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2021/2022

Interpreting Artistic Images

Code: 100276 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500240 Musicology FB 1 2
2500241 Archaeology FB 1 1
2500246 Philosophy FB 1 1
2500501 History FB 1 2
2502758 Humanities FB 1 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Anna Orriols Alsina
Email:
Anna.Orriols@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Other comments on languages

S'imparteix íntegrament en anglès el grup 8 (2n semestre)

Teachers

Sandra Alvaro Sanchez
Heri Abruña Marti
David Gutierrez Torres
Núria Fernández Rius
Joan Duran Porta
Nuria Ribas Valls
Carlos Sanchez Marquez
Victor Ramirez Tur

Prerequisites

 

In the English-taught group, it would be desirable and advisable to have acquired a B1 or a B2 Grade in English to attend the course and complete the activities successfully.

It is also recommended to have some knowledge in Spanish, French and Italian (Reading Comprehension) in order to consult the specialized literature.

 

Objectives and Contextualisation

"Reading the Artistic Image" is an introductory subject designed to enable students to learn the techniques related to the perception of the work of art through the study of different works and supports. The objectives that have been defined for this subject contemplate that, once the course is finished, the student should be able to:

1. Distinguish the features that characterise the image and understand its composition.

2. Identify the different types of images and supports that make up visual language.

3. Understand the codes that form the image in order to be able to analyse it.

4. Show how the evolution of human thought has been a determining factor in the development of visual language.

5. Correctly interpret the historical and socio-cultural context in which the image in question has arisen.

6. Use the necessary resources to present work both orally and in writing in a coherent and appropriate manner, making use of the appropriate specific vocabulary.

Competences

    Musicology
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    Archaeology
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    Philosophy
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    History
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
    Humanities
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately describing an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Accurately describing the artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  3. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  4. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Analysing the receiver of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  6. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  7. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  8. Applying the knowledge about aesthetic ideas and art theory to the analysis of the artistic imagery.
  9. Conceptually analysing a work of the subject matter.
  10. Critically taking part in classroom oral debates and using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
  11. Distinguishing and analysing classical and current debates of the History of Art.
  12. Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
  13. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  14. Identifying appropriate critical and methodological tools in order to relate the different stages of art history.
  15. Identifying proper critical and methodological instruments to narrate the different stages of History of Art.
  16. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  17. Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in its several fields of study.
  18. Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in the several fields of anthropology.

Content

1. Approach tools (bibliography, resources, institutions). Periodization.

2. What we talk about when we talk about art. Art to understand the world. Art and society.

3. Styles and artists. Patrons. Public.

4. The artistic image and its codes of expression.

5. Old and new views on the history of art.

6. Reading images: forms and themes (iconography, genres, formats).

* Rather than closed chapters to be dealt with in that order, points 3-6 are framework themes that will accompany the subject and that will be specified and deepened as specific works (case studies) and themes are dealt with.

Methodology

On-site classes:

Theoretical and practical sessions.

Presentation and discussion, where appropriate, of work prepared by students.

Possible lectures.

 

Tutorials:

Methodological and bibliographical guidance.

Supervised activities.

 

 * The teaching methodology and the evaluation proposed in the guide may undergo some modification subject to the onsite teaching restrictions imposed by health authorities.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Practical and theoretical sessions 60 2.4 9, 4, 6, 5, 3, 7, 8, 11, 15, 14, 16, 17, 18
Type: Supervised      
Methological and bibliographic guidance 4 0.16 13, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Study 70 2.8 2, 1, 15, 14, 16

Assessment

The grade for the course will be obtained from the weighted average of the results obtained in the three evaluation exercises: 

  • Two partial Tests (40% each) individual and written exercises about the course content; each one scores 40% of the final grade per test.
  • Supervised activity  (20%) Directed activity to be specified by the professor, which may be an oral presentation, a course work, a reading reviw, a debate, etc....

 

Review

At the time of publication of the results of each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

Reassessment

- The date of the reassessment is set by the Faculty.

- The reassessment applies only to exams and can be taken under the following conditions:

  • having been previously assessed in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade.
  •  having failed with an average overall grade of not less than 3.5.
  •  not having been able to take any of the exams for reasons conveniently  documented at the time.

 Non-assessable

Students will obtain a “Not assessable/Not submitted” course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items. Otherwise, the subject will be assessed.

 

IMPORTANT

- In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

- Total or partial plagiarism of any of the assessment activities will automatically be awarded a “fail” (that is, zero) for the plagiarised item. Plagiarism is copying from unidentified sources and presenting this as original work (this includes copying phrases or fragments from the internet and adding them without modification -or having translated them- to a text which is presented as original). Plagiarism is a serious offence. Students must learn to respect the intellectual property of others, identifying any source they may use, and take responsibility for the originality and authenticity of the texts they produce.

 

PLEASE NOTE: In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Supervised activity 20% 12 0.48 15, 14, 16, 13, 10
Written test 1 40% 2 0.08 9, 4, 6, 5, 3, 7, 8, 2, 1, 11, 15, 14, 16, 17, 18
Written test 2 40% 2 0.08 9, 4, 6, 5, 3, 7, 8, 2, 1, 11, 12, 15, 14, 16, 10, 17, 18

Bibliography

APARICI, Roberto; GARCÍA MATILLA, Agustín; VALDIVIA SANTIAGO, Manuel, La imagen, Madrid:

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 1987.

ARNHEIM, Rudolf, El pensamiento visual, Paidós estética 7, Barcelona: Paidós, 1986 (ed. original anglesa: 1970, Londres: Faber).

ARNHEIM, Rudolf, Arte y percepción visual. Psicología de la visión creadora,Madrid: Alianza, 2011 (ed. original anglesa: 1954, Berkeley: University of California Press).

ARNHEIM, Rudolf, El poder del centro. Estudio sobre la composición en las artes visuales, Arte y estética 58, Madrid: Akal, 2011 (ed. original anglesa: 1982, Berkeley: University of California Press).

ARNOLD, Dana, Art History. A Very Short Introdution, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. On-line

AUMONT, Jacques, La imagen, Paidós comunicación 48, Barcelona: Paidós, 2013 (ed. original francesa: 1990, París: Éditions Nathan).

BERGER, John, Modos de ver, Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2007 (ed. original anglesa: 1972, Londres: Penguin).

BRUSATIN, Manlio, Historia de las imágenes, Imaginario 2, Madrid: Julio Oller, 1992 (ed. original italiana:1989, Torí: Einaudi).

BURKE, Peter, Visto y no visto. El uso de la imagen como documento histórico, Barcelona: Crítica, 2005 (ed. original anglesa: 2001, Londres: Reaktion).

CALABRESE, Omar,Cómo se lee una obra de arte, Signo e imagen 30, Madrid: Cátedra, 2001 (ed. original italiana: 1989, Milà: Mondadori Università).

CARMONA MUELA, Juan, Iconografía clásica. Guía básica para estudiantes., Madrid: Akal, 2010 (ed. original: 2000, Madrid: Istmo).

CARMONA MUELA, Juan, Iconografía de los santos, Madrid: Akal, 2015 (ed. original: 2003, Madrid: Istmo).

CARMONA MUELA, Juan, Iconografía cristiana. Guía básica para estudiantes. Madrid: Akal, 2016 (ed. original: 1998, Madrid: Istmo).

CASTIÑEIRAS GONZÁLEZ, Manuel Antonio, Introducción al método iconogràfico, Barcelona: Ariel, 2009 (ed. original: 1995, Santiago de Compostela: Tórculo).

CHILVERS, Ian; Harold OSBORNE, Diccionari d’art Oxford, Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1996.

D’ALLEVA, Anne, Methods & Theories of Art History, Londres: Laurence King Publishing, 2005 (3a ed. 2021).

ELKINS, James, Stories of Art, Londres: Routledge, 2002.

FREEDBERG, David, El poder de las imágenes. Estudios sobre la historia y la teoría de la respuesta, Madrid: Cátedra, 2011 (ed. original anglesa: 1989, Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

FURIÓ, Vicenç, Arte y reputación, Barcelona: UAB, UB, UdG, UdL, UPC, URV i MNAC (Memoria artium, 12), 2012.

GAZE, Delia (ed.), Dictionary of women artists, Londres: Routledge, 1997.

GIBSON, James Jerome, La percepción del mundo visual, Biblioteca de diseño y artes visuales, Buenos Aires: Infinito, 1974 (ed. original anglesa: 1950, Boston-Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin-Riverside Press).

GOMBRICH, Ernst Hans, Los usos de las imágenes. Estudios sobre la función social del arte y la comunicación visual, Madrid: Debate, 2003 (ed. original anglesa: 1999, Londres: Phaidon Press).

GOMBRICH, Ernst Hans, Història de l’art, Barcelona: Columna, 2002. (ed. original anglesa: 1950, Londres: Phaidon Press).(cast.: La historia del arte, Londres: Phaidon, 2016)

KRESS, Gunther; VAN LEEUWEN, Theo, Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design, Londres: Routledge, 2016 (ed. original: 1996).

MANGEL, Alberto, Leyendo imágenes. Una historia privada del arte. Bogotà: Norma, 2002.

MITCHELL, William John Thomas, What do Pictures want? The Lives and Loves of Images, Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005.

MITCHELL, William John Thomas, Teoria de la imagen. Ensayos sobre representación verbal y visual, Akal estudios visuales 5, Madrid: Akal, 2009 (ed. original anglesa: 1994, Chicago: University of Chicago.

PANOFSKY, Erwin, El significado de las artes visuales, Alianza Forma 40, Madrid: Alianza, 2011 (ed. original anglesa: 1955, Nova York:Doubleday).

PANOFSKY, Erwin, Estudios sobre iconología, Alianza universidad 12, Madrid: Alianza, 2012 (ed. original anglesa: 1939, Nova York: Oxford University Press).

PEÑA GÓMEZ, Pilar de la, Manual básico de historia del arte, Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura, 2018 (2006).

RUEDA ROIGÉ, Francesc-Josep de (coord.), Introducció a la història de l'art, Biblioteca universitària 37, Barcelona: Pòrtic, 1999.

SHINER, Larry, La invención del arte. Una historia cultural, Madrid: Paidós, 2014 (ed. or.: Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001).

SHONE, Richard; STONARD, John-Paul (eds.), The Books that shaped Art History. From Gombrich and Greenberg to Alpers and Krauss, Londres: Thames & Hudson, 2013.

STOCKSTAD, Marilyn; Michael W.COTHREN, Art History, 2 vols., Pearson Prentice Hall 2017 (6a ed.) 

WOODFORD, Susan, Cómo mirar un cuadro, Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2009 /  El arte de mirar, Barcelona: Blume, 2018 (ed. original: Cambridge University Press 1983).

Software

No specific software is necessary. Although unlikely, if required later in the course, this would be indicated in due time.