This course page is for students in Professor Alka Patel's VS 290 Art History Methods Fall 2021 seminar. On this page you'll find various links to recommended books, bibliographies, and resources to engage with methods on a deeper reading level.
"The line between theory & methodology is often fuzzy, and they're usually spoken of together --"theory and methodology"--so that they seem to come as a unit. It helps me to think of theory as the process of formulating research questions and methodology as the process of trying to answer those questions. Theory is what helps us frame our inquiries and set an agenda for work on particular topics, objects, or archives. Methodology, strictly speaking, is the set of procedures or ways of working that characterize an academic discipline. For art history, standard methodologies include formal analysis of works of art; laboratory analysis of works of art (to determine age, identify materials, or reconstruct the artist's working process); and research into related historical documents such as contracts, letters, or journals. In some fields, interviews with artists, patrons, and others involved in production are also possible. Each of these methodologies has its specific procedures and theories of practice."
--Anne D'alleva, "What's the difference between theory and methodology?" in Methods & Theories of Art History
Bibliography:
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The Lives of the Artists by Other Books:
Hegel's Art History and the Critique of Modernity by
A basic introduction into the systemic build up of the tripartite aesthetics, contextualized by Hegel’s contemporary interests about art and literature in the political climate between German romanticism and Restauration.
Giorgio Vasari : art and history by
Perceptive and influential study of Vasari and the intellectual and cultural climate that informed his life and the Lives of the Artists. Includes case studies of the biographies of three artists, the exemplary Raphael in particular, that define the critical apparatus of Vasari’s text.
The Delight of Art : Giorgio Vasari and the traditions of humanist discourse by
This book takes s as its point of departure the elusive concept of the delight of art as Vasari perceived it within the frame of humanist culture and responded to it in the Lives of the Artists.
Italian painters : critical studies of their works / by Giovanni Morelli (Ivan Lermolieff), tr. from the German by Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes, with an introduction by the Right Hon. Sir A. H. Layard
Rudiments of Connoisseurship in The Study and Criticism of Italian Art by Other Books:
On art and connoisseurship / by Max J. Friedlander ; [translated from the author's manuscript by Tancred Borenius]Bibliography:
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Principles of Art History : the problem of the development of style in later art / by Heinrich Wölfflin ; translated by M.D. Hottinger. by 
Classic art; an introduction to the Italian Renaissance. / [Translated by Peter And Linda Murray] by 
Problems of Style : foundations for a history of ornament / Alois Riegl ; translated by Evelyn Kain ; annotations, glossary, and introduction by David Castriota ; preface by Henri Zerner
Late Roman art industry / Alois Riegl ; translated from the original Viennese edition with foreword and annotations by Rolf Winkes.Other Books:
The Collected Essays and Criticism by 
Against Interpretation and other essays. by Bibliography:
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Studies in Iconology : humanistic themes in the art of the renaissance (PRINT) by Other Books:
Panofsky and the Foundations of Art History by 
An Introduction to Iconography by
For the first time in English, available in one source, An Introduction to Iconography explains the ways artists use references and allusions to create meaning. The book presents the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of iconography and ICONCLASS, the comprehensive iconographical indexing system developed by Henri van de Waal. Topics such as the history of iconography, personification, allegory, and symbols receive special emphasis. Added features include annotated bibliographies of books and journal articles from around the world that are associated with iconographic research. This comprehensive guide, with its more than 60 illustrations, offers a readable and ready source for the subject
Meaning in the Visual Arts : views from the outside : a centennial commemoration of Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) by Bibliography:
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Selected Writings by
A comprehensive selection from the whole range of Marx's writings, including some material that has never before been published in English, as well as passages from Marx's letters and substantial excerpts from his early works.
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays by Other Books:
Marxism and the History of Art by 
Keywords for Marxist Art History Today by
In this volume 19 of Kunst und Politik (Art and Politics) scholars from different generations, different national contexts and with different relationships to Marxism reflect on the status of 18 "keywords" with special pertinence to Marxist art-historical inquiry today. Starting point of the researches was the knowledge that while certain keywords have been crucial to recent developments in Marxist art history and cultural theory more broadly, others seem to have slipped out of view. The scholars are not so much interested in the "historical semantics" of words although that plays some role in the essays as in the present state of Marxist art history.
Re/New Marxist Art History by
From the early decades of the twentieth century until the 1980s, Marxist art history was at the forefront of radical approaches to the discipline. But in the last two decades of the century and into the next, Marxist art historians found themselves marginalized from the vanguard by the rise of postmodernism and identity politics. In the wake of the recent global crisis there has been a resurgence of interest in Marx. This collection of essays, a festschrift in honor of leading Marxist art historian Andrew Hemingway, brings together 30 academics who are reshaping art history along Marxist lines. The essayists include Matthew Beaumont, Warren Carter, Michael Corris, Gail Day, Paul Jaskot, Stewart Martin, Frederic J. Schwartz, Caroline Arscott, Steve Edwards, Charles Ford, Brian Foss, Tom Gretton, Alan Wallach, Michael Bird, Martin I. Gaughan, Barnaby Haran and Fred Orton, among others.
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Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays by 
Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany by
At the time of its publication, an alternative view of Western art history, these seventeen essays by respected scholars are arranged chronologically and cover every major period from the ancient Egyptian to the present.
The Expanding Discourse: : feminism and art history by
A sequel to the pioneering volume, Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, published in 1982, The Expanding Discourse contains 29 essays on artists and issues from the Renaissance to the present, representing some of the best feminist art-historical writing of the past decade. Chronologically arranged, the essays demonstrate the abundance, diversity, and main conceptual trends in recent feminist scholarship.
Differencing the Canon : feminist desire and the writing of art's histories by 
Talking Back : thinking feminist, thinking Black by Recommended Books:
The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader by 
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminism
The scholars gathered here address a wide variety of topics and contexts: activism from post-Soviet collectives to the Arab spring, to the#MeToo movement, sexual harassment, feminist art, film and digital culture, education, technology, policy, sexual practices and gender identity. Indispensable for scholars undergraduate and postgraduate students in women, gender, and sexuality, the collection offers a multidimensional picture of the diversity and utility of feminist thought in an age of multiple uncertainties
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Civilization and Its Discontents by 
Writings on Art and Literature by 
The ethics of psychoanalysis, 1959-1960 : the seminar of Jacques Lacan, book VII by
Originally published in French as Le Seminaire, Livre VII L'éthique de psychanalyse, 1959-1960 by Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1986
Reading Seminar XI : Lacan's Four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis : including the first English translation of "Position of the unconscious" by Jacques Lacan / edited by Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, Maire Jaanus.Suggested Books:
International Dictionary of Psychoanaylsis by
The history of psychoanalysis in 50 countries shows the relationship between psychoanalysis and other disciplines, with entries discussing writers, philosophers, literary movements and historical events.
Replications : archaeology, art history, psychoanalysis by 
Psychoanalysis and the Image : transdisciplinary perspectives by 
Art and Psyche : a study in psychoanalysis and aesthetics by Bibliography:
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Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art by 
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language by 
The Essential Peirce, Volume 1 by Other book suggestions:
The Routledge Companion to Semiotics by 
Signs and Images: writings on art, cinema and photography by Bibliographies:
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Culture, Media, Language: working papers in cultural studies, 1972-79 by 
The Sociology of Culture by Other Books
Postcolonialism: a Very Short Introduction by
Postcolonialism explores the political, social, and cultural effects of decolonization, continuing the anti-colonial challenge to western dominance. This account discusses its importance as an historical condition, and as a means of changing the way we think about the world.
Postcolonial theory : a critical introduction by 
Postcolonialism : an historical introduction by
This sweeping account of the emergence of Postcolonialism not only offers a phenomenal introduction to anticolonial thought, but it illuminates the ways in which postcolonial theory is directly indebted to anticolonial thought. Young also argues for understanding anticolonial thought and postcolonialism as inherently transnational by foregrounding its circulation across the “tricontinental” world (South America, Africa, and South Asia; a term first coined by Fidel Castro) in the 20th century.
The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966 - 2006 by 
Archives of Empire by
Harlow and Carter’s two-volume work is the most extensive collection of legal, philosophical, scholarly, and literary original source materials relating to European colonialism. The collection includes Hegel’s writing on Africa, T. B. Macaulay’s “Minute on Indian Education,” and Charles Dickens’s image of the “noble savage,” among many others. This is a crucial resource to scholars in postcolonial theory, which has drawn on, responded to, or discussed these key texts.
Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO)
Launched in 2010, OBO s a web-based compendium of peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies and short encyclopedia entries maintained by Oxford University Press. It has been described as an "Anti-Google" because it is a more authoritative and trustworthy alternative to crowdsourced knowledge repositories like Wikipedia.
Examples:
Art History
Guide to the Literature of Art History (2004)
The literature of art history is well documented by these reference bibliographies published by the American Library Association (ALA). Annotates art and architecture books and journals published worldwide in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Critical selection of nearly all literature in art history, primarily in Western European languages.
Also search: Art -- History -- Bibliography
