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Study of Art and Literature (Research), track Art History

This Research Master’s programme is a two-year programme, consisting of four semesters. It offers six specialisations, four centred around four professorships of Art History, and two affiliated fields of expertise, reflecting the research interests of the staff:

  • History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Art

  • Art and Visual Culture of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

  • History and Theory of Architecture

  • History of Decorative Arts, Industrial Design and the Domestic Interior

Affiliated fields of expertise:

  • History and Theory of Collections

  • History of Art and Material Culture of East Asia & South and Southeast Asia.

First year

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2
Methodological Concepts in Art and Literature 10
Practices and debates in Art History 10
Colloquium: The Sublime and the Uncanny in Literature, Arts... 10

Choose one out of 4 electives:

Interculturality 2: The Global Imagination 10
Medieval and Early Modern Studies: Theatricality 10
Modern and Contemporary Studies: Experiences of the Metropolis 10
Modern and Contemporary Studies: Truth and Method (Gadamer) 10

Choose one out of 4 lecture courses

Art and Architecture of the Early Modern Period: 'Michelangelo: multimedial talent' 10
History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Art: ''Museums of Modern Art, Exhibitions and the Representation and Canonization of Modern Artists 10
History of Art and Material Cultural of South, Southeast and East Asia: 'Sharing the tales of the Buddha' 10
History of decorative Arts, Industrial Design and Domestic Culture: 'Approaches to the History of Decorative Arts, Industrial Design and the Interior' 10

Choose one out of 6 research courses

Art and Visual Culture of the Early Modern Period: 'Early Netherlandisch Art: Rogier van der Weyden' 10
History and Theory of Architecture: 'Piranesi and architectural history in Rome' 10
History and Theory of Collections: 'Museums, Collections and Cultural Politics' 10
History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Art: ''Contemporary art and the art world after the fall of the Berlin Wall'' 10
History of Art and Material Cultural of China: "What Art History is in China" 10
History of decorative Arts, Industrial Design and Domestic Culture: "Textual sources and material objects of domestic life 10

Second year

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2
Thesis 30

Choose a traineeship or three elective MA courses

Traineeship or study abroad 30
Three elective MA courses 30

Meer info

Introduction
Objectives
The programme

Introduction

What makes Art History in Leiden different?
The Research Masters programme in Art History at Leiden University is distinguished by
three features:

  1. A broad scope in research programmes, including Early Modern Art and Architecture
    in both the Low Countries and Italy; Decorative Arts, Industrial Design & the
    Domestic Interior (Leiden is the only Dutch university to have a chair in Decorative
    Arts); Collections; and Contemporary Art, with a strong focus on World Art Studies;
    and Theory. At the same time, all these research programmes are united by an interest
    in the work of art as a cultural agent. Conspicuous features in the Leiden programme
    are the contexts in which art is commissioned, made, viewed, bought or sold and
    exhibited, the roles art works play in these different situations, and the ways in which
    they shape the reactions by viewers or the meanings attributed to them.

  2. A strong interest in non-Western art, in particular that of East, and South & South East
    Asia.

  3. A unique location which enables students direct contact with a great diversity of
    collections and a wide range of art works. Leiden is home to four major national
    museums (natural history, antiquity, ethnography, history of science), and very close
    to for example the Mauritshuis and the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, with their
    unequalled collections of early modern and 20th-century Dutch art.

Objectives

The Research Masters programme reflects these characteristics. It offers a thorough
academic training in art history, preparing students for careers in museums, heritage and
conservation, or art policy, with a strong focus on research. It includes research seminars
in which students participate actively in the research of the professors, and engage with
the works of art on view in the museums in and near Leiden, but also offers opportunities
for internships in art institutions abroad where students can become acquainted with the
working of a major art institution at close range.

The programme

The Research Masters programme is a two-year programme, consisting of four semesters.
It offers six specialisations, four centred around four professorships of Art History, and
two affiliated fields of expertise, reflecting the research interests of the staff:

  • History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Art

  • Art and Visual Culture of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

  • History and Theory of Architecture

  • History of Decorative Arts, Industrial Design and the Domestic Interior
    Affiliated fields of expertise:

  • History and Theory of Collections

  • History of Art and Material Culture of East Asia & South and Southeast Asia.

In the first semester the student follows a research seminar (10 ects) of his field of
specialization and a lecture course (10 ects) of choice; throughout the semester a general
course (10 ects; compulsory) is taught by tutors from various specializations, which
addresses current methodological issues in art history (‘Practices and Debates in Art
History’).

The second semester is interdisciplinary with the Research MA in Literature.
Compulsory for all students is the course Methodological Concepts in Art and Literature,
as well as the Colloquium; the third course to choose is optional (see: Elective courses).
The third semester can be devoted to study abroad or an internship in an affiliated
institution in Europe, the United States or beyond, or to three electives from the
programme. The fourth semester is dedicated to the Master’s thesis and the preparation
for the final exam.

Also see: hum.leiden.edu/students/regulations.