Admission requirements
MA, ResMA, PhD candidates, as well as Research Master and PhD students associated with OIKOS. In case of oversubscription, ResMA and PhD-students are prioritized.
Description
This course is articulated through 3 main axes:
1. ETIC: the history of the reception of the artist figure in Egyptology, Near Eastern studies and Classics. The class will first address the modern biases on ancient artists inherited from the traditional art historical perspective that mainly pulls from the Renaissance paradigm, as well as the western worlds’ focus on ancient Greek art (cf. J. Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums, Dresden, 1764 that lays ground for art history institutionalization). The class will address how such perspectives have undermined the general discourse on ancient–especially Egyptian and Mesopotamian–art and its producers.
2. EMIC: the analysis of sources unravelling ancient artists’ social statuses in ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome. The course will explore a selection of texts recording artistic practices, transmission of skills, craft organization, as well as testimonies on the ancient perception of art practitioners. Artists’ visual depictions will be the primary method to address their self-presentation strategies, some of which used code-shifting and even sometimes reflected a multicultural context (notably in the case of artists’ transfers as royal gifts).
3. THEORY: the building of a conceptual framework on identity strategies and self-presentation of artists. Anthropological and sociological theories on self-presentation adapted to ancient contexts will allow the class to understand how some of these experts used images (and texts) to creatively show off their skills. In this last section, by looking at specific artifacts (“virtual museum”), we will address the global art creation process (how ancient art was commissioned and produced) and how artists pulled from a canonical repertoire emulating elites while injecting innovation in a punctuated manner.
Part of the course will include museum tours in person and the creation of a virtual museum in class (analysis of a selection of artifacts that students will develop further for their essay), as well as two guest lectures on mobility and creativity of ancient artists, and on how new technologies applied to tombs anciently published shed new light on artists’ involvement in their creation.
Students will write an essay on an artifact they chose. The artifact will first be discussed in class (“virtual museum”) through the lens of craftsmanship, trade, and identity making. The student will then write an essay on his selected piece while following the approach used in class to analyze objects from our “virtual museum”.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, students will acquire a comprehensive overview of the social worlds of ancient artists.
They will be able to integrate their own understanding of ancient crafted objects bringing in questions of apprenticeship, image and text transmission, creativity, innovation, and emulation (reflect).
They will gain a holistic approach on ancient art production through the reassessment of its main protagonists, the artists, and their relationship with art commissioners—the elites who ruled the ancient world. They will learn to supplement traditional art historical perspectives by looking at global cultural contexts and enrich their approach with sociological and anthropological theories (independent learning, analyzing).
They will present (oral presentation and paper) an artifact studied according to the art historical approach learned in class (research, presenting, oral and written communication).
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Excursion
Assessment method
Active participation/coöperation in class/group
Weekly readings
Essay, paper
Abstract, oral presentation
Excursion to museum(s)
Assessment
Weighing
15%: Participation (class attendance and weekly readings)
15%: Participation to the museum tour(s)
25%: Class presentation (“virtual museum”)
45%: Essay
Resit
The resit assignment will be determined in consultation with the lecturer.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
These followings references will be analyzed in class: E. Kris, O. Kurz, Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist: A Historical Experiment, New Haven, 1981 (2nd ed.); N. Heinich, Être artiste. Les transformations du statut des peintres et des sculpteurs, Paris, 1996, Selected papers from A. C. Gunter (ed.), Investigating Artistic Environments in the Ancient Near East, Madison, 1990, 9-20; D. Laboury, A. Devillers, “The Ancient Egyptian Artist, A Non-Existing Social Category?”, in N. Ben-Marzouk, D. Candelora, K. M. Cooney (eds.), (Re)Building Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches, London, 2022, 163-181; R. Vollkommer, “Greek and Roman Artists”, in Cl. Marconi (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture, New York, 2015, 107-135; Selected papers from K. Verboven, Ch. Laes (eds.), Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman World, Leiden-Boston, 2017; Selected excerpts from E. Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York, 1959 and N. Heinich, Ce que n’est pas l’identité, Paris, 2018.
Further readings will be found in the syllabus received at the first class session.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
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