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