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2021/2022

History of Art Collecting

Code: 100556 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OT 3 0
2500239 Art History OT 4 0
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:
Buenaventura Bassegoda Hugas
Email:
Bonaventura.Bassegoda@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

There is not. It is advisable, however, to have notions of English, French and Italian in order to consult the specialized bibliography.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The main purpose of this subject is to introduce students to the knowledge of the phenomenon of collecting artistic objects based on their historical evolution. The subject tries to present a new way of approaching the artistic event. He does not deal with the formal and iconographic study of the works, but analyzes the different types and structures of reception, valuation and presentation in specific spaces of works of art. Each time it is expressed through its own architectural and artistic forms, which by convention call artistic styles, but also every time it reads and appropriates the cultures and works of art of the past. It is this second aspect that one wants to present, with a chronological fan that starts from the Renaissance - which is when the collector's perspective is clearly outlined - and that it reaches the twentieth century. It is a question of giving a complementary vision of the usual in the studies of history of the art, but that we think of great utility to obtain a total perception of the culture of the arts, and of a special way for those that will orientate His future professional in heritage management and museums. Hence its obligatory nature to obtain the mention of art and management within the degree. Consequently, the training objectives are for students to acquire solid knowledge related to the history and evolution of the collecting phenomenon in the field of art; to be able to identify, and analyze the most common types of accumulation and presentation of works of art, valuing the technical, formal and symbolic parameters, and placing these types in their cultural context, so that a global historical framework of the development of the phenomenon can be defined; to familiarize yourself with the specific bibliography; that he knows the main historiographical lines and the different methodological approaches that have centered the debate around the discipline; to be able to understand the relationship of artistic collecting with other contemporary cultural phenomena and / or other periods; and, finally, to be able to develop an autonomous and critical judgment of the collector's fact, and its intrinsic values in relation to the context in which they occur or to other historical stages.

Competences

    Art History
  • Demonstrating they have basic knowledge of museology and museography, as well as the current problems about conservation and restoration of artistic heritage.
  • Designing, producing and spreading management projects of artistic heritage.
  • Organising educational projects in various levels of the learning of Art History, applying the instrumental knowledge related to the discipline.
  • Organising the curator of exhibitions of permanent and temporal nature.
  • 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 develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • 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. Analysing basic concepts of museology and museography.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the current or past debates about management, conservation, restoration and documentation systems of the artistic heritage.
  5. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  6. Applying the arrangements and international, state and autonomic principles related to the management of the artistic heritage.
  7. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  8. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  9. Communicating orally an artistic imagery using the appropriate terminology.
  10. Contrasting the various legal frameworks of the artistic heritage.
  11. Contrasting the various legal frameworks that can be applied to a practical case of management, documentation and conservation of the artistic heritage.
  12. Coordinating working teams, developing conflict resolution and decision making abilities.
  13. Designing a museographic programme.
  14. Designing and applying education programmes in the different fields of Art History.
  15. Designing programmes of temporal and permanent expositions, including the programming of activities of educational nature for school and family audiences.
  16. Designing, producing, disseminating and commercializing a cultural product.
  17. Drawing up reports of artistic specialisation.
  18. Drawing up restoration reports of the architectonic and artistic heritage.
  19. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  20. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Art.
  21. Planning and applying museographic projects and programmes, using the acquired knowledge about museology.
  22. Producing a project of management and conservation of the artistic imagery.
  23. Producing catalogue sheets and inventory of the architectonic or artistic heritage.
  24. Using the acquired knowledge in the elaboration of files, reports and rulings related to the conservation, documentation, and dissemination of the artistic heritage (cataloguing, inventory, restoration reports, artistic specialisation.

Content

1 Introduction. The remote antecedents: the ancient world and the medieval one.

2 The collection in Italy of the 400. The first spaces of the collection: the Studiolo. The archaeologist passion and the new art.

3 The first major collections of the 16th century. The Gallery.  The Wunderkammern and the Cabinet of natural history.

4 The great royal and aristocratic collections of the 17th century: the case of England, Spain and France. The representation of the Cabinet of paintings.

5 New trends in collecting in the eighteenth century. The Salons, the art criticism and the access of the bourgeoisie to the collecting habits. The beginnings of museums as public institutions.

6 The French Revolution and the Napoleonic booty. The concept of national heritage. The formation of the great European museums from the royal collections:the case of the Louvre and the Prado. The formation of museums from private donations with the collaboration of the state: the case of British museums.

7 The turn of the century: the birth of the history of art, the internationalization of the artistic market and the formation of the great American collections.

8 The birth of private collecting in Spain and Catalonia: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Final note on the history of forgery of works of art. 

 

 

Methodology

Classes in the classroom:
theoretical and practical sessions in the classroom
Exhibition and discussion of work done by students
eventual conferences
Tutorials
methodological and bibliographic orientation
supervised activities

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      
Classes in the classroom 35 1.4 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 20, 19, 24
Eventual conferences 40 1.6 3, 5, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, 20, 19
Other supervised activities 30 1.2 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 11, 20, 19, 24
Tutorials of methodological and bibliographical orientation 45 1.8 3, 5, 2, 19

Assessment

Evidence 1. A written test, where the correct assimilation of the taught syllabus should be given: 50% of the final mark. Evidence 2. Presentation of an individual written study work on a specific collector, chosen by the teacher, and different for each student: 25% of the final grade. Evidence 3. Follow-up in tutoring hours for work preparation tasks, in two sessions (1 presentation of the bibliography and sources, and 2 presentation of a screenplay prior to writing): 25% of the final grade.

Evidence format
The format of the evidences will be communicated at the beginning of the course. In the absence of guidance, the written test usually involves a brief explanation of various names and concepts related to the syllabus explained in class (approximate duration of the test: between 60 and 90 minutes).
The individual work will not have to surpass in any case the twenty folios. Work sent by email will not be accepted, but only printed on paper. The formal presentation will be simple, without cover, only with the pages stapled. The first page will show the surnames and the name and the NIU that are well visible, in addition to the title of the work. If the work incorporates illustrations, they will go to the end of the text, before the bibliography. The latter must be cited correctly and must be ordered by year of publication from oldest to more modern; The place and year of editing are indispensable, but the name of the publisher is waived. Mandatory, the text must incorporate the footnote system, both bibliographic and informational. In addition, the work must include a personal assessment of the treated argument.

The evidence of plagiarism in the preparation of the works will affect the final qualification. The ideas, phrases or paragraphs of other authorscan be used, provided they are quoted in quotation marks and that the authorship and information source are indicated. They will not be able to take advantage of previous year's work.

The final grade is the result of the weighted average between the three evidences, provided these three notes exceed each of them the approved one.

If the subject is only partially exceeded (for example: work is not delivered, although the assessment of the written test is positive, or vice versa) the final grade will be "Not Presented." If one or more evidences have a negative evaluation, the final grade will be a "Suspense". At the end of the semester, students have the right to review the tests, before the final closure of the acts.
According to the regulations in force, a reassessment is only for the written test (evidence 1), where all students will be admitted without any limitation.

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. Juny

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
written exam 50% 0 0 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 20, 19
Presentation of an individual written work 25% 0 0 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 12, 13, 23, 20, 19, 21, 22, 17, 18, 24
Tutorials of written work 25% 0 0 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 12, 13, 23, 20, 19, 21, 22, 17, 18, 24

Bibliography

Antoine Jules DUMESNIL, Histoire des plus célèbres amateurs italiens et de leurs relations avec les artistes, Minkoff, Genève, 1973, (1853)

Francis Henry TAYLOR, Artistas, príncipes y mercaderes. Historia del coleccionismo desde Ramsés a Napoleón, Luis de Caralt, Barcelona, 1960, (1948).

Maurice RHEIMS, La curiosa vida de los objetos, Luis de Caralt, Barcelona, 1965, (1959).

Pierre CABANNE, Le roman des grands collectioneurs, Plon, Paris, 1961.

N. VON HOLST, Creators, Collectors ans Connoisseurs. The Anatomy of Artistic Taste from Antiquity to the Present Day, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967.

Germain BAZIN, El tiempo de los Museos, Daimon, Barcelona, 1969, (1967).

Paola BAROCCHI, "Storiografia e collezionismo dal Vasari al Lanzi", in Storia dell'arte italiana, vol.II, Einaudi, Torino, 1979, pp.5-81.

AAVV., Museo perché Museo come. Saggi sul Museo, De Luca editore, Roma, 1980.

Francis HASKELL-Nicholas PENNY, El gusto y el arte de la Antigüedad. El atractivo de la escultura clásica (1500-1900), Alianza, Madrid, 1990, (1981).

Joseph ALSOP, The rare art traditions. The history of art collecting and its linked phenomena, Thames and Hudson, London, 1982.

AAVV., The origins of the Museum. The Cabinet of curiosities in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985.

Eduard HUTTINGER ed., Case d'artista. Dal Rinascimento a oggi, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 1992, (1985).

Francis HASKELL, Pasado y presente en el arte y en el gusto, Alianza, Madrid, 1989, (1987).

Francis HASKELL, La historia y sus imágenes. El arte y la interpretación del pasado, Alianza, Madrid, 1994, (1993).

Cristina DE BENEDICTIS, Per la storia del collezionismo italiano. Fonti e documenti, Ponte alle Grazie, Firenze, 1991.

S.M. PEARCE, Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study, Leicester University Press, London, 1992.

Vincenzo ABBATE ed., Aspetti del collezionismo in Italia da Federico II al primo novecento, Museo Regionale Pepoli, Trapani, 1993.

Alain SCHNAPP, La conquete du passé. Aux origines de l'archéologie, Carré, Paris, 1993.

John ELSNER-Roger CARDINAL eds., The cultures of collecting, Reaktion Books, London, 1994.

oanna Smalcerz, Smuggling the Renaissance: The Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy, 1861-1909
Brill 2020, 

B.Cassidy, The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798). Artist & Art Dealer in Eighteenth-Century Rome 
BREPOLS, 2012

M. W. Gahtan, E.-M. Troelenberg (eds.), Collecting and Empires. An Historical and Global Perspective, BREPOLS,  2019

Emmanuelle Polack, Le marché de l'art sous l'Occupation : 1940-1944, Paris : Tallandier, 2020.  

Software

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