Art History and Greek

Art history and ancient Greek is a degree that connects the study of visual culture with engagement in one of the foundational languages of Western intellectual and artistic tradition. Art history develops your ability to analyse the history, context, style, and meaning of images and objects, as St Andrews describes it, building visual literacy and engaging with critical approaches and theoretical frameworks that allow you to explore the complex role visual culture plays in aesthetics, politics, power, and identity. Ancient Greek gives you direct access to the language in which Homer, Plato, Sophocles, and Thucydides wrote, unlocking primary sources in philosophy, literature, drama, and history that have shaped Western thought for two and a half millennia.

St Andrews' four-year full-time Art History and Greek degree includes a year abroad option, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner institution and experience another academic and cultural tradition directly. The combination develops close analytical reading skills across both visual and textual materials, asking you to engage with antiquity through language and image simultaneously. St Andrews' art history department is particularly strong in the classical world and in the relationship between ancient visual culture and later periods of art, making this a coherent and mutually enriching combination.

Graduates work in museums and galleries, heritage organisations, auction houses, arts journalism, cultural policy, education, academic research, publishing, and the classical world more broadly. The close reading and interpretive skills developed through the combination of art history and Greek are transferable to many professional contexts. Postgraduate study in art history, classical studies, classical archaeology, or curating is a natural next step for those wanting to develop specialist expertise or pursue academic careers.