Undergraduate Course: Picturing Authority: Art and Politics at the Tudor and Stuart Courts (HIAR10134)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to key issues in the relationship between art and politics in sixteenth and seventeenth century Britain. Through close study of a broad cache of visual evidence, it will explore how Tudor and Stuart power was represented and received. |
| Course description |
Holbein and Henry VIII; Van Dyck and Charles I; Kneller and William III. The visual arts played a crucial role in fashioning and promoting the royal public image. This course introduces students to key issues in the relationship between art and politics in sixteenth and seventeenth century Britain. Through close study of royal portraiture, decorative schemes, printed ephemera, medals and court spectacle, it will explore how monarchs constructed images of authority, assessing the iconography, significance and impact of these efforts. Through individual presentations, group work, class discussion and site visits to, for example, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Holyrood House, students will consider important aspects of the fashioning process, including continuities and advances present in representations of each reign; relationships between royal patrons, artists and their public; and the diplomatic and propagandistic efficacy of the visual arts.
1: Introduction: Artistic Relationships: Patron, Artist and Audience
2: The Portraiture of Power: Holbein and Henry VIII
3: Reformation and Counter-Reformation: Religion and Art under Edward VI and Mary I
4: The Elizabethan Icon: Fashioning the Virgin Queen
5: Peace in our Time: Rubens, James VI and I, and the Art of Diplomacy
6: The Image of the King: Art at the Court of Charles I
7: Access and Display: The Spaces of Royal Power
8: Re-presenting Rule: Tradition and Innovation at the Restoration Court
9: Image Wars: Propaganda at the Rival Stuart Courts
10: Mothering the Nation: The Patronage of Queen Anne
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have completed at least 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and we will only consider University/College level courses. **Please note that 3rd year History of Art courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Discuss Tudor and Stuart visual culture with relation to recent historiography on art and authority in early modern Britain
- Place individual artists within a clear chronology and assess their impact upon developments in court culture
- Assess the primary visual and material sources through which monarchs fashioned their images
- Demonstrate developed skills of visual enquiry, analysis and communication
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Reading List
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Adamson, John (ed.) The Princely Courts of Europe (London, 1999).
Aston, Margaret, The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (Cambridge, 1995).
Corp, Edward (ed.), A Court in Exile: The Stuarts in France 1689-1718 (Cambridge, 2004).
Donovan, Fiona, Rubens and England (New Haven and London, 2004).
Hearn, Karen, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630 (London, 1995).
Hearn, Karen (ed.), Van Dyck in Britain (London, 2009).
Holmes, Geoffrey, The Making of a Great Power: Late Stuart and Early Georgian Britain (London, 1993).
Howarth, David, Images of Rule: Art and Politics in the English Renaissance, 1485-1649 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997).
Keay, Anna, The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power (New York and London, 2008).
Schwoerer, Lois G, 'Images of Queen Mary II, 1689-95' in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter, 1989).
Sharpe, Kevin, Image Wars, Promoting Kings and Commonwealths in England 1603-1660 (New Haven and London, 2010).
Sharpe, Kevin, Selling the Tudor Monarchy, Authority and Image in Sixteenth Century England (New Haven and London, 2009).
Smuts, R. Malcolm (ed.), The Stuart Court in Europe: Essays in Politics and Political Culture (Cambridge, 1996).
Strong, Roy. The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry (London, 1999).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Visual and critical analysis
Independent research
Presentation and communication skills
Group work
Organisation and planning
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
1 x 2 hour seminar |
| Keywords | Early modern,politics,image,Tudor,Stuart,display,authority |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Catriona Murray
Tel: (0131 6)51 5940
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Nathan Ross-Hammond
Tel: (0131 6)51 5880
Email: |
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