A reading course, based on Beth Harland and Sunil Manghani’s Painting : Critical and Primary Sources, 4 Vols. (Bloomsbury, 2016).

Aimed at all students, scholars and practitioners of painting, this course provides critical introductions and reading lists based on (and also extends from) the 4 volumes of Painting: Critical and Primary Sources. The original reference work brings together seminal writings on the history, philosophy and practice of painting. By working through the suggested materials, the reader will span across the domains of philosophy, history, aesthetics, literature, science, anthropology, critical theory, cultural studies and art practice.

Each module of the course is arranged thematically, but taken together the course traces a chronology of painting from the pre-Renaissance onwards, addressing notions and techniques of the artist and the artwork before setting out key critical perspectives, problematics and approaches that frame modern painting practice from the nineteenth century through to the contemporary period. Key suggested readings include essays by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Roland Barthes, Michael Fried, Emile Zola, Marcel Proust, Hubert Damisch, John Berger, Arthur C Danto and many more.

COURSE CONTENTS

<aside> 🖌️ Module 1: Painting's Histories

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Course Introduction

Module Introduction

Part I: Early Aesthetic Theories

1.1

1.2 The Inventor of Painting, Hubert Damisch

1.3. Roman Painting, Donald Strong

Part II: Epistemologies of Painting

1.4 Giotto's Joy, Julia Kristeva

1.5 A Confrontation of 'Word and Image' in My Name Is Red, Feride Çiçekoglu

1.6 Las Meninas, Michel Foucault

1.7 The Nature of Picturing in the North, Svetlana Alpers

1.8 Barthes and the Lesson of Saenredam, Howard Caygill

1.9 Pictures and Ideas: Chardin's A Lady Taking Tea, Michael Baxandall