Art History

Art History 

Art History courses combine a comprehensive review of art movements, artists, and artistic media with opportunities to put your knowledge into practice. The programme emphasises art-historical theories and analytic methods with a strong focus on the visual arts of Europe and North America. It develops students’ critical skills and approaches to study and interpret  works of art. These skills can be applied in many professions: education, public museums, commercial galleries, auction houses, interior design, fashion marketing, advertising, art journalism, art investigation, art and healing, law and property rights, art and computer software development.  
Art History programme offers an intensive and structured engagement with the visual heritage mostly of Europe throughout the centuries. The curriculum covers eras of art history from the ancient to the present. Students learn skills of formal, iconographic and stylistic analysis, learn to relate works of art and architecture to the social and political condition of their creation, and also learn how to appreciate and interpret different genres and media of art from different periods. Besides learning about the masterworks of the different styles, the programme also covers the fundamental theories of art essential for understanding the development of arts. Courses focus on the different art institutions of the past and give students a closer insight into the workings of today's institutions.

 

Art History studies in Pécs 

Art history students can enjoy the rich diversity of art collections held across the city of Pécs. Classes in museums, galleries containing artworks and architecture from the Middle Ages to the present will give you the chance to work with objects up-close, decoding hidden meanings and uncovering lost histories. 
The Romans called the settlement Sopianae, where significant Christian community lived in the 4 th century. They cemetery with painted burial chambers belongs now to the UNESCO 
World Heritage. The first king of Hungary made the town a bishopric, its importance grew in the Middle Ages when it was known as Quinque Ecclesiae after its five churches. Pécs has been an intellectual and humanist centre since the founding of its university – Hungary’s first – in 1367. Besides the many well-preserved Turkish structures in the town, on the main square there is a mosque (now a Roman Catholic church) in size the greatest remainder of the Turkish Age in Hungary. The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul is a special building, an emblem of the 1000-year continuity of Hungarians. In 2010 Pécs was selected to be the European Capital of Culture not only due to its rich history through the Middle Ages but also because the Zsolnay ceramics brought it world fame in the 19th century. In the 20 th century the careers of some world-famous architects of the decisive international Bauhaus school were related to Pécs. During the socialist era, the city was a kind of cultural haven for the “non-official” art with exceptional possibilities for collecting and presenting contemporary art. Pécs with its extremely rich heritage and vibrant contemporary culture can be your guide through the history of European art. 

 

Overview of the Art History major courses 

The list of the 19 courses can be found here https://btk.pte.hu/sites/btk.pte.hu/files/curriculum/Curriculum%20-%20Liberal%20Arts%20BA.pdf 
Note that the short course descriptions provided below are general, tentative, the exact content and schedule of the individual courses will be defined at the beginning of each semester.  

2nd semester

 

ESZBA0201
Language,Rhetorics, Narration 

- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 
The subject of the course is divided into three major parts, the first focusing on the interconnection of language and rhetoric, and the second on the difficulties of fictional language-use. The first part approaches language from a pragmatic aspect and, from there, seeks to explore the meaning, communicativity and discursive significance of the nonliteral utterances (either linguistic or nonlinguistic). From the semiotic characterisation of language (Morris) through speech act theory (Austin, Searle), to the conversational maxims of the theory of implicatures (Grice). We will discuss the abuses of conversational maxims and their consequences: the main types of fallacies and the figurative use of language. In the context of the latter, we will investigate the different philosophical theories of metaphor (causal, semantic and pragmatic theories). In the second part, the philosophical status of fictional statements and fictions will be examined, with a particular attention to their relation to the notion of truth. We will be concerned with fictionalism (mental, ethical, scientific) too, and the issue of how conceptual frameworks (languages) construe reality. The third part focuses on the narratological analysis of artworks from different branches of art.  
 

 

ESZBA0202 Representation
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course will review the most important historical and theoretical clusters of representation from antiquity to the present day, with special attention to contemporary developments in representation in the 20th and 21st centuries, its philosophical, art historical, image theoretical and cinematic implications. Special attention will be paid to the problems of representation and perception, representation and art, and the problematics of imagery, and to the relationship between representation and temporality. The theoretical aspects of the concepts of the present and presence in art are also discussed, together with possible critiques of these concepts.  
 

 

ESZBA0203 Mediality  
- 4ects  2classes/ week 

The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the medium-specific characteristics of the works of art analysed in the course, thereby highlighting the complex intermedial relationships between the different artistic disciplines and works of art and the history of their development. The course will review the history of the relations between art forms, focusing on the aesthetic relevance of particular medial transformations, pointing out specific cases of medial mixing, and will explore different theories of intermediality, reflexive and self-reflexive practices that emphasise mediality, and the so-called "post-medium condition". The course will enable students to recognise the relevance of the medial aspect, to recognise medial constraints and the ways in which these constraints are breached, and to include a consistent interpretation of these specificities in their interpretations. 
 

 

ESZBA0204  Interpretation of Art    
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course deals with a basic question often discussed in the humanities: what procedure can be used to get closer to understanding a work of art. The answers to the question can be grouped around two orthodox positions. One argues that the meaning of a work is determined by the context of the work, while the other discards attempts at interpretation based on context and seeks the key to interpretation in the work itself. Upon learning about, reflecting, and rationalising these two standpoints, it becomes clear that, from the point of view of the humanities, it is justified to distinguish between falsifiable and non-falsifiable interpretations. A common feature of the latter is a pattern of interpretation, the basic position of which is that the task of interpretation is to reveal a spiritual meaning, that is, to translate the sensus litteralis into sensus spiritualis. 
 

 

ESZBA0205 Art and Philosophy
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course aims to explore the fundamental links between philosophy and art. Does art need a philosophy of art? Or does philosophy not need art, and even disenfranchises it - as Danto asks? In principle, how do theory and practice relate to each other in the context of art? Is it necessary to know one - at least in part - in order to practice the other? In other words, how does the history of theory and practice develop in the history of European art? From when and why do two different competences emerge for the practice of art and for the theoretical engagement with art? What are the historical assumptions behind the separation of art and art criticism? These are questions that are not only relevant, but also shed light on the framework within which art is theorised. They also question the possibilities and frameworks for the application of philosophy to the theory of art. 

3rd semester

 

KLAFA0102
The Legacy of the Ancient World for the Modern West 

- 5 ects  3 classes/ week 
The course offers a general introduction to ancient Greek and Roman culture and its impact on modern Western civilization. Its focus is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to provide students with an elementary understanding of Latin and Greek: the alphabet; words, names, expressions and proverbs of Greek and Latin origin; key grammatical concepts; fundamentals of historical linguistics (related languages, ancient Greek dialects, historical phases and types of Latin); general characteristics of Greek and Latin; declination, system of tenses. On the other hand, the course explores classical cultures: history of writing, textual transmission; Greek and Roman education; the dialogue between Greek and Roman cultures; mythology; Greek and Latin Bible and ecclesiastical Latin; Latin literature in the age of humanism and reformation; Latin in Hungary from the Middle Ages up to the present. In order to acquire language skills and basic knowledge of classical culture, students read simple Latin and Greek texts and observe ancient artefacts. They are also expected to do exercises challenging their creativity and to do simple research on their own with the help of recommended literature as well as online sources. 
 

 

ESZBA0206 
Early Medieval and Byzantine Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The subject of the course is the genesis of Western and Eastern Christian art, its mediaeval development, its main characteristics and its most significant works. The aim of the course is to study the outstanding works of Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, painting, mosaic and decorative art, funerary art, the relevant art historical terms, and the historical and ideological contexts of the period. Topics to be covered: types of early Christian sarcophagi, their outstanding examples (Two Brothers, Junius Bassus, Agape, etc.), their formal characteristics, iconography. Characteristics of the catacombs, the most important Roman catacombs and hypogeums; their paintings, the most common scenes and their meaning. Early Christian and Byzantine basilicas, mosaic art, Byzantine icon painting, Christian architecture of Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople. The history of the iconoclast controversy, the conflicting theological positions. The Early Christian cemetery of Sopianae, artefacts, pictorial representations.  
 

 

ESZBA0207
Romanesque and Gothic Art
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course will cover the most important sites of artworks and monuments from the rise of the Romanesque to the late Gothic period. The aim of the course is to provide students with a historical overview of the most important issues that arose in the visual arts up to the end of the 14th century. Course topics: 
Topics of the course: pilgrim churches, Benedictine reform, Cluny, Monte Cassino. Normandy, Germany, the Meuse. The beginnings of Gothic architecture in northern France, St. Denis, Paris, Notre Dame, Villard de Honnecourt. The spread of Gothic architecture, Chartres, Reims. Burgundy. The role of the Cistercian Order. Gothic architecture in the German-Roman Empire. Strasbourg, Cologne, Magdeburg, Naumburg, Bamberg. Monumental sculpture, classical Gothic sculpture. Fresco and book painting, winged altars. International Gothic. 
 

 

ESZBA0208 Iconogaphy/Iconology 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

Iconography and iconology are two very closely interwoven terms referring to the description and classification of artistic objects/images. Originally iconography referred to the study of subject matter in the visual arts while iconology referred not only to the interpretation of their meanings but also to the significance of that subject matter within the culture that produced it. Nowadays in art historical practice iconography and iconology feed into each other. The course examines the history and the development of the two related research methods, it focuses on systemising the process of iconology and iconography research by introducing Erwin Panofsky’s three levels of analysis. By analysing masterpieces of the history of European art, students learn to understand the most important signs, symbols, personifications portrayed therein, they get an overview of Christian iconography and that of mythology.

4th semester

ESZBA0209 
Understanding the Built Environment

- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 
The lectures in this course will introduce you to the theoretical, practical, ethical and aesthetic foundations of architecture, with particular emphasis on aspects of function, place, space and tectonics and their interplay. Architecture embodies the deepest social values of a culture and expresses them in material and aesthetic form. The course seeks to understand architecture as both a cultural practice and expression and a technical achievement. The main historical, typological and technological terms will be explained, illustrated with examples from contemporary and historical European culture, to explain the basic elements of architecture and the interrelationships between them. It demonstrates the complex relationship of architecture with its social and historical context, its audience and its users. We will learn about the representational power of architecture and how it can create collective meaning and memory. The course will review the central themes of 20th century architectural theory.  

 

ESZBA0210 Renaissance
- 5 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course provides an overview of Renaissance art and architecture. It begins with a comparative survey of the European art scene of the late Gothic period, including Trecento and International Gothic, and ends with Mannerism. It provides an introduction to the humanist discourse of the period and its impact on the fine arts, addressing social issues such as the role of patrons, the role of guilds, and the differences between private, civic and ecclesiastical patronage that influenced the overall stylistic form and content of the works. The revival of classical ideals in the period brought important innovations in both composition and iconography. The invention of perspective, the interest in anatomy and the enthusiasm for rediscovered antiquity led to the introduction of entirely new modes of representation, which led to ever more daring experiments. In the North, this period brought social, political and religious upheaval, but also great artistic and cultural innovation. Particular attention will be paid in this course to the relationship between art and religious life, including the representation of spiritual elements, the interaction between the spectator and the devotional image, and the radical changes brought about by the Reformation. We will also study exchanges with Italy. 
 

 

ESZBA0211 Baroque
- 5 ects  2 classes/ week 

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the art history of the 17th and 18th centuries. The course will examine the development of what are considered to be the most important Baroque stylistic features (monumentality, wholeness, movement, etc.). It will study the historical-political-social changes of the period that shaped Baroque art. Key topics include: church architecture and sculpture in the Italian Baroque; the development of Baroque painting in Italy: Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio; Baroque religious painting in Rome and Venice; French Baroque architecture, sculpture and painting; Spanish Baroque painting; new features, and genres of Dutch art; the art of Rubens and Rembrandt; Baroque in literature and music. 
 

 

ESZBA0212 Criticism 
- 5ects  3 classes/ week 

The aim of the course is to provide students with a general overview of art criticism, its historical and theoretical framework, and to provide them with a practical understanding of the basic concepts of art criticism. During the course, students will learn about the most important theories of criticism and the historical development of the function of art criticism, as well as the typical debates and intellectual lines of contemporary critical discourse. Another important focus of the course is the study of practical issues in critical writing, i.e. the practice of writing in a workshop format. Students will learn about the structure and language of critical texts, methods of argumentation, description and evaluation, and through the analysis and evaluation of specific case studies, they will explore the stylistic and substantive differences between criticism in different media and from different artistic disciplines. During the semester, students' texts will be analysed in a joint workshop and the lessons learned from the writing of the texts will be compared with previous theoretical knowledge. 

5th semester

 

ESZBA0213 Art of the 19th Century
– Modernism - 4 ects  3 classes/ week 

The course will review the major art movements of European art from the end of the 18th century to the turn of the century, and the work of their most important representatives. In addition to national and regional specificities, emphasis will be placed on experiments that go against the grain of tradition. Through the interpretation of individual works of art, the lectures will address the transformation of the social and institutional conditions of art, the emergence of new genres, forms, themes and the changing concept of art. The course will cover new artistic trends that developed alongside and after Classicism, as well as those that were in favour of and in opposition to Academic Art. In addition to the problems of painting in Realism and Romanticism, the relationship of art to science, the impact of the birth of photography, the move towards abstraction, the transformation of art institutions and the changing relationship between art and the public will be discussed. 
 

 

ESZBA0214 20th Century Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course will cover the arts from the 20th century to contemporary art. From the avant-garde to conceptualism, it surveys the most important artists and works of painting, sculpture and new genres, while also providing an overview of the most important issues and artists in the architecture of the century. 
The course introduces you to the trends in modern art and the socio-intellectual changes that have underpinned them, and seeks to illustrate the process by which art has become a problem in and for itself. Starting from late symbolism, the course looks at the often conflicting aspirations of the avant-garde movements and the most significant individual artistic achievements, and seeks to shed light on the process by which the traditional concept of art was challenged and the possibilities of its formal, material, media and thematic expression changed. In the context of post-1945 art, the main themes are performativity, the incorporation of consumer culture into art, institutional critique and the extreme conceptualisation of art. In addition to architecture, painting and sculpture, the course also seeks to discuss the most significant works of emerging new genres and new media. 
 

 

ESZBA0215
History of Hungarian Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course provides a basic overview of the history of Hungarian art as it is embedded in the changing European historical stylistic periods, but also pays attention to the particular Middle-European and Hungarian tendencies. The course guides the students through art history by focusing on the cultural sites of Pécs. Classes in museums, world heritage sites and galleries that contain artworks and architecture from the Roman Ages to the present day give students the chance to work with objects up-close, uncovering histories of 1500 years. The rich heritage of Pécs provides opportunities – from Early Christian cemetery through the cathedral from the Middle Ages and the Zsolnay ceramics of the Art Nouveau to Bauhaus architects – to follow art history up to the contemporary scene. 

6th semester

 

ESZBA0216 Theories of Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course deals with the theory of art history writing, with all the philosophical, historical, aesthetic and methodological problems that art history faced when it emerged as an independent historical discipline, and to which the successive interpretive paradigms offered different answers and perspectives. In addition to the defining schools and authors of the 19th century and the turn of the century, we also look at the major theories that have interpreted modern art. The aim of the course is to explore the emergence of art history writing as a discipline in its own right and its main theoretical directions. The course will review the most prominent and influential art historical writings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, art history writing not only had to develop its own methodological and conceptual foundations, but also had to confront fundamental questions - the problem of realism, historicism, abstraction, the relationship between art and science, between art and beauty, the disintegration of the system of arts, etc. - which were inescapable in the philosophy of art, aesthetics, art history and art criticism. The course deals with authors who have long defined the possible directions of thinking about artistic problems. 
 

 

ESZBA0217
Contemporary Global Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

This course is an examination of the development of contemporary art internationally from the Post War Era to the present with differentiation between modern, postwar and contemporary art and issues. Its basic focus is the transcultural exchange and its impact on contemporary artists and art communities. We will consider a variety of theoretical perspectives such as colonialism and independence, globalism, diaspora, and hybridity. By affording case studies involving different artists and regions the course gives the opportunity to investigate different artistic movements and cultures and address global and diasporic issues. 
 

 

ESZBA0218 Institutions of Art 
- 4 ects  2 classes/ week 

The course looks at arts sociologically i.e. as the product and the basis of extensive social networks. It involves asking questions about the conceptions of the role of the art and the artist in society. Although markedly different, these conceptions all view the art and artist as an agent playing an active role in society. The different views are grounded on different cultural discourses, and specific institutions corresponding to these discourses mediate the role of the art and the artist in society. The course will examine the dialectic between art and society, focusing upon the social relationships among and between artists, critics, aestheticians, patrons, and institutions, the business investors and their representatives. We will examine the systems by which art is produced, distributed, and aesthetically defined. Each of these factors contributes to the ways in which art is performed, exhibited, evaluated, and supported.  

 

Graduation requirements

Students must fulfil the credit requirements (180 ects) of the bachelor’s degree. A Bachelor’s Thesis /Capstone must be completed. 
For information about the administrative processes of graduation go here https://btk.pte.hu/en/students/studies/graduation-information-0 

 

Final Examination 

All students must take a final examination at the end of their studies. This consists of two parts for the History of Art degree: 1. Presentation and discussion of the Final Thesis. 2. Students are randomly assigned a picture of a work of art. They have to identify this work of art (architecture, painting, sculpture, installation etc.) - artist, title, date - and describe it - technique, composition, stylistic period, iconographic features, specific issues raised by the work. The “data bank” of artworks from which the students choose one by random number drawing will be available to students as soon as they take up the major. (The route to the image collection: Neptun ® Meet Street ® My Spaces ® Művészettörténet specializáció)

 

Liberal Arts

H-7624 Pécs, Ifjúság u. 6    +36303600884    somogyi.rita@pte.hu