Accessibility statement

The Art of Describing - HOA00008C

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Module co-ordinator: Information currently unavailable
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
    • See module specification for other years: 2021-22

Module summary

The Art of Describing explores how art historians transform direct experience of artworks and architecture into verbal descriptions. Through a series of lectures, site visits and seminars, it develops your art-historical skills of visual investigation and oral presentation.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23 to Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

The Art of Describing explores how art historians transform direct experience of artworks and architecture into verbal descriptions. Through a series of lectures, site visits and seminars, it develops your art-historical skills of visual investigation and oral presentation.

Art History is a discipline with both historical and aesthetic interests and ambitions, and a discipline that also contains a very significant object-focussed and site-visit component. These various modes of understanding must be communicated through language, both written and oral. The Art of Describing therefore offers you a sustained, supervised experience of investigating works of art and architecture, as well as a variety of exhibition spaces, at first hand, so as to develop your skills in communicating how we see and interpret works of art and architecture in their current settings. The module also aims to give you an opportunity to develop potentially transferable cultural heritage skills by giving you sustained experience of giving audio-visual presentations on works of art and architecture, both singly and in small groups, in front of the objects and away from them; as well as the experience of reflecting upon and improving that experience.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should have acquired:

  • experience of a range of different works of art and architecture in local museums, galleries and public spaces
  • a fuller understanding of experiencing artworks at first hand vs discussing them at a distance
  • experience of giving audio-visual presentations, in small groups and individually, in front of and away from particular works of art and architecture
  • a fuller understanding of the particular challenges of turning direct experiences and interpretations of works of art into verbal prose

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
1,500 Word Essay		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
1,500 Word Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

  • Baxandall, Michael, Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures (1985).
  • Jordanova, Ludmilla, The Look of the Past: Visual and Material Evidence in Historical Practice (2012).
  • Nelson, Robert S. and Richard Shiff, Critical Terms for Art History (2nd ed., 2003).


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.