Study Tours are exclusive opportunities to spend from two to four intensive days with an expert in the field looking at works of art first-hand, often with special access to collections or monuments.

The fee for these tours includes entry to all museum and sites; it does not include travel and accommodation: students are free to make their own arrangements. Study Tours are limited to a maximum of 12 students.  




For further details please contact us on:

email short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk

tel +44 (0)20 7848 2678

fax +44 (0)20 7848 2589


 

 

 

Study tours 2010

 

rome and the east: politics, power and religion from the birth of christianity until 1300

NEW TOUR
Dr Eileen Rubery

Friday 26 March – Sunday 28 March 2010

£400

This three day study tour will explore relations between Rome and the East from the time that Saint Peter and Saint Paul came to Rome up until the time the papacy moved to France at the beginning of the 14th century. We will discuss the ‘Christianisation’ of Rome following Constantine the Great’s arrival and explore how art in Rome reflected struggles with the Eastern Empire over the nature of the balance between Christ’s humanity and divinity.  What effect did the Papacy’s defence of iconoclasm have on Roman art?  What did art in Carolingian Rome look like? Visits aim to include the church of S Maria Antiqua, (a complete church from the 6th- 9th century, full of frescoes with many eastern features, including the only western example of tetramorph angels) which is not normally open to the public; the catacombs of Saint Priscilla (which include many of the earliest Christian images from the 3rd and 4th centuries) and the Pope’s sancta sanctorum, the lavishly decorated private chapel of the Popes in the Lateran complex; also with restricted access.

Forged by Many Cultures: Sicily through the Ages

NEW TOUR

James McDonaugh

Thursday 29 April – Sunday 2 May 2010

£500

‘To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything’ (Goethe, ‘Italian Journey’, 13 April 1787). This tour is designed to provide an overview of the layers of history that make Sicily arguably the richest region for art and architecture in Italy. The line of Sicily’s rulers has included Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Hohenstaufen emperors, Angevins, Aragonese, Spanish Hapsburgs, Spanish Viceroys and even the British. The result is an unparalleled mix of cultural influences, which led the author of ‘The Leopard’ Giuseppe de Lampedusa to describe Sicily as ‘…the America of antiquity’. We will focus on the western region of the island;  based  in Palermo, we will visit  key sites in the city and its environs:  the Greek temple and theatre at Segesta, Roman bronzes in the archaeological museum in Palermo, the great Norman mosaics at Monreale, and the sumptuous Sicilian baroque of Palermo. In particular we will focus on how artistic styles from very different backgrounds coalesce to form a single thread, for example the hybrid Arab-Norman architecture of the 12th century. 

 

from god's castle to the heavenly jerusalem: the cathedrals of ely and lincoln

Professor Paul Crossley

Friday 7 May to – Saturday 8 May 2010

£200

Ely and Lincoln best represent the power and piety of English medieval architecture and offer contrasting, but complementary visions of what a great cathedral should look like. Ely was a Fenland Benedictine monastery, and its flourishing cult of St Etheldreda ensured that its great church would always be a splendid backdrop for pilgrims and pilgrimage.  Ely is rich in visual delights and also offers a special insight into how liturgy and space articulate an interior, and shape the church’s outlook onto the world beyond its monastery.  Its crossing tower, the famous ‘octagon’ is a spectacular mixture of carpentry and masonry, and it dominates the fens like a vision of St Etheldreda’s crown. Lincoln, by contrast, was a secular cathedral, administered by canons, and the site of one of the most prestigious cathedral schools in Europe.  Its west front has one of the most extensive cycles of Romanesque sculpture in England.  But unlike Ely most of the present cathedral was built to a relatively uniform style in the 13th century, and with a confidence and ingenuity that makes it the masterpiece of English high medieval architecture.  Like Ely it was a pilgrimage church, and its architecture and decoration underline that special function.  It was also the product of three architects of genius, so it offers us a unique insight into the workings of the English architectural imagination.  Lincoln, like Ely, dominates its landscape; its towers echoing those of the Heavenly City – ‘the many-towered city of Sion’.


amsterdam, the hague and rotterdam: netherlandish art of the golden age

Dr Matthias Vollmer

Friday 27 August – Sunday 29 August 2010

£400

In the 17th century, the arts, sciences and trade flourished to an unprecedented degree in the cities of the prosperous Low Countries.  Production of the fine and decorative arts thrived in Antwerp, Amsterdam, Delft, Haarlem and Utrecht and artists like Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer excelled in different artistic genres. History painting, portraiture, genre, landscape and still life painting all produced significant masterpieces in this period, which is rightly regarded as the Golden age of Netherlandish art.  We shall explore the development and variety of artistic expression in front of the originals in the outstanding collections of the museums in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam.



byzantine istanbul

Dr Cecily Hennessy

Wednesday 1 September – Saturday 4 September 2010

£500

The great city of Constantinople lay at the heart of Byzantium and was to surpass Rome in its wealth and reputation. We examine the political and religious sites that remain in Istanbul, one of the most beautifully situated cities and itself a vibrant and fascinating centre. Visits include secular architecture, such as the massive city walls and a huge underground cistern, several former churches, including the legendary sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia and the Kariye Camii with its brilliant mosaics, as well as the vestiges of the renowned imperial palace and the fine archaeological museum. We also visit less well-known sites, such as the Fetiye Camii with its exquisite late Byzantine decorations, and examine the influence of Byzantium on the great Ottoman architect of the sixteenth century, Sinan.


with optional link to



byzantine cappadocia

NEW TOUR
Dr Cecily Hennessy

Sunday 5 September – Wednesday 8 September 2010

NEW TOUR

£500

In the heart of central Turkey, the region of Cappadocia has an astonishing landscape with stunning rock creations which contain a wealth of rock cut churches and monasteries from the Byzantine period. Many of these were painted with expressive and beautifully coloured paintings. Significant in preserving iconography and painting styles from the early years of Byzantium perhaps even from before Iconoclasm, the region also has key paintings from the 10th to 12th centuries. We will be based in Göreme, which itself has a group of important churches and take day excursions to valleys in the area to see some of the lesser known sites. There will be some walking, which may be steep and rugged.

This course may be taken in conjunction with the trip to Istanbul or separate from it.

Suggestions will be made for hotels in Göreme and Istanbul. A Turkish guide will accompany both trips. Travel during each course is provided.


AT HOME IN PARIS

Dr Caroline Levitt

Friday 17 September – Sunday 19 September 2010

£400

By visiting the homes and studios of artists and architects from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we will build up an unusual and intimate narrative of the development of this period of art will be built up. The tour begins with the museum inaugurated by Gustave Moreau in his own house, where he taught his students, including  Matisse, Marquet and Rouault; André Breton, poet and leader of the Surrealists, visited Moreau’s museum-home and left profoundly affected. We will see the reconstructed studios of Breton and the sculptors Brancusi, Bourdelle and Zadkine, and will have a rare opportunity to visit the studio of Chana Orloff, which is conserved in a private home. Just outside of Paris, in Chambourcy, is the studio of André Derain and we will spend an afternoon there. Finally, Le Corbusier, known mainly for his architecture, was also a proficient artist, sculptor and tapestry-designer: we will examine his apartment-studio in Auteuil. This study tour requires no previous knowledge, but participants may be interested in Caroline Levitt’s Summer school course, which will introduce related issues.



art and architecture in renaissance rome

Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

Thursday 23 September - Sunday 26 September

£500

This study trip will centre upon the achievements of the ‘High Renaissance’ in Rome in the early decades of the 16th century.  There will be two visits to the Vatican to consider the Sistine Chapel, the papal apartments decorated by Raphael and the Belvedere courtyard with its collection of antiquities, including the ‘Laocoon’ and the ‘Apollo Belvedere’.  In addition to St. Peter’s, other churches like Sta. Maria del Popolo, S. Pietro in Montorio (especially Bramante’s ‘Tempietto’) and S. Pietro in Vincoli (for Michelangelo’s Julius II tomb) will be included in the itinerary, as will secular buildings such as the Villa Farnesina (with its mythological frescoes) and some Renaissance palaces. We will also visit The Capitol and its museum and place all these famous sites within the context of the urban renewal which the ‘eternal city’ underwent during this highly creative period.



the papal court of avignon

Dr Alexandra Gajewski

Friday 8 October – Sunday 10 October 2010

£400

Avignon, the city of the popes, is situated in the south of France and within a short distance of the Alps and Italy.  In 1309 the French pope Clement V moved the papal court from Rome to Avignon and the city remained the seat of successive popes and anti-popes until 1415.  During this time, papal patronage attracted artists from north and south of the Alps making Avignon a veritable melting pot of artistic production.  We will visit the papal palace, the Musée du Petit Palais and other important sites of the city, such as the cathedral Notre-Dame which houses papal tombs and the city fortifications.  One of the days will be spent on the other bank of the river Rhone, in Villeneuve-les-Avignon, to visit the Carthusian monastery founded by Pope Innocent VI.  We will also see the collegiate church of Notre-Dame and discuss Enguerrand Quarton’s painting of the Coronation of the Virgin from 1453.

 


LECTURERS' BIOGRAPHIES


Professor Paul Crossley completed his doctorate, on the history of Polish Medieval architecture, at Trinity College Cambridge and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. From 1971 to 1990 he was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at Manchester University. In 1990 he joined the teaching staff of The Courtauld Institute, first as a Senior Lecturer and then (from 2002) as a Professor. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Foreign Fellow of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr Michael Douglas-Scott is an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, and specialises in Italian painting and patronage. He has lectured extensively on the Italian Renaissance. He lived in Italy for many years and has published articles in ‘Arte Veneta’, ‘The Burlington Magazine’ and the ‘Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes’.

Dr Alexandra Gajewski studied for her doctorate (on Gothic architecture in northern Burgundy) at The Courtauld Institute of Art. Since then she has taught at various London universities and as Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has published on French and German art and architecture in the Middle Ages.

Dr Cecily Hennessy studied for her BA and MA in History of Art at the University of  Washington and went on to gain a PhD in Byzantine art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2001. She has taught at universities in the USA and the UK and was Head of Short Courses and Adult Learning at The Courtauld Institute of Art before joining Christie’s Education as a lecturer in 2006. Her book ‘Images of Children in Byzantium’ was published in 2008.

Dr Caroline Levitt is a visiting lecturer and associate scholar at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she recently completed her PhD on the relationship between Guillaume Apollinaire and André Breton. Specialising in modern French art and literature, her research interests include the relationships between poetry, cinema and sculpture, the work of Le Corbusier and the participation of artists in the decorative arts.

James McDonaugh has an MA in philosophy and theology from Oxford University, and an MA in architectural history from The Courtauld Institute of Art. His research and lecturing interests focus on Italy, Greece and Turkey. Since 2003 he has worked for numerous academic groups and touring companies, including: Art History Abroad, The Art Fund, The Courtauld Institute of Art and the museum organisation in the USA Historic New England. In 2008 he set up his own touring company – Art Tours Ltd - dedicated to taking groups on cultural tours all over Europe and beyond. He has a passion for southern Italy and regularly takes tours to Sicily, most recently in 2008 for The Art Fund . In 2009 he led a tour for the Art Fund entitled ‘Old Calabria’.

Dr Eileen Rubery came to Art History after a career in Medicine and the Civil Service, having been first a cancer specialist and then head of the Health Protection Division in the Department of Health.   She completed her MA on Byzantine Art at The Courtauld Institute in 2002 and stayed on to study for a PhD on 'Papal Patronage in Byzantine Rome', which focuses on the church of S Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum.  Eileen teaches widely, among other for the Continuing Education Departments at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Dr. Matthias Vollmer is Adjunct Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin European Studies Programme. He studied History of Art, Philosophy, and Orientalism at the Freie Universität Berlin and did his PhD on medieval book illustration. He has regularly taught interdisciplinary seminars on Renaissance art and thought as well as on modern art at the Freie Universität Berlin. He currently researches colour theories in medieval encyclopedias.