Faculty of Arts

Art History

Art History studies the interpretation and history of the visual arts; painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, design, photography, popular culture, and indeed all forms of visual culture. Students of art history develop a wide range of skills for writing about a work of art:

• As a physical object - how it is made, how it should be handled, its condition and conservation.

• As an image - its subject, iconography, and meaning.

• As an object associated with documentation - primary sources, archival documents, critical commentaries and so forth.

• As a cultural product situated in an historical and social context.

• As the site of cultural issues such as nation, class, gender, ethnicity and race.

Career opportunities for graduates in Art History are to be found in teaching and in academic research, in the arts industry as curators, administrators, and directors of art galleries and museums, in the commercial sphere of dealerships and auction houses, and as critics, journalists and arts writers.

Art History is taught within the Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies), which offers a wide range of Art History subjects. These range from Medieval art through the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to twentieth century and contemporary art, including Australian, Aboriginal and Asian art. The Department also offers a program in Cinema Studies.

There are no specific prerequisites for Art History First Year. Applicants must meet the admission requirements for entry to the Faculty of Arts. The prerequisite for second and third year Art History subjects is normally one single-semester first year subject (12.5 points) offered in the Fine Arts Department (either Art History or Cinema Studies). Some exemptions to this rule can be made. The prerequisite for a subject offered at third-year only level or at third and fourth-year levels is normally 33 points at second/third-year in Art History subjects.

A major in Art History consists of at least five subjects completed at second and third year level in the Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies) at least three of which must be Art History subjects, totalling 83.3 points.

The prerequisite for entry to fourth-year honours in Art History is the completion of a major in Art History with an average grade of H2A or higher. Entry to fourth-year honours requires the approval of the Head of Department and Faculty. Students must have completed all the requirements for the pass degree before enrolling in fourth-year honours.

• Art History Pure Honours
• Art History and Cinema Studies Combined Honours
• Art History Combined Honours

Honours Coordinator - Dr Roger Benjamin.

Students taking Art History enrol in four single-semester honours subjects, and 111-400 Art History Honours Thesis, all in the Fine Arts Department. A Fine Arts Department Cinema Studies subject may be substituted for one of these subject to approval from the course coordinator.

Students taking Art History and Cinema Studies Combined Honours enrol in four single-semester honours subjects in the Fine Arts Department, two of which are Cinema Studies subjects and two of which are Art History subjects, and 111-400 Art History Honours Thesis.

Students taking Art History Combined Honours enrol in two single-semester Art History honours subjects in the Fine Arts Department (33.3 points), and 111-400 Art History Honours Thesis, or a thesis or its equivalent in another department according to the requirements of that department (33.3 points), and subjects in the other department according to the requirements of that department (33.3 points).

A degree in Art History can lead to Postgraduate Diplomas in Art History and Cinema Studies, Art Curatorship & Museum Management, or Tourism & the Visual Arts. An Honours Degree in Art History can lead to Postgraduate Diplomas in Art Curatorship & Museum Management or Tourism & and the Visual Arts, and MA or PhD degrees.

Contact:

The Department of Fine Arts (Art History and Cinema Studies)

The University of Melbourne

Telephone (03) 93445565

First Year

111-100 Western Art A: Image and Interpretation
111-101 Western Art B: Image and Identity
111-103 Brave New Worlds: Modernity and the Visual Arts, 1850-1918
111-104 High Modern To Postmodern: the Visual Arts, 1918-1994
111-107 Design and Art in the Twentieth Century
111-108 Visual Cultures

Second and Third Year

111-203 Italian Art From Donatello To Michelangelo
111-205 High Renaissance and Mannerist Art: The Age of Michelangelo and Titian
111-208 From Celtic To Gothic: Medieval Art in Northern Europe
111-209 The Art of Europe and Byzantium
111-213 Baroque and Rococo Painting and Sculpture: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Watteau
111-214 Victorian and Edwardian Art
111-216 Colonialism/Postcolonialism and the Art of Australia 1770-1900
111-218 Studies in Asian Art and Architecture
111-221 Materials and Techniques of Art
111-223 Myths and Legends in Australian Art 1840-1950
111-224 Art in the Age of Rembrandt
111-226 Patrons and the Visual Arts: the European Tradition
111-227 Perspectives On Contemporary Aboriginal Art
111-229 Art and the Market, Then and Now
111-240 Art and Culture in the Burgundian Netherlands 1380-1480
111-241 Northern Renaissance Art 1480-1600
111-243 Postmodern Prospects: Issues in Contemporary Art and Criticism
111-245 Passion, Power and Perception: French Art in the Nineteenth Century
111-251 Theorising the Body in Australia
111-263 Siena and its Environs: The Sacred and Secular Cityscape 1260 - 1460
111-264 Postmodern Culture: the Visual Arts in Manhattan
111-265 French Avant-Gardes. Post-Impressionists to Surrealists
111-266 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750
Third Year Only
111-311 The Connoisseurship of Italian Landscape Painting and Drawing
111-322 Special Study Research Essay
111-335 Piranesi's Rome and Tiepolo's Venice. Art in the Eighteenth Century

Third/Fourth Year

111-302 Art, Society and Ritual in Trecento Italy
111-307 Late Antique and Byzantine Art
111-320 Art and Mass Culture in the 1960s
111-330 Orientalism in Visual Culture: A Colonising Gaze
111-333 You Beaut Country: Australian Art and Design in the 1950s
111-349 The Representation of Architecture

Fourth Year Only

111-400 Art History Honours Thesis
111-403 Fine Arts 4A
111-404 Fine Arts 4B
111-410 Studies in the Art of the Victorian Era
111-411 The Connoisseurship of Italian Landscape Painting and Drawing
111-415 Art and Theory in Paris, Matisse and Picasso
111-416 Impressionism and the International Plein-Air Movement 1860-1900
111-417 Australian Art At Home and Abroad
111-418 The History, Philosophy, Architecture and Design of Art Museums
111-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History
111-423 Art and the Book in Medieval Culture: Illuminated Manuscripts
111-424 Contemporary Art (Art in the USA 1970-1990)
111-426 Studies in Prints
111-434 Theories and Methodologies of Medieval, Renaissance & Baroque Art
111-435 Piranesi's Rome and Tiepolo's Venice. Art in the Eighteenth Century
111-436 Pastoral Narratives in Western Painting
111-437 The Artist's Self-Portrait: Image, Role and Identity
111-440 Art and Culture in the Burgundian Netherlands 1380-1480
111-445 Albrect Dürer: A Catalyst for Artistic Change in Sixteenth Century Germany
111-466 Postmodern Culture: the Visual Arts in Manhattan (Honours)
111-467 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750 (Honours)

Status:                   OFFICIAL 1997
Last Modified:            Wednesday March 12 3:36 pm
SGML to HTML Conversion:  Information Technology Services
Authorised by:            Academic Registrar
Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au