Module Information

This is a level one module to be offered to SH and JH Fine Art and Art History students. It replaces material previously offered in Semester 2 in AH10220 'Special Topics in Art History and Visual Culture' which was a 20-credit thin module. By redesigning the material offered, and expanding themes, the new module will offer greater choice and variety to first year students in both the Fine Art and Art History degree schemes.

This module provides the student with an overview of key themes in the representation of the human body from the Renaissance to the present day. The representation of the body is ubiquitous in Western art and the module will offer theoretical and historical contexts for understanding representational modes and artistic choices and approaches. It aims to introduce the student to the contexts for the ways in which the corporeal is viewed in Western art and the wide variety of media used in the representational process - painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography. The lectures are arranged in a loosely chronological order with reference to styles and artistic movements although the emphasis is upon surveying attitudes to the body, to race, sexuality, gender and difference.