITALY FROM THE LATER MIDDLE AGES TO THE RENAISSANCE
Course 29: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
The ‘High Renaissance’: Art and Architecture in Rome 1500–1527
£420
THERE IS ONE PLACE REMAINING ON THIS COURSE. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
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 in September 2010.
[please note that the dates previously given (26-29 September) are incorrect; the tour will take place in September, the precise dates are to be confirmed]
THEME IV: THE ARTS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE: MEDIA, MATERIALS, TECHNIQUES AND PHILOSOPHIES
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.
THEME V: ART AND SOCIETY IN NORTHERN EUROPE
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.
THEME VI: ART IN BRITAIN, THE NETHERLANDS AND ITALY
Course 32: Dr Sara Cochran
Contemporary British Art
£420
In the 2009 Venice Biennial, the German Pavillon was devoted to the work of the British artist Liam Gillick. While this fact speaks to the fact that Gillick has lived in Berlin for a number of years, it also highlights the incredible international presence of contemporary British art on the world scene. This has extended well beyond the phenomenon of the Young British Artists and draws on the great strengths of the British art schools. After a preliminary discussion of the strategic success and undeniable influence of the so-called YBA, this course will focus on the diverse generation of artists working in Britain today and explore the intellectual and professional topology of their context. There will be a particular focus on the work of women artists and their considerable role and influence on the British scene. Visits include museums, galleries, and studios.
THEME VII: Material Culture, Fashion and the Arts of Design
Course 33: Dr Rose Kerr
The Development and World Influence of Chinese Porcelain
£420
Thin-bodied, white, translucent porcelain was first made in China around AD600, more than one thousand years before its fabrication in the West. How was this sophisticated material discovered, and how did it develop? This course looks at geological and technical issues affecting manufacture, as well as economic, social and historical factors that influenced the growth and spread of kilns. Porcelain in China was used at court, and certain forms and designs were reserved for imperial use. By contrast, mass-produced items were shipped around the world starting in the ninth century AD, and had a significant effect across Asia, in the Middle East and Europe. The course includes visits to the ceramic galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Percival David Collection Gallery in the British Museum.
THEME IX: MODERNISM AND BEYOND
Course 34: Dr Sarah James
Photography and Modernism in the 20th Century
£420
THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST.
This course will explore the unfolding relationship between art and photography in the 20th century; a relationship which came to define the modern epoch. We shall examine the ways in which photography intersected with painting at the turn of the century, and its role in shaping the most significant artistic movements of the European avant-garde from Futurism, Constructivism and Dada to Surrealism and New Objectivity. The course will also consider the work of those great European and American modernist photographers – including August Sander, Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Henri Cartier Bresson, Edward Weston and Tina Modotti – whose explorations of the medium defined its use in the 20th century. We shall look at the most significant photographic theory and practice that came to define modernism. The course will further examine the status of photography in this period, as both art and document. The changing relationship between photography and the modern museum will also be investigated. In addition, we shall consider those photographers often left out of the modernist canon, great women photographers of 20th century, reportage and street photography, photo journalism, and the photography that emerged during the Cold War in the countries of the Eastern Bloc.