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History of Collecting 

Code: 100556 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Art History OT 3
Art History OT 4

Contact

Name:
Francesc Miralpeix Vilamala
Email:
francesc.miralpeix@uab.cat

Teachers

(External) Per determinar

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

It is advisable to have knowledge of English, French and Italian in order to consult the specialised bibliography.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The main purpose of this course is to introduce students to the phenomenon of collecting art objects based on their historical evolution. The course analyzes the different typologies and structures of reception, valuation and presentation in specific spaces of works of art in a chronological range that starts from the Renaissance -which is when the collector fact is clearly outlined- and reaches up to the twentieth century. The aim is to provide a complementary vision to the usual one in art history studies, of great utility to obtain a total perception of the artistic culture, and of special interest for those students who wish to focus their professional future towards the field of heritage and museum management.

 


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, producing, disseminating and commercializing a cultural product.
  16. Designing programmes of temporal and permanent expositions, including the programming of activities of educational nature for school and family audiences.
  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 forerunners: the ancient and medieval world.

2. Collecting in Italy in the 400's. The first spaces of collecting: the Studiolo. The archaeological passion and the new art.

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

4. The great royal and aristocratic collecting of the seventeenth century: the case of England, Spain and France. The depiction of the Cabinet of paintings.

5. Women collectors of the Modern Age. Isabella the Catholic, Isabella of Este, Mary of Hungary, Mary of Medici, Anne of Austria, Christina of Sweden, Isabella of Farnese and Catherine II of Russia.

6. The Grand Tour and the societies of dilettanti and connoisseurs.

7. Representing and imagining collecting. From the Five Senses of Jan Brueghel the Younger in G.P. Panini's Ancient Rome and Modern Rome. The Tribune of the Uffizi by Zoffany.

8. The new tendencies of collecting in the 18th century. The Salons, art criticism and the rise of the bourgeoisie to collecting habits. The beginnings of museums as public institutions.

9. Cataloguing, inventorying and studying. The example of Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, Count of Caylus.

10. Science, botany and expeditions. The cabinets of Natural History. Hans Sloane and Charles Willson Peale

11. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic booty. The concept of national heritage. The establishment 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 the British museums.

12. The turn of the century: the birth of art history, the internationalization of the art market and the formation of the great American collections. The case of Peggy Guggenheim and Gertrude Stein.

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Face-to-face classes 40 1.6 3, 5, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, 20, 19
Other supervised activities 22.5 0.9 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 11, 20, 19, 24
Tutorials of methodological and bibliographic orientation 35 1.4 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 20, 19, 24
Visits to institutions 30 1.2 3, 5, 2, 19, 24

Face-to-face classes
Commentary and discussion of texts; possible seminars (depending on the number of students)


Tutorials
Methodological and bibliographical guidance; advice on the realization of assignments

Supervised activities

Resolution of doubts related to the course.

Practical and/or complementary activities (depending on the possibilities): 

Vilanova i la Geltrú. Masia d'en Cabanyes and Víctor Balaguer Museum

Barcelona. Marès Museum and/or Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi

Rocamora Foundation and/or Núria Pla Foundation

 

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Oral presentation 20% 1 0.04 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 20, 19
Attendance at the programmed activities 5% of the total note 10 0.4 3, 4, 5, 11, 19
Written test based on the contents of the subject program 40% of the total of the avaluation 1.5 0.06 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 12, 13, 23, 20, 19, 21, 22, 17, 18, 24
Written work 35% 10 0.4 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 8, 9, 11, 10, 12, 13, 23, 20, 19, 21, 22, 17, 18, 24

Evidence 1. Test written evaluation (at the end of the course). 40% recoverable

Development of a topic related to the subject matter taught in face-to-face theoretical classes. The reading of essential and complementary bibliography will be taken into account.

Evidence 2. Practical work (one month before the end of the course). 35%

I work on collectors and/or collections loaned or deposited in Catalan Museums.

Evidence 3. Oral presentation in the classroom (at the end of the course). 20%

Evidence 4. Participation in the programmed activities. 5%

Attendance will be valued in at least 2 of the 3 scheduled visitsExplanation of methodology, sources and bibliography for the study of practical work. The attendance and continuity of the tutorials will also be valued

Evidence format

The final mark of the evaluation will arise from the sum of the total percentage of the evidences 1,2,3 and 4. However, if Evidence 1 (less than 2 points out of a total of 4) and Evidence 2 (less than 1 points out of a total of 3,5) is suspended, the subject will be considered suspended.

Mandatorily, the work must incorporate the citation system of notes (within the text or at the foot of the page) with the references of the bibliographic or documentary sources used. The evidence of plagiarism, in the writing of the works, can represent a suspension. Plagiarism constitutes the appropriation of other people's ideas without citing the source, especially if they are core ideas of the work, as well as the transcription of other people's phrases without putting them in quotation marks and without indicating the source in the corresponding note. Written tests and works written in Catalan or Spanish and also in other languages (English, French, Italian) will be accepted.

Qualification review procedure

At the time of carrying out each evaluation activity, theteacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and the date of review of the qualifications.

Second chance examination

The recovery of Evidence 1 and 2 is contemplated

Unique evaluation

A single theoretical exam based on the contents of the syllabus of the subject and a written assignment that will be indicated at the time of notification of the choice of single assessment. Each piece of evidence computes 50% of the grade and a minimum grade of half of the assigned percentage will be required for each exercise. The date of the exam will coincide with the date of the evaluation of the evidence 1.

Plagiarism

In the event that the student makes any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. Plagiarism is the appropriation of other people's ideas without citing the source, especially if they are core ideas of the work, as well as the transcription of other people's sentences without putting them in quotation marks and without indicating the source in the corresponding note. In the event that there are several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.

Not Assessed

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This subject allows the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies exclusively in bibliographic research or information search tasks. The student must identify the parts that have been generated with AI; specify the tools used; and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. The lack of transparencyof the use of AI in this assessable activity will be considered a lack of academic honesty and leads to the activity being evaluated with a 0 and cannot be recovered, or greater sanctions in cases of seriousness.


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.  

Anne-Sophie V. Radermecker, Anonymous Art at Auction. The Reception of Early Flemish Paintings in the Western Art Market (1946–2015), Brill, Leiden, 2021

Malcolm Baker and Inge Reist eds., Sculpture Collections in Europe and the United States 1500-1930, Brill, Leiden, 2021

Lynn Catterson, Florence, Berlin and Beyond: Late Nineteenth-Century Art Markets and their Social Networks, Brill, Leiden, 2021

Inge Reist ed., When Michelangelo Was Modern. Collecting, Patronage and the Art Market in Italy, 1450-1650, Brill, Leiden, 2022.

Anita Archer, Chinese Contemporary Art in the Global Auction Market, Brill, Leiden, 2022


Software

Notices and directions will be given, beyond the classroom, through the virtual campus. If specific software is used, it would be indicated in due course


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed