Stories of Art I: Shaping Art (V4041)

15 credits, Level 4

Autumn teaching

Stories of Art I is an 11-week lecture-based module. The module aims to provide you with a solid grounding in the history of art, introducing you to many of the key topics, ideas and works of art that occupy the core of our discipline. The module is also intended to introduce the key study skills required as an Art History undergraduate. The chronological approach aims to help you situate works of art in relation to each other and the societies that produced them, while also encouraging you to think about some of the issues and ideas that recur across different periods.

The emphasis placed on the stories of art is intended to get you to think critically about the ways in which history is narrated and to reflect on who possess the authority to make the types of value judgement any effort to construct a history involves. By choosing audiences and patronage as the overarching theme for Stories, we set out to reflect on works of art not only as the consequence of decisions taken by artists, but as objects rooted in specific historical and cultural circumstances and within a network of parties that includes patrons and viewers.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 55 hours of contact time and about 95 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.