DARTMOUTH SEPTEMBER 2026
How did art both mirror and shape the great transformations of European history? This course invites learners on a journey through five centuries of Western art, from the soaring cathedrals of the Gothic age to the elegance of the Enlightenment. Along the way, you will encounter masterpieces that reveal how artists responded to questions of faith, power, identity, and knowledge—and how their works reshaped the very way people saw the world.
Each week focuses on a pivotal moment, moving from the grandeur of thirteenth-century sacred art to the realism of Dutch domestic interiors, from the drama of Baroque spectacle to the clarity of Enlightenment classicism. The course combines lectures with lively discussion of key readings, encouraging you to think critically about how art reflects cultural values while also driving social and intellectual change.
What makes this course distinctive is its dual emphasis: you will learn to analyse visual form with precision while also situating works of art within their historical and philosophical contexts. By the end, you will not only recognize the major styles—Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical—but also understand the debates and ideas that shaped their creation.
Whether you are drawn to the grandeur of Michelangelo, the luminous colours of Venetian painting, the quiet realism of Vermeer, or the rational elegance of the Enlightenment, this course offers a chance to engage deeply with the art that helped define Western culture.
Weekly Outline
Week 1: The Church Triumphant: Sacred Authority, Visual Culture, and the Gothic Imagination in the Thirteenth Century
Week 2: Art and Social Identity: Courtiers, Burghers, and the Shifting Patronage of the Fourteenth Century; The Conquest of Reality: Naturalism and Devotional Experience in the Early Fifteenth Century
Week 3: Tradition and Innovation I: Humanism, Classicism, and Artistic Experimentation in Later Fifteenth-Century Italy; Tradition and Innovation II: Devotion, Detail, and Symbolism in Fifteenth-Century Northern Europe
Week 4: Harmony Attained: Idealism, Proportion, and Intellectual Synthesis in Tuscany and Rome, Early Sixteenth Century; Light and Colour: Sensuous Aesthetics and the Poetics of Vision in Venice and Northern Italy
Week 5: The New Learning Spreads: Humanist Ideals, Reformation Culture, and the Visual Arts in Germany and the Netherlands
Week 6: A Crisis of Art: Mannerism, Religious Upheaval, and the Challenge to Classical Norms in Late Sixteenth-Century Europe
Week 7: Vision and Visions: Spirituality, Spectacle, and the Catholic Imagination in Early Seventeenth-Century Europe
Week 8: The Mirror of Nature: Realism, Domesticity, and the Rise of a Bourgeois Aesthetic in Seventeenth-Century Holland
Week 9: Power and Glory I: The Papacy, Absolutism, and the Theatrics of Power in Seventeenth-Century Italy; Power and Glory II: Monumentality, Court Culture, and Artistic Display in France, Germany, and Austria, 17th–18th Centuries
Week 10: The Age of Reason: Enlightenment Thought, Neoclassicism, and the Reconfiguration of Art in Eighteenth-Century England and France
Practical Information
Readings: All required readings will be provided, both in print and electronically, ensuring learners have easy access to the material.
Course Fee: The cost for the full 10-week course is £300, payable by 1st September.
Delivery: The course will be taught by Dr. Nicci Wakeham in Dartmouth.
Schedule: Dates and times are as follows:
2026 - September 21st, October 5th and 19th, November 2nd, 16th and 30th, December 14th
2027 - January 4th and 18th, and final session on February 1st.
· Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
· The course Fee: £300, to be paid by the 1st September. Please do use the booking form on my website (drnicciwakeham.uk), if not suitable, please post your details to the address below and I will send out a booking form. Payment can be made either on the website, or by cheque: N Wakeham, and posted to Tangles, Brixton, PL8 2AH.
Contact Information
· Tutor: Dr Nicola Wakeham
· Mobile: 07818 662661 – please do leave a message with your number and I will return your call
· Email: nicci.arthistory@hotmail.com Website: Drnicciwakeham.uk
