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Victorian Sculpture - HOA00016H

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Jason Edwards
  • Credit value: 40 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the major trends in sculpture in Britain between the arrival of the Elgin Marbles in London and the death of Queen Victoria.

Module will run

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

Module aims

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the major trends in sculpture in Britain between the arrival of the Elgin Marbles in London and the death of Queen Victoria.

Sculpture could be found everywhere in Victorian Britain: in galleries, museums, and great exhibitions; in homes, parks, gardens and city squares; incorporated into a wide range of buildings, furnishings and other decorative objects; and depicted in a diverse array of other media. In spite of this, and while Victorian Studies has undergone a remarkable growth in the past two decades, with exhaustive research into many aspects of nineteenth-century British culture, scholars have almost entirely overlooked Victorian sculpture, perhaps the single most significant art form in Britain in this period. This module seeks to return Victorian sculpture to centre stage in discussions of nineteenth-century Britain, and to illuminate the complex ways in which it functioned, and continues to function, aesthetically, politically, socially and historiographically.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • familiarity with a wide range of sculpture produced and exhibited in the period
  • an ability to relate works of sculpture to a broad range of cultural historical issues, and political agendas, such as race, gender, and sexuality; and to other visual, literary and scientific texts
  • an understanding of the main historiographical and theoretical approaches to the sculpture in this period, particularly its difficult position between eighteenth-century sculptural aesthetics and Modernism

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Assessed Essays: two 2,000 word essays		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Assessed Essays: two 2,000 word essays		 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

  • Barringer, Tim. ‘A White Atlantic: The Idea of American Art in the Nineteenth Century’, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 9 (2009), http://www.19.bbk.ac.uk/index.php/19/article/view/507
  • ---. ‘Colonial Gothic’, Men at Work: Art and Labour in Victorian Britain (2005), 243-313.
  • Baudelaire, Charles. ‘Why Sculpture is a Bore’ (1846), in P.E. Charvet (ed.), Charles Baudelaire: Selected Writings on Art and Literature (1972), 97-100.
  • Baxandall, Michael. ‘Arc of Address’, The Limewood Sculptures of Renaissance Germany (1980), 165-68.
  • Bratlinger, Patrick. ‘A Postindustrial Prelude to Post-Colonialism: John Ruskin, William Morris, and Gandhism’, Critical Inquiry 223 (Spring 1996), 466-485.
  • Breedon, Kirsty. ‘Herbert Ward: Sculpture in the Circum-Atlantic World’, Visual Culture in Britain 11.2 (2010).
  • ---. ‘“A Voice from the Congo”: Herbert Ward’s Sculptures in Europe and America’, in Julie Codell, ed. Transculturation in British Art 1770-1930 (2011), 177-199.
  • Flint, Kate. ‘Response to Tim Barringer: A White Atlantic?’, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 9 (2009), http://www.19.bbk.ac.uk/index.php/19/article/view/517/501
  • Freud, Sigmund. ‘The Uncanny’ (1919), in Art and Literature, (1990), 335-77.
  • Hildebrand, Adolf von. ‘Remarks on the Problem of Form’ (1893), College Art Journal 11.5 (Summer 1952), 251-258.
  • McGowan, Abigail. ‘All that is Rare, Characteristic or Beautiful: Design and the Defence of Tradition in Colonial India, 1851-1903’, Journal of Material Culture 10.3, 263-287.
  • Morris, Robert. ‘Notes on Sculpture’ (1967), in Harrison and Wood (eds), Art in Theory 1900-1990 (1988), 813-22, 863-73.
  • Nelson, Charmaine. The Colour of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female Subject in Nineteenth-Century America (2007).
  • Pater, Walter. ‘Luca Della Robbia’ and ‘Winckelmann’ (1873), The Renaissance.
  • Pietz, W. ‘Fetish’, in Nelson and Schiff (eds)., Critical Terms for Art History (1996), 197-208.
  • Reynolds, Joshua ‘Discourse X’, Discourses,ed. Pat Rogers, (1769-1790; 1992), 232-246.
  • Ruskin, John. ‘On the Nature of Gothic’ (1853), The Stones of Venice and various editions of selected writings.
  • Stewart, Susan. ‘The Miniature’, ‘The Gigantic’, On Longing (Durham, 1993), 37-104.
  • Summers, David. ‘Form and Gender’, in Bryson et al (eds), Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations, (1994), 384-413.
  • Wagner, Anne. ‘Rodin's Reputation’, in L. Hunt, ed., Eroticism and the Body Politic (1993), 191-242.

  • If you’re thinking of investing in a single text, Martina Droth et al, eds


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.