Department of History of Art
Since the nineteenth century, the University of Oxford has played a significant role in the visual arts. Although not a subject in its own right, history of art was promoted in Oxford for its value within the type of general education the University aimed to provide for students. It was pursued as strands within history, languages, archaeology, continuing education and practical art, rather than through a dedicated undergraduate or postgraduate curriculum. Then in 1955, the first Professor of the History of Art, Professor Edgar Wind, was appointed by the Faculty of History. Wind's successor in 1967 was Professor Francis Haskell, who substantiated the link between artists and their social contexts through documentary research on patronage, taste and collecting in early modern Europe. Professor Martin Kemp, the leading Leonardo scholar, was the Professor of the History of Art from 1995-2007.
Centre for Visual Studies
Located within the Department of History of Art, the Centre is an inter-disciplinary forum for the study of visual and material culture for members of the University. The Director of the Centre is the current Head of the History of Art Department.
The University of Oxford possesses an unrivalled range of expertise and resources relating to all aspects of visual and material culture, including important collections of art and artefacts from many periods and places, world-class research libraries, and scientific investigations into vision and perception. The purpose of the Centre is to encourage researchers to draw upon a wider range of such resources than is customary within the discipline of Art History and to encourage scholars outside the discipline to engage with visual and material culture, broadly defined. Past and present visitors have, for example, conducted research into Renaissance theories of perception, the history of waxworks, nineteenth-century archaeological illustration, and linguistic theory and graphic design.
The Centre for Visual Studies hosts and co-hosts a number of research events throughout the year, attracting speakers and participants from across the University. Details of forthcoming events can be found on our Events page.
