Leicester, University of, BA (Hons), History of Art

Year 1: During the 1st semester students take 2 core modules: 1 introducing the broad history of art and architecture from classical antiquity through to the 18th-century, the other introducing the different ways that art has been written about and providing a practical guide to the skills required when looking at art; students also select a supplementary module from a wide variety of subject areas: practical art; film studies; American studies; English; history; or modern languages for example; in the 2nd semester students take 2 core modules, 1 of which continues the story of the history of art from the eighteenth century through to the present day, and the other of which introduces some of the key issues and difficulties that scholars face when working in the field of art and architectural history; students also select another module from the supplementary list. Year 2: In semester 1 students again take 2 core modules: students get to grips with the main documents in the art historical canon including Alberti's On Painting; Reynolds' Discourses; and Freud's The Uncanny, among others; students also focus on European art of the period 1890-1940; plus 1 from: from drawing to painting in the Italian renaissance; sin city; researching world cinemas; American film and visual culture; semester 2 core module: Italian art and architecture 1400-1600; plus an option of a 5-week guided study trip to Italy (Rome, Siena and Florence) during the Easter vacation; plus a 5,000 word essay. Year 3: All students research and write a 10,000 word dissertation; core module: the way that classical aesthetics have been adapted and challenged by more recent developments in critical art theory, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries; plus 4 specialist options from a list that includes: British Gothic sculpture; Italy and the North 1550-1700; Florentine sculpture of the 16th century; genre painting in 19th-century England; the death and life of modernist architectural Hollywood and melodrama; silent cinema: a visual art; American film makers and the studio system; British cinema and society 1930-1950; conceptual art and its aftermath.