History of Art

Page contents

• Programme overview
• Entry requirements
• Staff research interests

Programme overview

The Department of History of Art is a thriving centre for the study of visual art and art criticism. Staff specialisms range from medieval altarpieces to Soviet public monuments, from medieval sculpture to modern art and music. You are encouraged to explore a diversity of historical period and critical approaches, and to participate in the stimulating intellectual and social life of the Department. We encourage an interdisciplinary approach and have close links with many other departments in the School and Faculty.

Research groups

Much research is carried out by individual scholars, with specific expertise in the following areas:

• British Art and Art Criticism
• 19th- and 20th-Century Modernism
• 20th-Century German Art
• 20th-Century Russian Art
• Medieval Art, Visual and Material Culture
• Late Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture
• 17th-Century Italian Art
• Art and Music

Staff and postgraduate research is also focused on a number of research clusters, including 'British Art', 'Transnational Modernisms', and 'Materialities'. Staff and postgraduates are also engaged in Faculty of Arts interdisciplinary research themes and groups, including Medieval Studies, Reception, Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies.

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Entry requirements

MPhil: An upper second-class degree (or international equivalent). MLitt/PhD: A pass at MA level (or international equivalent).

For information on international equivalent qualifications, please see our International Office website.

Admissions statement

Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required.

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Key research interests

Dr Grace Brockington, Early 20th-century British art; the Bloomsbury group; relations between art and literature in the late 19th- and early 20th- centuries; internationalism and the arts, particularly artistic and intellectual exchanges between Britain and Europe.

Dr Peter Dent, The sculpture of late medieval and early Renaissance Italy; expectations and experiences of late medieval beholders when interacting with sculptural objects; the history of sculptural aesthetics; sculpture and touch.

Dr Lucy Donkin, Visual culture and perceptions of place, with particular reference to Italy in the 11th to 13th centuries; the reform and self-perception of religious communities; attitudes towards the past; cross-cultural interaction in the Mediterranean region.

Dr Mike O'Mahony, Russian visual culture in the 20th century, especially official art of the Soviet period; late and post-Soviet cultural developments.

Dr Dorothy Rowe, German visual culture in the 19th- and 20th- centuries, especially German Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit and Weimar culture; aspects of race, representation and gender in contemporary art in Britain.

Professor Simon Shaw-Miller, The history of art and music in the modern period (1800-1960s); interdisciplinary methodology; modernism; the concepts of visual music, musical iconography, synaesthesia, musical ekphrasis, and the aesthetics of the Gesamtkunstwerk.

Dr Beth Williamson, European medieval art and architecture (especially 13th- and 14th-century Italian); iconography of the Virgin Mary; Marian liturgy and devotion; saints and sanctity; devotional imagery and literature.

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