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Art History

Looking at Portraits: from Augustus to Rembrandt

Course Times & Enrolment

This course is currently unavailable.

Course Summary

Portrait-images are perennially fascinating as imaginative transactions between their subjects, their makers and their beholders. This course will take a broad historical overview (from the Roman period to the 17th century) of how portraits have been produced in a wide range of media, and received by their intended audiences, with a particular focus on the various potential meanings and functions of these images.

Please note, this course includes a field trip (a visit to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery).

Course Details

Pre-requisites for enrolment

No previous knowledge is required.

Content of Course

1. Portraiture: the subject, the artist and the beholder.

2. Portraits of emperors and gods.

3. Portraits of the deceased.

4. Portraits of saints.

5. Portraits of Christ.

6. Portraits of the Virgin Mary.

7. Portraits from India and China.

8. Portraits from the Renaissance and the Reformation.

9. Portraits by Rembrandt and Velazquez.

10. Visit to the National Portrait Gallery.

Teaching method(s)

Slide lectures (PowerPoint) with discussion. Gallery visit to study relevant works at first hand.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Analyse the formal qualities of portraits using appropriate vocabulary;

  • Interpret the possible meanings and functions of portraits in their various historical and cultural contexts;

  • Assess critically the general developments in portraiture over a broad timespan.

Sources

Core Readings

  • Brilliant, Richard, 1991. Portraiture (Essays in Art and Culture). London: Reaktion.

  • West, Shearer, 2004. Portraiture (Oxford History of Art). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Barasch, Moshe, 1992. Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea. New York: New York University Press.

  • Belting, Hans, 1994. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Jensen, Robin, 2005. Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

  • Schneider, Norbert, 1994. The Art of the Portrait. London: Taschen.

Class Handouts

Course schedule, list of recommended further reading, weekly lecture notes, including quotations from primary sources and PowerPoint slides available in Dropbox.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.