Introduction to Art History

The course offers the student the overview of the basic art historical terminology, the development of the discipline and its fundatmental theoretical approaches.

The lectures cower the following topics:
- the development of art history: from the oldest writtings on art works to art history as a humanistic scientific discipline;
- art and its examination: overview of the basic art historical terminology;
- art historical theory and methodology: what is theory, why and how do we use it; the fundamental art historical theories;
- art work and its author: art history and the tradition of antiquarian and biographical approach to understanding the work of art;
- form and content analysis: the examination of the physical and visual characteristics of work of art – what works of art mean and how do they produce menaning; the problem of relationshio between word and image;
- work of art in context: exploring the ways in which the work of art reflects and shapes its religous and political context, social circumstances, cultural traditions and practices and intelectual currents;
- the role of perception in interpretation of the work of art: the problem of the psychological and physiological aspects of viewers' experience of work of art;
- art historical hermenutics: art history and the problem of knowledge.