Master’s Degree - Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism
Gain expertise in the core areas of the art market from old master paintings and drawings to modern works of art with our Art, Style and Design programme.
All the course work for this programme is directly related to a real-work experience. You will be asked to write reviews, artefact analyses, acquisition reports and curatorial reports. Your thesis will be a catalogue of an exhibition that you would like to stage. Whatever period of study you chose you will receive the same core training. We will teach you the Christie’s Auction House cataloguing procedures and you will be able to assess and write about all forms of art in the period you have chosen to study. As part of this course you will also be introduced to critical writing and thinking about art so that you can either enter the art-world immediately or go on to study further.
Course components
- The core lecture series c.1450 – c.1930 underpins all components of the programme
- You will participate in two international study trips a year to major events in Europe and visits to UK sites throughout the year
- Object-based study is central to our teaching and will provide you with relevant training for the public and commercial art worlds. This includes practical and research based study of materials and techniques, scientific analysis, style, dating, quality and authenticity
- You will be trained in cataloguing to auction house and museum standards. Handling sessions and warehouse and museum visits all occur during the course
- Being engaged with current debates about curating will enable you to devise fresh approaches to the display of art works. You will explore practices in art criticism, developing skills to review exhibitions and produce reports
- Our Culture and Ideology Seminars will enable you to discuss works of fine and decorative art in their cultural contexts. You'll gain the skills to deliver presentations and generate seminar discussion
- You'll be involved in Methodology Seminars - the analysis of technical, art-historical and interpretative texts which provide transferable skills for independent research and individual development
- If you're doing a Master's degree you will prepare a thesis. This is your opportunity to create an exhibition on a small group of objects, independently researched and catalogued, where the key academic and professional skills learned on the programme are utilised.
Topics on this option
- Renaissance cultures in the North and South
- Masters of the High Renaissance: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael
- Counter cultures – Mannerism in Painting and Architecture
- Power and propaganda in the Baroque
- Ceramics, Science and Industry
- Rococo delights – pleasure, politics and style in 18th Century Europe
- Furniture and interiors in early modern society
- Neo-classicism: tourists, artists and amateurs
- Regency: formality, informality and social mobility
- Arts & Crafts movement: ethics and reform
- Art Nouveau from Mackintosh to Gaudi and beyond
- Art Deco: the luxurious face of modernism
Entry requirements
A university degree. We welcome students from a wide range of disciplines, some of whom have not studied the history of art before. Others have studied the fine arts but have little knowledge of the decorative arts. Non-English speaking students must have IELTS 7 or equivalent.
Master's - Art, Style and Design
Course Dates
Orientation Week
Monday 24 September 2012 -
Friday 28 September 2012
Term 1
Monday 1 October 2012
– Friday 07 December 2012
Term 2
Monday 07 January 2013
– Friday 15 March 2013
Term 3
Monday 22 April 2013
– Friday 28 June 2013