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Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of Art History
Spring Semester 2022
Image, Object, Text: Theories and Methods in Art History and Visual Studies
Code: DU1905 Credits: 8
COURSE OUTLINE
SYNOPSIS
This course looks at the methods and theoretical underpinning of contemporary practices of
art historical and visual cultural analysis. Based on examination of ideas and the close
reading of key scholarly texts, the course will engage both with traditional art historical
methods as well as more recent approaches to the study of art and visual culture.
The course will consider how conceptual frameworks inform the analysis of specific works of
art and architecture. It also considers how they determine the kinds of questions that are
asked of them. You will be asked to consider the relevance and application of these methods
to a range of examples, including the potential topics your final thesis.
Practical Information
The course co-ordinator is Prof. Matthew Rampley.
All queries concerning the organization of the course are to be directed to me. I can be
contacted either by email: rampley@muni.cz or directly at my office in L62 the Faculty of Arts
Building (on Veveří 28).
The course will be taught in English.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
• Demonstrate a critical knowledge and understanding of historiographic methods
relevant to the study of art history and visual culture
• Demonstrate a critical knowledge and understanding of the ideas of key historians and
theorists of art, architecture and visual culture
• Identify, analysis and evaluate methods used in selected texts on the history of art and
visual culture
• Apply a variety of relevant analytical methods to the interpretation of works of art and
visual culture
• Exhibit advanced writing and oral skills
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HOW THE COURSE WILL BE TAUGHT
In keeping with the University policy, the course will be taught in-person.
MODULE SCHEDULE
The course will be taught from 12.00 – 14.30 on the following Thursdays:
24 February Art history as a ‘science’: observation and the role of theory
3 March Canon wars: the objects and values of art history
24 March The meanings of ‘style’: formalism and the social history of art
7 April Concepts of iconology: from visual lexicon to social memory
21 April Horizontal art history and the politics of the periphery
5 May Questions of gender in art history
19 May Globalizing / decolonizing the discipline?
The sessions will take place in room L21 in the Faculty of Arts Building on Veveří 28.
Each session will consist of an informal lecture / discussion. In addition, all students will be
required to give a short (15-minute) oral presentation on a topic. I shall also schedule a 1-to-
1 tutorial with each of you to discuss your ideas for the essay.
You will receive informal written feedback on your presentation. This will not contribute
towards the overall mark for this course. It is merely meant to help you to identify strengths
and weaknesses you may need to address in preparation for the formal assessment.
ASSESSMENT AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The course will be assessed on the basis of an essay of between 15 and 20 A4 pages (1800
characters per page). The essay should be accompanied with a bibliography of sources
consulted.
The deadline for submission will be Friday 10 June. Assessment of the essay will be based
on the following criteria:
1. Research: is the essay well researched and are its claims based on appropriate use of
sources?
2. Understanding: does the essay display a good level of understanding of the materials
/ ideas it discusses?
3. Analysis: does the essay undertake an appropriate critical appraisal of the written
primary and secondary source material?
4. Argument: does the essay present a clearly constructed argument, with a conclusion?
5. Relevance: are the material selected and the arguments used relevant to the topic of
the essay question and to the course as a whole?
6. Language: is the essay written in clear and correct English?
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GENERAL READING
The following reading list includes books and articles that will be discussed in the individual
sessions as well as general, background, reading. The reading for each session includes key
reading that you will be expected to have prepared before the session. You are not
expected to have read all the items listed for each session. Equally, it is expected that for
your assessed essay, you will undertake your own research and reading beyond what is listed
in this bibliography.
Please note: as far as is practical, all items will be available on the Learning Materials folder
of the Faculty intranet.
You can find the link here: https://is.muni.cz/auth/el/phil/jaro2022/DU1905/um/?lang=en
GENERAL READING
You should find the following general books useful as an introduction to the topic. There are
copies in the library.
• Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk, Art history: a critical introduction to its methods
(Manchester, 2006)
• Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, eds., Critical terms for art history (Chicago, 2003).
• Matthew Rampley, ed., Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational
Discourses and National Frameworks (Leiden, 2012)
READING FOR INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS
ART HISTORY AS A ‘SCIENCE’: OBSERVATION AND THE ROLE OF THEORY
Key Reading
• Paul Barolsky, ‘Art History as Fiction,’ Artibus et Historiae 17.34 (1996) pp. 9-17.
• Moriz Thausing, ‘The Status of Art History as an Academic Discipline’ in Journal of Art
Historiography 1 (2009). You should also read the introduction by Karl Johns.
Recommended Reading
• Paul Barolsky, ‘Art History and Positivism,’ Source: Notes in the History of Art 18.1
(1998) pp. 27-30.
• David Bordwell, ‘Making Films Mean,’ in Bordwell, Making Meaning (Cambridge, MA
1989) pp. 1-18.
• Arthur Danto, ‘Deep Interpretation,’ The Journal of Philosophy 78.11 (1981) pp. 691-
706.
• David Freedberg et al, ‘The Object of Art History,’ Art Bulletin 76.3 (1994) pp. 394-410
• Clifford Geertz, ‘Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture’ in
Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973) pp. 3-32.
• John Hall, ‘Value Discourse and the Object of Inquiry,’ in Hall, Cultures of Inquiry
(Cambridge, 1999) pp. 33-71.
• Christine McCorkel, ‘Sense and Sensibility: An Epistemological Approach to the
Philosophy of Art History,’ Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 34.1 (1975) pp. 35-
50.
• Matthew Rampley. ‘The Idea of a Scientific Discipline: Rudolf von Eitelberger and the
Emergence of Art History in Vienna, 1847-1873,’ Art History 34.1 (2011) pp. 54-79.
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CANON WARS: THE OBJECTS AND VALUES OF ART HISTORY
Key Reading
• Joseph Leo Koerner and Lisbet Rausing, ‘Value,’ in Robert Nelson and Richard Schiff,
eds, Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago 2003) pp. 419-34.
• Thomas Crow, ‘Modernism and Mass Culture in the Visual Arts’ in Crow
• Hubert Locher, ‘The Idea of the Canon and Canon Formation in Art History’ in M.
Rampley, eds, Art History and Visual Studies in Europe (Leiden, 2012) pp. 29-40
Recommended Reading
• Karen Edis Barzman, ‘Beyond the Canon: Feminists, Postmodernism and the History of
Art,’ in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52.3 (1994) pp. 327-39.
• Stephen Eisenman, ‘Three criteria for inclusion in or exclusion from a world history of
art,’ World Art 1.2 (2011) pp. 281-98.
• Victor Ginsburgh and Sheila Weyers, ‘On the Formation of Canons: The Dynamics of
Narratives in Art History,’ Empirical Studies of the Arts 28.1 (2010) pp. 37-72.
• Gregor Langfield, ‘The Canon in Art History: Concepts and Approaches,’ Journal of Art
Historiography 19 (2018) n. p.
• Linda Nochlin,’Why have there been no great women artists?’ in Art News May 30 2015.
Available online at: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-
been-no-great-women-artists-4201/
• Griselda Pollock, ‘About Canons and Culture Wars,’ in Pollock, Differencing the Canon
(London, 1999) pp. 2-38.
• Max Weber, ‘ “Objectivity” in the Social Science and Social Policy,’ in Weber, On the
Methodology of the Social Sciences (Boston, 1949) pp. 50-112.
THE MEANINGS OF ‘STYLE’: FORMALISM AND THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF ART
Key Reading
• Craig Clunas, ‘The Social History of Art,’ in Robert Nelson and Richard Schiff, eds,
Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago 2003) pp. 465-78.
• Heinrich Wölfflin, ‘Introduction’ and ‘The Linear and the Painterly’ in Principles of Art
History, trans. J. Blower (Los Angeles, 2015) pp. 83-155.
Recommended Reading
• Frederick Antal, ‘Economic, Social and Political History’ in Antal, Florentine Painting
and its Social Background (London, 1947) pp. 11-37.
• Jim Berryman, ‘Frederick Antal and the Marxist Challenge to Art History,’ in History of
the Human Sciences 2021 (electronic publication)
• Thomas Crow, ‘Modernism and Mass Culture in the Visual Arts’ in Crow, Modern Art in
the Common Culture (London, 1996) pp. 3-38.
• Jaś Elsner, ‘From Empirical Evidence to the Big Picture: Some Reflections on Riegl’s
Concept of Kunstwollen,’ Critical Inquiry 32.4 (2006) pp. 741-66.
• Ernst Gombrich, ‘Style’ in Donald Preziosi, ed., The Art of Art History (Oxford, 2009)
pp. 129-40
• Clement Greenberg, ‘Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ in Greenberg, Art and Culture (New
York, 1961) pp. 3-21
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• Andrea Pinotti, ‘Formalism and the History of Style’ in Rampley et al, eds., Art History
and Visual Studies in Europe, pp. 75-90
• Meyer Schapiro, ‘Style’ in Alfred Kroeber, ed., Anthropoology Today (Chicago, 1953)
pp. 287-311.
• Meyer Schapiro, ‘The Nature of Abstract Art’ in Schapiro, Modern Art 19th
and 20th
Centuries: Selected Papers (New York, 1979) pp. 185-212.
CONCEPTS OF ICONOLOGY: FROM VISUAL LEXICON TO SOCIAL MEMORY
Key Reading
• Emile Mâle, ‘|ntroduction’ to Mâle, The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the
Thirteenth Century (New York, 1972) pp. 1-26.
• Erwin Panofsky, ‘Iconography and Iconology: An Introduction to the Study of
Renaissance Art,’ in Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Harmondsworth, 1955) pp.
51-81.
Recommended Reading
• Svetlana Alpers, ‘Interpretation without Representation, or The Viewing of Las
Meñinas’ in Representations 1 (1983) pp. 30-42.
• Peter Burke, ‘Iconography,’ in Burke, The Italian Renaissance (Oxford 2014) pp. 171-
85.
• Georges Didi-Huberman, ‘Artistic Survival: Panofsky vs. Warburg and the Exorcism of
Impure Time,’ Common Knowledge 9.2 (2003) pp. 273-85
• Clifford Geertz, ‘Art as a Cultural System’ in Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further Essays
in Interpretive Anthropology (New York, 1983) pp. 94-120.
• Creighton Gilbert, ‘On Subject and Not-Subject in Italian Renaissance Pictures,’ Art
Bulletin 34.3 (1952) pp.
• Keith Moxey, ‘Panofsky’s Concept of Iconology and the Problem of Interpretation in
the History of Art,’ New Literary History 17.2 (1986) pp. 265-74.
• Matthew Rampley, ‘Iconology of the Interval: Aby Warburg’s Legacy,’ Word and
Image 17.4 (2001) pp. 303-324.
HORIZONTAL ART HISTORY AND THE POLITICS OF THE PERIPHERY
Key Reading
• Piotr Piotrowski, ‘Towards a Horizontal Art History of the European Avant-Garde’ in
Sascha Bru et al, eds, Europa Europa: The Avant-Garde, Modernism and the Fate of a
Continent (Berlin, 2009) pp. 49-58.
Further Reading
• Jan Białostocki, ‘Some Values of Artistic Periphery,’ in Muzeum Narodowe w
Warszawie: Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie 35 (1991) pp. 129-36
• Enrico Castelnuovo, Carlo Ginzburg, ‘Symbolic Domination and Artistic Geography in
Italian Art History,’ in Art in Translation 1.1 (2015) pp. 5-48.
• Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, ‘Peripheral Circulations, Transient Centralities: The
International Geography of the Avant-Gardes in the Interwar Period (1918-1940)’
Visual Resources 35 (2019) pp. 295-322.
• Thomas Dacosta Kaufmann, ‘The Challenge of Central Europe to the Historiography of
Art’ in Maske u. Kothurn 48.1-4 (2002) pp. 19-28.
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• Claudia Mattos, ‘Whither Art History: Geography, Art Theory and New Perspectives for
an Inclusive Art History,’ Art Bulletin 96.3 (2014) pp. 259-64.
• Robert Nelson, ‘The Map of Art History,’ Art Bulletin 79.1 (1997) pp. 28-40
• Matthew Rampley, ‘Networks, Horizons, Centres and Hierarchies: On the Challenges
of Writing on Modernism in Central Europe,’ Umění 69.2 (2021) pp. 145-62.
• Photeini Vlachou, ‘Why Spatial? Time and the Periphery,’ Visual Resources 32 (2016)
pp. 9-24
GENDERING ART HISTORY
Key Reading
• Whitney Davis, ‘“Homosexualism”, Gay and Lesbian Studies, and Queer Theory in Art
History,’ in Mark Cheetham, Michael Ann Holly, Keith Moxey, eds, The Subjects of Art
History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspectives (Cambridge, 1998) pp. 115-
42.
• Janet Wolff, ‘The Feminine in Modern Art,’ Theory, Culture and Society 17.6 (2000)
pp. 33-53.
Further Reading
• Thalia Gouma-Peterson and Patricia Matthews, ‘The Feminist Critique of Art History,’
The Art Bulletin 69.3 (1987) pp. 326-57.
• Julie Johnson, ‘Erasure: 1900-1938,’ in Johnson, The Memory Factory: The Forgotten
Women Artists of Vienna 1900 (West Lafayette, 2012) pp. 337-72.
• Griselda Pollock, ‘Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity,’ in Polllock, Vision and
Difference: Feminism, Femininity and Histories of Art (London, 2003) pp. 70-127.
• Whitney Davis, ‘Founding the Closet: Sexuality and the Creation of Art History’ in Art
Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 11.4 (Winter
1992) pp. 171-175
• Tom Folland, ‘Robert Rauschenberg's Queer Modernism: The Early Combines and
Decoration,’ Art Bulletin 92.4 (2010) pp. 348-65.
• Paul B. Franklin, ‘Object Choice: Marcel Duchamp's Fountain and the Art of Queer Art
History,’ Oxford Art Journal 23.1 (2000) pp. 23-50.
• Nicholas Hudson, ‘The Hottentot Venus: Sexuality and the Changing Aesthetics of
Race 1650-1850,’ Mosaic 41.1 (2008) pp. 19-41.
• Paweł Leszkowicz, Ars Homo Erotica (Warsaw, 2010)
• Peter Weller, ‘A Reassessment in Historiography and Gender: Donatello’s Bronze
David in the Twenty-First Century,’ Artibus et Historiae 33.65 (2012) pp.43-77.
GLOBALIZING / DECOLONIZING THE DISCIPLINE?
Key Reading
• Homi K. Bhabha, ‘Postmodernism / Postcolonialism,’ in Rob Nelson and Richard Schiff,
eds, Critical Terms for Art History, pp. 435-51.
• James Elkins, ‘Non-European Stories,’ in Elkins, Stories of Art (London, 2002) pp. 89-
115.
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Further Reading
• Zeynep Çelik, ‘Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism,’ Assemblage 17 (1992) pp. 58-
77.
• Irene Chang, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Structural Racism in Modern Architectural Theory’ in
Chang, Charles Davis II and Mabel O. Wilson, Race and Modern Architecture 
(Pittsburgh, 2020) pp. 3-20 and 134-52
• Francis D. K. Ching and Mark Jarzombek, ‘Globalization Today’ in A Global History of
Architecture (London, 2017) pp. 787-800.
• Annie Coombes, ‘Ethnography, Popular Culture, and Institutional Power: Narratives of
Benin Culture in the British Museum, 1897–1992,’ Studies in the History of Art 47
(1996) pp. 142-57.
• Thomas da Costa Kaufmann, ‘Historiography and the Project of Global Art History’
and ‘Reflections on World Art History’ in da Costa Kaufmann et al, eds, Circulations in
the Global History of Art (Farnham, 2015) pp. 1-22 and 23-46.
• James Elkins, ‘Canon and Globalization in Art History,’ in Anna Brzyski, ed., Partisan
Canons (Durham, NC, 2007) pp. 55-78.Catherine Grant and Dorothy Price,
‘Decolonizing Art History,’ Art History 43.1 (2020) pp. 8-66
• Linda Nochlin, ‘The Imaginary Orient,’ in Nochlin, The Politics of Vision: Essays on
Nineteenth-Century Art and Society (London, 1989) pp. 33-59.
• Annibal Quijano, ‘Coloniality and Modernity / Rationality’ in Cultural Studies 21.2
(2007) pp. 168-78.
• Wendy M. K. Shaw, ‘The Islam in Islamic Art History: Secularism and Public Discourse,’
Journal of Art Historiography 6 (2012) n.p
• Łukasz Stanek, ‘Introduction: Worldmaking of Architecture’ in Stanek, Architecture in
Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa and the Middle East in the Cold War
(Princeton, 2020) pp. 1-34.