Victorian Sculpture - HOA00016H
- Department: History of Art
- 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
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
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. âA White Atlantic: The Idea of American Art in the Nineteenth Centuryâ, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 9 (2009), http://www.19.bbk.ac.uk/index.php/19/article/view/507
- ---. âColonial Gothicâ, Men at Work: Art and Labour in Victorian Britain (2005), 243-313.
- Baudelaire, Charles. âWhy Sculpture is a Boreâ (1846), in P.E. Charvet (ed.), Charles Baudelaire: Selected Writings on Art and Literature (1972), 97-100.
- Baxandall, Michael. âArc of Addressâ, The Limewood Sculptures of Renaissance Germany (1980), 165-68.
- Bratlinger, Patrick. âA Postindustrial Prelude to Post-Colonialism: John Ruskin, William Morris, and Gandhismâ, Critical Inquiry 223 (Spring 1996), 466-485.
- Breedon, Kirsty. âHerbert Ward: Sculpture in the Circum-Atlantic Worldâ, Visual Culture in Britain 11.2 (2010).
- ---. ââA Voice from the Congoâ: Herbert Wardâs Sculptures in Europe and Americaâ, in Julie Codell, ed. Transculturation in British Art 1770-1930 (2011), 177-199.
- Flint, Kate. âResponse to Tim Barringer: A White Atlantic?â, 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. âThe Uncannyâ (1919), in Art and Literature, (1990), 335-77.
- Hildebrand, Adolf von. âRemarks on the Problem of Formâ (1893), College Art Journal 11.5 (Summer 1952), 251-258.
- McGowan, Abigail. âAll that is Rare, Characteristic or Beautiful: Design and the Defence of Tradition in Colonial India, 1851-1903â, Journal of Material Culture 10.3, 263-287.
- Morris, Robert. âNotes on Sculptureâ (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. âLuca Della Robbiaâ and âWinckelmannâ (1873), The Renaissance.
- Pietz, W. âFetishâ, in Nelson and Schiff (eds)., Critical Terms for Art History (1996), 197-208.
- Reynolds, Joshua âDiscourse Xâ, Discourses,ed. Pat Rogers, (1769-1790; 1992), 232-246.
- Ruskin, John. âOn the Nature of Gothicâ (1853), The Stones of Venice and various editions of selected writings.
- Stewart, Susan. âThe Miniatureâ, âThe Giganticâ, On Longing (Durham, 1993), 37-104.
- Summers, David. âForm and Genderâ, in Bryson et al (eds), Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations, (1994), 384-413.
- Wagner, Anne. âRodin's Reputationâ, in L. Hunt, ed., Eroticism and the Body Politic (1993), 191-242.
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If youâre thinking of investing in a single text, Martina Droth et al, eds