Early modern art and visual culture

The Art History discipline at The Open University has a strong specialisation in Early Modern art and culture that extends from Byzantine art to Northern Europe and the Italian Renaissance.

Our research considers both canonical and non-canonical imagery and objects, using a range of contextual approaches. Archival research and the close examination of objects, as well as innovative methodologies, inform our investigation of focused problems in Early Modern art history. We are also interested in the reception of art in later centuries, and welcome applications without language specialisms for UK-based collections research.

We welcome applications in areas that correspond with current staff research interests. We look for detailed and well thought out proposals, which set out specific research questions and outline the originality of your topic or approach.

Entry requirements

A UK Masters’ degree or equivalent level in a relevant subject (art, architecture or design history), or exceptionally a First Class undergraduate degree with a substantial dissertation. If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

Potential research projects

We welcome applications to study topics that complement our current research.

Current/recent research projects

• Giotto and Non-Giotto in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• The decorations of "The Hall of the Liberal Arts" at the Trinci Palace, Foligno: a new way of presenting the Seven Liberal Arts?
• Ecclesiastical Art of the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries from a Contextual/Liturgical Perspective.

Potential supervisors

• Dr Carla Benzan – art and visual culture in early modern Catholic Europe 
• Dr William Kynan-Wilson – the early modern Mediterranean particularly cultural exchange with the Ottoman world 
• Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou – Byzantine art and culture
• Dr Clare Taylor – seventeenth century material culture in Britain
• Dr Margit Thofner – visual, spatial and material culture in north-western Europe c.1500-1700
• Dr Robert Wallis – art and archaeology of falconry and other human-raptor relationships

Fees and funding

Some of our research students are funded via the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• Byzantine Research Group
• Medieval and Early Modern Research Group
• Art History at The Open University
• Postgraduate Research | Faculty of Arts and Social Science