Admission requirements
See M.A. Art History program guide and Exam regulations.
Description
The individual reading list covers a minimum of 650 pages and aims to deepen the understanding of visual art, architecture, and design and decorative arts with regard to a particular chosen discipline or period of specialisation on a specialist MA level. It helps the student to get a better insight into theories and approaches with regard to a chosen specialisation.
Course objectives
Students learn to:
gain an understanding of the ways specialist literature deals with specific issues and analyses of a particular field of specialisation
gain insight into the structure and argumentation of art historical texts
gain insight into ways of theorising and argumenting with regard to artworks and art historical subjects of the chosen field or period of specialisation
gain insight into problems and questions with regard to various forms of visual art, architecture, and design and decorative arts
Timetable
Not relevant; it is self study. A date for the exam will be agreed upon with the tutor. Please note that it is strongly advised to do the exam before the start of your second semester, either in the first or second block of your first semester.
Mode of instruction
Self study. The exam may either be an oral exam or a written assignment (depending on the tutor).
Assessment method
The exam will either be a tutorial of one hour or a written assignment. For this: please contact the coordinator of your discipline or period of specialisation.
Blackboard
Yes, see Blackboard.
Reading list
The individual reading list covers a minimum of circa 650 pages and aims to deepen the understanding of art, architecture, and design and decorative arts with regard to a chosen discipline or period of specialisation on a specialist MA level.
- READING LIST SPECIALISATION DECORATIVE ARTS, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, DOMESTIC INTERIOR
(Coordinator Dr. Marjan Groot)
Introduction
Please note that this list is not an enumeration of the books that the staff feels every student in the Leiden art history MA should know about Decorative art and Design; nor does it pretend to give a complete overview of the current state of historical and theoretical research after Decorative Art and Design. Instead, the list offers a number of books and articles which are meant to inspire further thinking and research, and offers backgrounds to, and connections between, the main courses offered in the track on Decorative Arts and Design of the MA Art History. For this reason titles are grouped according to various themes and subjects, and not chronologically.
Personal selection of 650 pages from the following list (please email your selection to the coordinator). LUL = Leiden University Library
1) General Theory
John A. Walker, Design History and the History of Design, London: Pluto, 1989. [LUL:
902=1989-Wal]
‘Introduction’, in: Isabelle Frank (ed.), The theory of decorative art. An Anthology of European and American writings, 1750-1940, New Haven/Londen 2000. [LUL: 90=2000-Fra]
Webb Keane, ‘Signs are not the Garb of Meaning: On the Social Analysis of Material Things’, in Daniel Miller (ed), Materiality, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2005, pp. 182-205. [PDf on Blackboard]
Vilèm Flusser, The Shape of Things. A Philosophy of Design, London: Reaktion Books, 1999.
2) Methods and Approaches
Arjun Appadurai (ed.), The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. [321 p; LUL]
Bjornar Olsen, ‘Scenes from a troubled engagement. Post-Structuralism and Material Culture Studies’, in: Christopher Tilley, Webb Keane, Susanne Küchler, Michael Rowlands, Patricia Spyer (eds), Handbook of Material Culture, Londen/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2006.
Robin Osborne, Jeremy Tanner (eds), Art’s Agency and Art History, Malden (MA)/Oxford 2007.
3) Interior design
Peter Thornton, Authentic Decor. The Domestic Interior 1620-1920, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985. [400 p; LUL]
Trevor Lummis and Jan Marsh, The Woman’s Domain. Women and the English Country House, London: Penguin Books, 1993. [215 p.] See also under 5).
Inga Bryden and Janet Floyd, Domestic Space. Reading the nineteenth-century interior, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999. [209 p.; LUL]
Katherine C. Grier, Culture & Comfort.Parlor Making and Middle-class indentity, 1850-1930, Washington/London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. [257 p.; LUL]
Penny Sparke, The Modern Interior, London: Reaktion Books, 2008. [233 p; LUL]
4) Objects and things
Marius Kwint, Christopher Breward, Jeremy Aynsley (eds), Material Memories. Design and Evocation, Oxford/New York: Berg, 1999. [257 p; choice from essays]
Claire I R O’Mahony (ed), Symbolist Objects: Materiality and Subjectivity at the Fin de Siècle. High Wycombe: The Rivendale Press, 2009. [433 pages, a selection of essays; LUL]
5) Gender
Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire. Design and Society 1750-1980, London: Thames and Hudson/Cameron Books, 1989, Chapter 4 ‘Differentiation in Design’, pp. 62-92. [Leiden University Library: 902-XVIII/XX=1986-For]
Ellen Lupton, Mechanical Brides. Woman and Machines from Home to Office, Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design Smithsonian Institution, New York (Princeton Architectural Press) 1993, ‘Sex objects’, pp. 7-15.
Trevor Lummis and Jan Marsh, The Woman’s Domain. Women and the English Country House, London: Penguin Books, 1993. [215 p.]
6) Ornament
P. Thornton, Form & Decoration, Innovation in the Decorative Arts 1470-1870, London 1998: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Chapter 9 ‘Amsterdam 1610-1670’, pp. 92-101. [LUL: 91=1998-Tho P]
7) Commerce
Carolyn Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets. The Marchands Merciers of Eigteenth-Century Paris, London 1996: Victoria and Albert Museum/J. Paul Getty Museum, Chapter 3, ‘The Mercers’ Role in Design’, pp. 44-62. [Leiden University Library: 90-XVIII=1996-Sar]
Clive Edwards, ‘Furnishing a Home at the Turn of The Century: The Use of Furnishing Estimates from 1875 to 1910, Journal of Design History (1991) 4, pp. 233-239.
8) Cross-cultural and Colonialism
Nicholas Dew, ‘Introduction: Baroque Orientalism’, in Orientalism in Louis XIV’s France, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 1-40. [LUL 8022 C 44]
Anna Jackson, Amin Jaffer (ed), Encounters: the meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800, London: V&A Publications, 2004. [395 p; LUL]
John M. MacKenzie, Orientalism. History, theory and the arts, Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press, 1995, Chapter 5 ‘Orientalism in design’, pp. 105-137. [232 p.; LUL]
John Michael Vlach, The Brazilian House in Nigeria: The Emergence of a 20th-Century Vernacular House Type, The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 97, No. 383 (Jan-March, 1984), pp. 3-23. [Via JSTOR]
- READING LIST SPECIALISATION EARLY MODERN ART
Hans Belting. Die Oberkirche von San Francesco in Assisi. Ihre Dekoration als Aufgabe und die Genese einer neuen Wandmalerei (Berlin 1977)
Anton Boschloo. The Limits of Artistic Freedom. Criticism of Art in Italy from 1500 to 1800 (Leiden 2008)
Werner Busch. Das sentimentalische Bild. Die Krise der Kunst im 18. Jahrhundert und die Geburt der Moderne (München 1993)
Miranda Carter. Anthony Blunt. His Lives (New York 2001)
Wayne Franits. Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art: realism reconsidered (Cambridge 1997)
Davids Freedberg. The Power of Images. Studies in the history and theory of response (Chicago 1989)
Francis Haskell. History and its Images. Art and the Interpretation of the Past (New Haven & London 1993)
Philippe Kaenel & Rolf Reichardt. Interkulturelle Kommunikation in der Europäischen Druckgraphik im 18. Und 19. Jahrhundert/The European print and cultural transfer in the 18th and 19th centuries/Gravure et communication interculturelle en Europe aux 18e et 19e siècles (Hildesheim & Zürich & New York 2007)
Thomas Kirchner. L’expression des passions. Ausdruck als Darstellungsproblem in der französichen Kunst und Kunsttheorie des 17. Und 18. Jahrhunderts (Mainz 1991)
Jennifer Montagu. The expression of the passions. The origin and influence of Charles Le Brun’s Conférence sur l’expression générale et particulière (New Haven & London 1994)
Dora & Erwin Panofsky. Pandora’s Box. The Changing Aspects of a Mythical Symbol (New York 1956)
Michiel Plomp. Hartstochtelijk verzameld, 18de-eeuwse Hollandse verzamelaars van tekeningen en hun collecties 2 vols. (Parijs 2001)
Patricia Rubin. Giorgio Vasari: Art and History (New Haven 1995)
Manfredo Tafuri. Venice and the Renaissance (Cambridge & London 1995; Torino 19851)
Henk Th. van Veen. Cosimo I de’Medici and his self-representation in Florentine art and culture (Cambridge 2006)
- READING LIST SPECIALISATION ART IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
(uit edited boeken kunnen in overleg met de betrokken docent ook delen worden gelezen / in consultation with the concerning instructor from edited book also parts can be selected)
I. 19thC:
T.J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life. Paris in the art of Manet and his followers. London: Thames and Hudson 1985.
(more titles will follow)
II. General on art since 1945:
Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. Eds. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Oxford et al.: Blackwell 2005 (444 pp.) isbn 0-631-22867-5
A Companion to Contemporary Art since 1945. Ed. Amelia Jones. London: Blackwell 2006 (628 pp.)
The Fall of the Studio. Artists at Work. Eds. Wouter Davidts, Kim Paice. Amsterdam: Valiz 2009 (75 of the 244 pp.)
III. Canons:
Partisan Canons. Ed. Anna Brzyski. Durham/London: Duke University Press 2007 (370 pp) isbn 978-0-8223-4106
IV. Media
Art and the Moving Image. A Critical Reader. Ed. Tanya Leighton. London: Tate 2008 (75 of the 496 pp.)
Film and Video Art. Ed. Stuart Comer, London: Tate 2009 (160 pp.) isbn 978-1-85437-607-7
V. World Art Studies:
World Art Studies. Exploring Concepts and Approaches. Ed. Kitty Zijlmans and Wilfried van Damme. Amsterdam: Valiz 2008 (461 pp.) isbn 978-90-78088-22-6
David Carrier, A World Art History and its objects. Pennsylvania Stae University Press 2008 9170 pp.), isbn 978-0-271-03414-0
Is Art History Global? Ed. James Elkins. London: Routledge 2007 (464 pp.) isbn 0-415-97785-1
Exploring World Art. Eds. Eric Venbrux, Pamela Sheffield Rosi, Robert l. Welsch. Long Grove (Ills.): Waveland 2006 (403 pp.) isbn 1-57766-405-1
Charlotte Bydler, The Global Art World Inc. On the globalization of contemporary art. Upsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 2004 (Figura Nova Series). (343 pp.)
VI. Art & Science
Ingeborg Reichle, Art in the Age of Technoscience. Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art. With a preface by Robert Zwijnenberg. Springer, New York 2009.
CO-OPs. Interterritoriale verkenningen in kunst en wetenschap / Exploring new territories in art and science. Work in progress, eds. Kitty Zijlmans, Rob Zwijnenberg, Krien Clevis, Amsterdam: Buitenkant 2007.
Siân Ede, Art & Science. London/New York: I.B. Tauris 2005
- READING LIST SPECIALISATION ARCHITECTURE
Please note that this list is not an enumeration of the books the architectural history staff feels every student in the Leiden art history MA should know; nor does it pretend to give a complete overview of the current state of architectural history. Instead, the list offers a number of the books and articles that have played an important role in shaping the way architectural history is practised in Leiden, and offers backgrounds to, and connections between, the main courses offered in the architectural history and theory track offered here.
The list is divided into periods and an architectural theory section. At the moment, the Middle Ages and 20th-century section are still somewhat underrepresented, but titles will be added in the near future. Students who wish to specialize in architecture should choose one book or article from each period and the theory section, with a minimum of 750 pp. They should submit their choice to the Professor of architectural history, and discuss how the list can best be adapted to their choice of courses and subject of their MA thesis. The exam consists of a paper or oral examination. This will also be determined when discussing the specialization. If you have any questions, and to submit your choice of titles, contact prof. dr C.A. van Eck at c.a.van.eck@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Happy reading!
I. Antiquity and Middle Ages
M. Wilson-Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture, New Haven and London 2000.
J. Onians, Bearers of Meaning. The Orders in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Cambridge and New York 1988.
II. 1400 – 1600
J. Ackerman, ‘Ars sine scientia nihil est”: Gothic Theory of Architecture at the Cathedral in Milan’, Art Bulletin 31 (1949), pp. 84-111; reprinted in idem, Distance Points. Essays in Theory and Renaissance Art and Architecture, Cambridge, Mass. 1994, pp. 211-269. To be read in combination with:
M. Cohen, “How Much Brunelleschi? A Late Medieval Proportional System in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence” and “Postscript: A Disciplinary Triad,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no. 1 (March 2008), 18-57.
C. Smith, Architecture in the Culture of Early Humanism, Oxford 1992.
The articles on architecture in M. Cole (ed.), Blackwell Anthologies in Art History. Sixteenth Century Italian Art, Malden and Oxford 2006.
J. Shearman, Only Connect. Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance, Princeton 1988.
III. 1600 – 1750
R. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600 – 1750. Revised by J. Connors and J. Montagu, New Haven and London 1999.
L. Gent (ed.), Albion’s Classicism, New Haven and London 1999.
The articles on architecture in S. Dixon (ed.), Blackwell Anthologies in Art History. The Baroque, Malden and Oxford 2008.
IV. 1750 – 2000
B. Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890, Oxford 2000.
H. Mallgrave, Gottfried Semper. Architect of the Nineteenth Century, New Haven and London 1993.
J. Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style. Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to Post-Modernism, London 1989.
A. Payne, ‘Rudolf Wittkower and Architectural Principles in the Age of Modernism’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 54 (September 1994).
A. van der Woud, Waarheid en Karakter, Rotterdam 1997; English translation The Art of Building. The Architectural Debate in the Netherlands, 1840-1900, Aldershot 2003.
H. Heynen et al. (eds.), Dat is Architectuur! Sleutelteksten uit de 20e eeuw, Rotterdam 2001.
V. Architectural Theory
Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architectural Theory. Edited by Ingrid D. Rowland and Thomas Noble Howe, Cambridge and New York 1999.
L.B. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor, Cambridge, Mass., 1988. To be read in combination with:
A. Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti, Renaissance Man, Harmondsworth 2004.
D. Watkin (ed.), Sir John Soane. The Academy Lectures, Cambridge and New York 1994.
N.Leach (ed.), Rethinking Architecture. A Reader in Cultural Theory, London 1997.
- READING LIST SPECIALISATION MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS
I. EARLY MODERN
Ken Arnold. Cabinets for the Curious. Looking Back at Early English Museums. Aldershot: Ashgate 2005.
Horst Bredekmap, Antikensehnsucht und Maschinenglauben. Die Geschichte der Kunstkammer und die Zukunft der Kunstgeschichte. Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach 2000.
[also in English translation: Horst Bredekamp. The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine. The Kunstkammer and the Evoltuion of Nature, Art and Technology. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers 1995]
Paula Findlen. Possessing Nature. Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Eearly Modern Italy. Berkeley / Los Angeles: University of California Press 1994.
Collection, Laboratory, Theater. Scenes of Knowledge in the 17th Century. Eds. Helmar Schramm, et al. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter 2005.
Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Eds. R.J.W. Evans and Alexander Marr. Aldershot: Ashgate 2006.
Frühneuzeitliche Sammlungspraxis und Literatur. Eds. Robert Felfe and Anglika Lozar. Berlin: Lukas Verlag 2006.
II. MODERN
Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Ed. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine. Washington: Smithsonian 1990.
Thinking about Exhibitions. Ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson and Sandy Nairne. London/New York: Routledge 1996.
Museum Frictions. Public Cultures/Global transformations. Ed. Ivan Karp, et al. Durham/London: Duke U Press 2006.
Eileen Hooper-Greenhill. Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture. London/New York: Routledge 2000.
Interpreting Objects and Collections. Ed. Susan M. Pearce. London/New York: Routledge 1994.
Museum Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretations. Ed. Sandra H. Dudley. London/New York: Routledge 2010.
Registration
Students have to register for this course in uSis, the registration system of the university: http://www.usis.leidenuniv.nl. General information about registration in uSis you can find here in Dutch and in English.
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please see the Study in Leiden website for information on how to apply.
Contact information
Early Modern and Medieval Art: E. Grasman (e.grasman@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Art of the Contemporary World, and World Art Studies: K. Zijlmans (c.j.m.zijlmans@hum.leidenuniv.nl) or R. Zwijnenberg (r.zwijnenberg@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Design and Decorative Art Studies: M.H. Groot (m.h.groot@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Architecture: J. Roding (j.roding@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Museums and Collections: M. Keblusek (m.keblusek@hum.leidenuniv.nl) and N. Leigh (m.a.leigh@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Remarks
The individual reading list covers a minimum of circa 650 pages and aims to deepen the understanding of art, architecture, and design and decorative arts with regard to a chosen discipline or period of specialisation. Its aim in the MA program Art History is to build up a certain body of knowledge with regard to the chosen specialisation in order to support further research to be carried out in the MA specialist courses and the final MA thesis.
Questions: MA coordinator of studies at stuco-ma-kg@hum.leidenuniv.nl.