107-036 Passion, Power and Perception: French Art in the Nineteenth Century

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 12.5 points of Art History at first year, see Prerequisites

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject aims to give students a broad understanding of the development of French painting and sculpture from Romanticism to the Symbolist Movement of the 1890s. Students are asked to consider the relationship between creative visual expression and social and political change; to develop an understanding of the academic techniques of both painting and sculpture to see how they came under threat as the century progresses and new materials came into use. A particular focus is the creation of modern Paris with its grand boulevards, theatres, cafes and street life and how this imagery was utilised by visual artists. A close examination of particular examples is central to the teaching and certain classes are taught in front of the art works in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The subject covers the change in the very nature of what a painting was considered to be - from an expression of collective civic and moral virtues right through to a fleeting and personal expression of a moment in time.

Assessment

A classpaper of 2000 words, and an essay of 2000 words.