TAPESTRY OF EMOTIONS – PICTURE-BASED METHODS IN TEACHING ART HISTORY: A TEACHING EXPERIMENT CARRIED OUT IN A VOCATIONAL COLLEGE IN FINLAND

The paradigm of art history has changed drastically during the past decades. Instead of tracing the intentions of artists or studying works of art in their cultural and social contexts, recent art historical research has increasingly paid attention to the role of the spectator, as well as experiences that arise when perceiving works of art. This paper discusses picture-based methods in teaching art history in the frame of pictorial and emotional turns in recent art history. 25 students majoring in Visual Expression in a Finnish vocational college participated in the research and produced data by reflecting their study experiences. The data was analyzed qualitatively using content analysis and discourse analysis. The results of this study show that picture-based methods generated a variety of emotions activating students to reflect on art historical topics, as well as motivating them to study art history. The results of this study may function as encouragement for teachers of history and art history to apply picture-based methods.