Module CLAS2961: Greek Art and Architecture

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS2961: Greek Art and Architecture

Prerequisites

• • CLAS1601; CLAS1781; ARCH1017; or another appropriate Level 1 module on visual culture

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To equip students with a broad overview of the basic developments in Greek art between the Late Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period.
• To give students some understanding of a selection of the most important or best-known objects and monuments of ancient Greek culture.
• To help students to develop skills in looking at visual material (including painting, sculpture and buildings) in different ways and in using art-historical terminology and the language of visual criticism.
• To enable students to evaluate ancient art and architecture and to make independent stylistic, aesthetic and historical judgments in order to be able to assess visual evidence for the ancient world.
• To develop knowledge and practise evaluative skills through essays and seminar presentations and to test these skills by essay and written examination.

Content

• The module studies the forms and meanings of ancient Greek art from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Hellenistic era.
• The module considers a range of material such as vase paintings, freestanding and architectural sculpture, and architecture and focuses on the various methodological approaches to such visual material.
• The module will involve close visual analysis of a selection of objects and buildings from across the ancient Greek world.
• A range of different kinds of visual material will be studied, which might include sculpture, vase painting, architecture, and mosaic, or selected extracts of literary sources in translation.
• Specific subjects covered may include topics such: general consideration of approaches to images, the reception of and early scholarship on ancient Greek art and architecture, and general issues of methodology and terminology; Minoan and/or Mycenaean art and architecture, such as figurines; burials and pottery from the Geometric period; ‘Orientalising’ art of the eighth and seventh centuries BC; origins and uses of the Doric and Ionic orders of architecture; cities and sanctuaries of Archaic and Classical Greece; the development of freestanding statuary and architectural sculpture between the Archaic and Hellenistic periods; characteristics of Classicism in architecture, vase painting, and sculpture; vase painting between the sixth and fourth centuries BC; public architecture of the fourth century BC; divine, allegorical and portrait sculpture of the Classical and Hellenistic periods; portraiture of Alexander the Great and his Successors; developments in urban and religious architecture of the Hellenistic period; terracotta sculpture; decorative arts such as metalwork, gems, and mosaic; later Hellenistic sculptures with reference to their cultural-historical contexts

Learning Outcomes

• A developing knowledge of relevant material, such as vase painting, freestanding and architectural sculpture, religious and public architecture, and the decorative arts of the Greek world between the late Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period, based on an acquaintance with individual examples and literary evidence where appropriate.
• Awareness of the main issues of scholarly debate relating to Greek art and architecture, such as the classification and evaluation of artifacts, the status of architects and artists, and the reception of art and architecture in its own time and at later periods by users and viewers. .

• An ability to handle a range of methodologies appropriate for a developing understanding of a diverse range of visual artifacts and structures.
• A readiness to look at images in painting and sculpture and at ancient buildings and to inquire into their meaning, and an ability to use a critical vocabulary appropriate for the evaluation of visual material and to make stylistic and aesthetic judgments.
• An ability to analyse individual works of art in terms of form and content, to identify and evaluate the construction of meaning in specific examples, and to make stylistic and contextual comparisons between them.
• An ability to evaluate the impact of historical events and ideas on artistic changes and reflect upon the complex relations between different art forms and the society in which they appeared.
• An ability to explore the relationship between the different art forms of painting, sculpture and architecture.
• An ability to raise valid questions in response to critical archaeological and art-historical literature.

• The skills needed to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise a wide range of evidence, but especially visual material, and to select and apply methodologies appropriate to the material discussed.
• The capacity to sustain a clear, well structured, and well-defended argument in written or oral form.
• An ability to present ideas and arguments in written and oral form according to academic conventions and to engage in discussion and debate on individual visual examples with the lecturer and with peers.
• The ability to work with peers in creating a constructive engagement with material.
• The ability to respond constructively and imaginatively to images in different media.
• The ability and self-discipline to work autonomously, and the capacity for organization required to meet deadlines and to negotiate competing claims on finite resources.
• Facility with key resources used in creating presentations and in researching assignments, and ability to make profitable and selective use of relevant and selected online resources.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures are appropriate and the most effective means of imparting information and explaining methods of interpretation, both in the presentation of ancient evidence and in the synthesis of modern scholarship.
• Seminars provide opportunities for research in, and informed collective discussion of the varieties of visual material addressed in the module.
• Group discussion facilitates students' understanding of methodologies for handling visual material and relevant scholarly literature, their capacity for constructive collaboration with peers, and their ability to initiate and continue informed discussion that engages with visual material and raises a level of academic debate.
• Writing essays enables the assembling and evaluation of material and the formulation of logical and coherent argument, as well as skills in writing coherent, comprehensible and grammatically correct English. An opportunity to produce an initial essay provides formative practice in developing these skills.
• Image commentaries invite students both to produce a close visual reading of an object and to comment on the wider significance of its art historical and/or socio-cultural contexts. An opportunity to produce an image commentary for formative assessment offers students the chance to develop and hone these skills of analysis.
• The summative essay tests the attainment of such skills and forms part of the summative assessment of the module and, as in other Level 2 modules, provides the opportunity to develop skills in locating appropriate case studies, research organisation and analysis prior to doing the dissertation module at Level 3.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Choice of formative essay or image commentary.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University