ARH 5816 Methods of Research University of Florida, School of Art + Art History, Spring Semester 2015 Professor Ashley Jones, ashley.jones@ufl.edu Office Hours, Tuesdays, 12:00p.m. 1:50 p.m. and by appointment, FAC 121 Seminar, Tuesdays, 7 th -9 th periods, 1:55-4:55 p.m. Course Description: This course provides beginning graduate students with a foundational overview of the history of theories of art and of research in the visual arts through a balanced focus on historiography and on contemporary scholarship. Course Objectives: Students will learn philosophical and theoretical approaches to writing about the visual arts from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Students will gain experience in preparing and leading seminar discussion. Requirements: Attendance and active participation in discussion 10% Preparation, presentation, and discussion-leading of four topics 15% each = 60% One short 4-5 pp. response paper based on one of your discussion topics Due the week after a presentation 10% One short paper based on an object in the Harn Museum of Art Due March 10 10% Op-Ed on the role of Art History in the modern University Due April 21 10% Required Books: Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad, trans. by Deborah Lucas Schneider Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form, trans. by Christopher Wood Donald Preziosi, ed., The Art of Art History Richard Shone and John-Paul Stonard, eds., The Books that Shaped Art History Christopher S. Wood, ed., The Vienna School Reader Recommended Books: Moshe Barasch, Theories of Art 1: From Plato to Winckelmann Moshe Barasch, Theories of Art 2: From Winckelmann to Baudelaire (Also available as Modern Theories of Art 1: From Winckelmann to Baudelaire) Suggested Books: Alfred Gell, Art and Agency George Kubler, The Shape of Time David Summers, Real Spaces Aby Warburg, The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity
Important Dates: January 6: January 12: March 2-6: March 10: April 10: April 21: First Day of Class Drop/Add Deadline Spring Break Harn Museum Paper Due Drop with College Petition (without failing grade) Deadline Last Day of Class, Op-Ed Due Email Policy You are requested to use your UFL email as your primary email. Important information, including readings, assignments, etc., will be disseminated via the E-learning site and the class list-serve. You are subscribed to the list-serve with your UFL email. Emails sent to the professor will usually be returned within 48 hours. Class Attendance/Demeanor Policy Your attendance is mandatory. Two unexcused absences will result in an automatic reduction in your participation grade, for instance from A- to B+. Your active participation in the class is expected and constitutes part of your grade. Please also see the UF attendance policy: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx#absences Deadlines and Making-Up Missed Materials Extensions to deadlines will not be given except under exceptional circumstances. Each day late for any assignment will result in a lowered 1/3 letter grade for that assignment (A to A- for example). If you anticipate difficulty handing in an assignment on time, please contact Dr. Jones before the deadline. Grading Scale Grades are tabulated on a 100-point scale and a letter grade is assigned as follows: 93 100 A 90 92 A- 87 89 B+ 83 86 B 80 82 B 73 76 C 70 72 C 67 69 D+ 63 66 C 59 and below F If you have questions about how grade points are assigned by the University, go to: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/grades.aspx Academic Honesty The university s policies regarding academic honesty, the honor code, and student conduct related to the honor code will be strictly enforced. Full information regarding these policies is available at the following links: Academic Honesty: http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/students.html#honesty Honor Code: http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcodes/honorcode.php Student Conduct: http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcodes/conductcode.php 2
Students with Disabilities Every effort will be made to accommodate students with disabilities. Anyone requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide you with the necessary documentation, which you must then provide to me when requesting accommodation. Please make your request at least one week before the needed accommodation. University Counseling & Wellness Center 3190 Radio Road P.O. Box 112662, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-4100 Phone: 352-392-1575 Web: http://www.counseling.ufl.edu/cwc/ Paper Assignments: 1. Due 1 week after a presentation of your choice Write a 4-5 page response paper to the readings for one of the sections for which you are leading discussion. 2. Due March 10 Write a 4-5 page paper on an object in the Harn Museum of Art, reflecting one or more of the topics we have covered in class. Further instructions tba. 3. Due April 21, 2015 Write a 2,000 word or less op-ed article in defense of the place of Art History (or the Humanities in general) in the modern university. You may look for inspiration to entries in the New York Times philosophy blog, The Stone. See in particular these recent articles and editorials (below), feel free also to reflect on Panofsky s essay, or on any other material we have covered in class. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/the-real-humanities-crisis/ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/books/25human.html?pagewanted=all http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/quants-ask-what-crisis-in-the-humanities/ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/education/as-interest-fades-in-the-humanities-colleges-worry.html http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/04/the-fate-of-the-humanities/humanities-and-sciencemust-work-together http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/sciences-humanities-gap/ http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/is-it-a-waste-of-time-to-study-the-humanities-in-college/ 3
Provisional Course Outline: (Additional readings may be announced.) Week 1, January 6: Dr. Jones Introduction, course overview, topic selection Week 2, January 13: Dr. Jones Ancient and medieval theories of art: Antiquity: Barasch vol. 1, ch. 1 Xenophon, Memorabilia III.1-8, click through to advance http://www.perseus.tufts0.edu/hopper/text?doc=perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0208%3abook%3d3%3ac hapter%3d10%3asection%3d1 Philostratus the Elder, Imagines, Book I http://www.theoi.com/text/philostratuselder1a.html Philostratus the Younger, Imagines, Introduction (Proemium) http://www.theoi.com/text/philostratusyounger.html Plotinus, Ennead I.6, http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/beauty.htm Plotinus, Ennead V.8 (click through to advance each section), http://sacred-texts.com/cla/plotenn/enn477.htm Middle Ages: Barasch vol. 1 ch. 2 The Period of Iconoclasm in The Art of the Byzantine Empire: Sources and Documents, ed. by Cyril Mango, pp. 149-177 Elsner, Iconoclasm as Discourse Shone and Stonard chs. 1, 16 Emile Male, Introduction and Conclusion, Religious Art in France in the Thirteenth Century, https://archive.org/stream/religiousartinfr00mluoft/religiousartinfr00mluoft_djvu.txt Belting, The Imperial Image in Antiquity and the Problem of the Christian Cult of Images, in Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, pp. 102-114 Week 3, January 20: Vasari and the foundations of Renaissance art history Preziosi pp. 13-26 Shone and Stonard chs. 8, 12 Selections from Clark and Baxandal, tba Nagel & Wood, Interventions: Towards a New Model of Renaissance Anachronisms, Art Bulletin, 2005, pp. 403-432 Week 4, January 27: The question of connoisseurship Read: Giovanni Morelli, Principles and Methods, online Shone & Stonard ch. 2 Carlo Ginzburg, Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes, reserve David Grann, The Mark of a Masterpiece, The New Yorker, July 12, 2010 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/12/100712fa_fact_grann Michael Specter, Do Fingerprints Lie? The New Yorker, May 27, 2002 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/05/27/020527fa_fact Watch: Nova, Mystery of a Masterpiece http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/mystery-masterpiece.html 4
Week 5, February 3: The Enlightenment and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Kant Preziosi pp. 27-44 Barasch vol. 2, chs. 1-2 (A&A reserve) Michael Squire, Image and Text in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Cambridge 2009): From chapter 1, "Protesting Protestant art history: The Lutheran debts": pp. 41-89 From chapter 2, "Towards an older Laocoon? Reviewing the 'limits' of painting and poetry in the Graeco- Roman world": pp. 90-111 Week 6, February 10: Vienna School Reader parts 1 & 2 Preziosi pp. 151-161 Elsner, From Empirical Evidence to the Big Picture: Some Reflections on Riegl s Concept of Kunstwollen Week 7, February 17: Vienna School Reader parts 3 & 4 Elsner, Birth of Late Antiquity Week 8, February 24: Aby Warburg, A Lecture on Serpent Ritual The Art of Portraiture and the Florentine Bourgeoisie David Freedberg, Warburg s Mask: A Study in Idolatry Francesco Ventrella, Under the Hat of the Art Historian: Panofsky, Berenson, Warburg Horst Brederkamp, A Neglected Tradition? Art History as Bildwissenschaft Preziosi pp. 162-194 Spring Break: No Class March 3 Week 9, March 10: Perspective as Symbolic Form Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form Belting, Florence and Baghdad Preziosi ch. 5 Week 10, March 17: Spaces and Places David Summers, Real Spaces: World Art History and the Rise of Western Modernism, Introduction and ch. 2 Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, (A&A reserve), vol. 1, pp. 1-17, 40-45, 101-128, 131-160, 271-280 Week 11, March 24: Writers on and of Modernity Shone and Stonard chs. 9-10 Preziosi ch. 3 Greenberg, Avant-Garde and Kitsch and Towards a Newer Laocöon Clark, Greenberg s Theory of Art Week 12, March 31: Post-modernity Preziosi chs. 6-7 Shone and Stonard ch. 15 Selection from The Anti-Aesthetic, ed. by Hal Foster, tba 5
Week 13, April 7: Visual Studies and Histories of Things George Kubler, The Shape of Time (1962), chapter 1 and Conclusion Karsten Harries, The Broken Frame (1989) Alfred Gell, Art and Agency (1998), chapters 1 and 7 Week 14, April 14: Globalization Preziosi ch. 8 James Elkins, Is Art History Global? Sections 1 and 2 Week 15, April 21: Dr. Jones Conclusion: The Historical Method and Writing the History of Art Readings tba 6