Guide in PDF format
Logo

Basic Concepts Artistic Heritage and Museology

Code: 100542
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Art History FB 2

Contact lecturer

Name :
Daniel Rico Camps
Email :
daniel.rico@uab.cat

Teaching staff

José María Romero Martinez

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Objectives

Introduction to the past, present, and future of cultural heritage, understood as a common good, a cultural category, and a professional sector, with special attention to the distinctive features of artistic heritage.

Learning outcomes

  1. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  2. Working in teams, respecting the other's points of view and designing collaboration strategies.
  3. Analysing classical and current debates of the History of Art.
  4. Recognising the methodological, iconographic and Art Theory-related knowledge in order to read an artistic imagery.
  5. Analysing the current or past debates about management, conservation, restoration and documentation systems of the artistic heritage.
  6. Analysing basic concepts of museology and museography.

Contents

COURSE SYLLABUS


  1. Introduction: heritage as a value and as a right.
  2. Historical interest versus artistic interest. The Renaissance, historical consciousness, and Classicism.
  3. Heritage and revolution: heritage as a common good.
  4. Heritage and modernity: heritage as a compensatory figure.
  5. Against heritage: nationalism, elitism, and mercantilism.
  6. Modernity versus heritage: new museologies, intangible heritage, tout patrimoine.
  7. Historical memory and the crisis of monumentality: counter-monumentality and critical conservation.
  8. The three dimensions of heritage: cultural, economic, and social.
  9. Heritage protection and management: research, conservation, and dissemination.
  10. The legal regulation of heritage: the Spanish case.
  11. Basic concepts of conservation and restoration.


BASIC COURSE VOCABULARY


Historical and theoretical concepts:


  • Historical value
  • Artistic value
  • Age value
  • Intentional monument
  • Unintentional monument
  • Historical monument
  • Historical consciousness
  • Authenticity
  • Fake
  • Conservationism
  • Ruin
  • Antiquities
  • Classicism
  • Public museum
  • Common good
  • Iconoclasm
  • Revolutionary vandalism
  • Compensatory figure
  • Museum vs. gallery
  • Pastism
  • Futurism


Heritage institutions and categories:


  • UNESCO
  • ICOM
  • ICOMOS
  • Council of Europe
  • World Heritage
  • Cultural heritage
  • Natural heritage
  • Intangible heritage
  • Tout patrimoine
  • Landscape
  • Tradition
  • Memory vs. History
  • Historical or democratic memory
  • Counter-monument / anti-monument
  • Critical conservation
  • Iconoclash
  • De(s)colonization


Museology and heritage management:


  • Conservation, research, and dissemination
  • Museology
  • Museography
  • Code of ethics
  • New museologies
  • Ecomuseum
  • Interpretation
  • Industrial archaeology
  • Tout patrimoine
  • Cultural tourism
  • McDonaldization of heritage


Legal aspects:


  • The dual nature of heritage
  • Constitutionalization of heritage
  • Right of belonging and right of enjoyment
  • Listed and inventoried heritage assets
  • Rights of pre-emption and redemption
  • 1% cultural funding


Conservation and restoration:


  • Athens Charter
  • Venice Charter
  • Preventive conservation
  • Curative conservation
  • Scientific restoration
  • Stylistic restoration
  • Modern notoriety


Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Master classes, tutorship and individual study 80 3.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Compulsory readings 20 0.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Group work, external visits, etc. 50 2 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

Lectures, compulsory readings, group work, field trips, and seminars with invited lecturers.


Note: Fifteen minutes of one class session, within the schedule established by the faculty or degree programme, will be reserved for students to complete the teaching performance and course evaluation surveys, in order to encourage student participation in these institutional evaluation processes.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Readings 20 0 0 5, 6
Written examination 40 0 0 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
PCAM 20 0 0 3, 5, 6
Group work 20 0 0 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

Midterm Examination 1: 20% of the final grade.

Midterm Examination 2: 20%e.

Course paper/project: 20%.

Activities related to the PCAM: 20%.

Required readings: 20%.


Exchange students wishing to take an examination in advance must submit to the instructor a written document from their home university justifying their request.


Review of grades: At the time each assessment activity is carried out, the instructor will inform students (via Moodle) of the procedure and the date for reviewing grades.


RESIT ASSESSMENT

Continuous assessment:

To be eligible for the resit assessment, students must previously have been assessed in activities accounting for at least two-thirds of the final grade. Students who have not completed the examinations and the course assignment cannot pass the course. In the resit assessment, students will only be required to take the parts they have failed. To participate in the resit process, the instructor may require students to have obtained a minimum final mark, which may not exceed 3.5 under any circumstances.

Single assessment:

The same resit system as for continuous assessment will apply.


Definition of "Not Assessed"

Students will receive the grade "Not Assessed" if they have submitted no more than 30% of the assessment activities.


Academic misconduct (plagiarism/fraud)

If a student commits any irregularity that may significantly affect the grade of an assessment activity, that activity will be graded 0, regardless of any disciplinary proceedings that may follow. If multiple irregularities occur in the assessment activities of the same course, the final grade for the course will be 0.


Artificial Intelligence

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in this course is permitted exclusively for bibliographic or information searches, as well as for text correction or translation tasks. Students must (i) identify the sections generated using AI; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced both the process and the final outcome of the assignment. Failure to disclose the use of AI in an assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty and will result in a grade of 0 for the activity, with no possibility of resit, or more severe sanctions in serious cases.


Bibliography

Ambrose, T. y C. Paine, El museo. Manual internacional, Madrid, 2019.

Bevan, R., Mentiras monumentales. La guerra cultural sobre el pasado, Valencia, 2023.

Bolaños, M., La memoria del mundo. Cien años de museología 1900-2000, Gijón, 2002.

Capitel, A., Metamorfosis de monumentos y teorías de la restauración, Madrid, 1992.

Choay, F., Alegoría del Patrimonio (1992), Barcelona, 2007.

Donaire, J. A., Turisme cultural. Entre l’experiència i el ritual, Gerona, 2008.

Duncan, C., Rituales de civilización (1995), Murcia, 2007.

Fernández, L. A., Introducción a la nueva museología, Madrid, 1999.

Gamboni, D., La destrucción del arte. Iconoclasia y vandalismo desde la Revolución Francesa (2007), Madrid, 2014.

Gob, A., Le musée, une institution dépassé?, Paris, 2010.

Georgel, C. (dir.), La jeunesse des musées. Les musées de France au XIXè siècle. Paris, musée d’Orsay, 7 février – 8 mai 1994, París, 1994.

Gómez Martínez, J., Dos museologías. Las tradiciones anglosajona y mediterránea: diferencias y contactos, Gijón, 2006.

González–Varas, I., Conservación de Bienes Culturales. Teoría, historia, principios y normas, Madrid, 1999.

Hudson, K., “El museo como centro social”, Letra, 15/16 (1989), pp. 73-76.

Iniesta i Gonzàlez, M., Els gabinets del món. Antropologia, museus i museologia, Lleida, 1994.

Lowe, K., Prisioneros de la historia. Monumentos y Segunda Guerra Mundial, Barcelona, 2021.

Lowenthal, D., El pasado es un país extraño, Madrid, 1998.

Jokilehto, J., A History of Architectural Conservation, Oxford, 1999.

Muñoz Viñas, S., Teoría contemporánea de la Restauración, Madrid, 2003.

Núñez Seixas, X. M., Guaridas del lobo. Memorias de la Europa autoritaria, 1945-2020, Barcelona, 2021.

Pommier, É., L'Art de la liberté : doctrines et débats de la révoltion français, Paris, 1991.

Poulot, D., Patrimoine et musées. L´institution de la culture, París, 2001.

Quatremère de Quincy, A. C., Cartas a Miranda (1796), ed. D. Rico, Murcia, 2007.

Reuben Holo, S., Más allá del Prado. Museos e identidad en la España democrática, Madrid, 2002.

Rico, D., “Hacia un patrimonio sin entidad”, Patrimono Cultural y Derecho, 22 (2018), pp. 383-398.

Rico, D., ¿Quién teme a Francisco Franco? Memoria, patrimonio, democracia, Barcelona, 2024.

Riegl, A., El culto moderno a los monumentos (1903), Madrid, 1987

Rivière, G.–H., La museología, Madrid, 1993.

Schnapp, A., La conquête du passé. Aux origines de l’archéologie, París, 1993.

Settis, S., Italia S.p.A. L’assalto al patrimonio culturale, Turín, 2002.

Vergès, F., Programa de desorden absoluto. Descolonizar el museo, México 2025.

Young, J. E., The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, New Haven, Londres y Yale University Press, 1993.

Software

No requiremnt

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(PCAM) Field practices 11 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PCAM) Field practices 12 Catalan second semester morning-mixed