Checking date: 09/05/2024


Course: 2024/2025

Art History I
(13792)
Bachelor in Humanities (Plan: 407 - Estudio: 213)


Coordinating teacher: HERNANDEZ MATEO, FRANCISCO DANIEL

Department assigned to the subject: Humanities: History, Geography and Art Department

Type: Basic Core
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:

Branch of knowledge: Arts and Humanities



Requirements (Subjects that are assumed to be known)
None.
Objectives
The students will learn how to: - Analyze an artistic image in its constituent elements and in the frame of the art movement(s) it belongs to. -Study a given work of art in relationship to its historical context. - Understand the cultural and symbolic values of any piece of art. - Evaluate and comprehend primary sources and art history texts, in order to be able to understand the nature of artistic activities and their social, political and economic implications.
Skills and learning outcomes
Description of contents: programme
The syllabus begins with an introduction to the ground principles of Art History, followed by a chronological study of the main artistic manifestations of the Western World from Prehistory to the Middle Ages. Special attention will be paid to the Classical Antiquity and the great Medieval styles Romanesque and Gothic. Presentation of the course: explanation of the teaching guide, the structure of the program, the practical work of the students, the tutoring system. Topic 1. Introduction 1.1. Definition and purpose of art. Artistic creation and its means of expression. Stylistic trends. Materials, techniques and artistic terminology. 1.2. Introduction to the History of Art: methodology and documentary sources. Presentation of the Practices: Work with documentary sources. Image Commentary Visits to Museums Theme 2. Art in the first cultures and civilizations. 2.1. Art in Prehistory. The origins of Art: Paleolithic Art and Neolithic Art. 2.2. The art in Egypt: The architecture. 2.3. The art in Egypt: Sculpture, painting and sumptuary arts. Theme 3. The Greco-Roman world 3.1. Greek architecture: symmetry and harmony. The perspective naturalis and the creation of architectural orders. The temple and the polis. 3.2. Antecedents of Greek art: Crete and Mycenae. 3.3. Archaic Greek sculpture. Painting in Greek pottery. 3.4. Severe or pre-classical Greek sculpture, from the oriental heritage to the conquest of the canon. 3.5. Roman architecture (I): the development of the arch, the vault and the dome. Architecture at the service of power: public works; the city, from the castrum to the urbe. Marco Vitruvius Polion and the architectural treatise (De Architectura libri decem). 3.6. Greek sculpture: the splendor of the classic. 3.7. Roman architecture (II): the development of the arch, the vault and the dome. Architecture at the service of power: public works; the city, from the castrum to the urbe. Marco Vitruvio Polión and the architectural treatise (De Architectura libri decem). 3.8. Hellenistic art or the overcoming of the canon. 3.9. Roman sculpture. The classical heritage. The Roman portrait. The imperial sculpture. Roman painting: the four styles of Pompeian painting. Theme 4. Paleochristian and Byzantine art. 4.1. Architecture and funerary art: the catacombs and the cubicula. The Christian temple: from the domus ecclesiae to the basilica. 4.2. The paleochristian painting: the disintegration of the form and the classic canon. The formation of Christian iconography: classical tradition and scriptural sources. 4.3. Byzantine architecture. Churches of centered cupuliform plan and new constructive systems. Analysis of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. 4.4. The Byzantine mosaic. The aesthetic canon in the time of Justinian and Theodora. Theme 5. Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque arts. 5.1. Art and architecture in the Europe of the invasions. 5.2. Romanesque architecture. Pilgrimages, Crusades and Monasteries: technical and spatial solutions for an international style. 5.3 Romanesque figurative arts. Romanesque iconography and symbology. Monumental sculpture. Mural painting. 5.4. Islamic Art and Architecture, the splendor of the East. Theme 6. Gothic Art. 6.1. Gothic painting. Italy: the School of Siena and the School of Florence. 6.2. Gothic architecture. The great technological revolution of the Gothic: the cathedral, construction technique, spatial distribution, light and color on the walls. 6.3. Gothic painting. The international Gothic style. 6.4. Gothic architecture. Typological variations in its expansion throughout Europe: France and Spain. 6.5. Gothic sculpture. Altarpieces, stalls and funerary art. 6.6. Gothic architecture. Typological variations in its expansion throughout Europe: England.
Learning activities and methodology
The course consists of lectures, seminars, presentations by the students and museum visits. The main content of all these activities is the analysis of artworks from a formal, historical and symbolical perspective. The exams(*) will be held on the dates provided in the official calendar of the university and -as it is logical and obvious- are made to be approved, if they are approved the average is made with the grade of the practices, if they are not approved is that the subject has been failed. In the realization of the practices of this subject students should not use artificial intelligence tools. In the event that the use of AI by the student gives rise to academic fraud, the provisions of the Regulation of the University Carlos III of Madrid of partial development of the Law 3/2022, of February 24, of university coexistence will be applied. 84 hours (3.5 ECTS credits) are those corresponding to the preparation by the student of theoretical and practical classes, based on the indications contained in the teaching guide of the subject. In-class sessions account for approx. 40 hours (1.5 ECTS). Student homework accounts for approx. 80 hours (3 ECTS), i.e. approx. 6 weekly hours during the teaching period (weeks 1 to 14). Tutorials and writing the assignments and the final exam account for approx. 40 hours (1.5 ECTS) during weeks 15 to 18.
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 60
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 40

Calendar of Continuous assessment


Extraordinary call: regulations
Basic Bibliography
  • BEARD, Mary; HENDERSON, John. El arte clásico: De Grecia a Roma. La Esfera de los Libros. 2022
  • GOMBRICH, Ernst. The Story of Art. Phaidon Press. 1995
  • JANSON (et al.), Anthony F.. Janson's History of Art. Prentice Hall. 2012
Additional Bibliography
  • FERNÁNDEZ SÁNCHEZ, Diego Salvador. Arte paleolítico en Cádiz. Tras los orígenes del simbolismo humano. Almuzara. 2023
  • RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Giotto y sus obras de Padua. Athenaica Ediciones Universitarias. 2023

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.