This course presents the fundamental aspects of the history of art criticism from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, with a strong focus on the contextualisation of the different methodological approaches related to the analysis of works of art. By analysing art criticism as its own distinctive genre, it will focus specifically on the advantages and dangers of close description, as well as the discussion of the broader questions: What is the nature of criticism and critique? Are critics judges, historians, participants or creative agents in their own right? A wide range of figures that characterised art criticism and defined the practice will be discussed, ranging from Denis Diderot to Susan Sontag and, more recently, Hilton Als. Through a selection of significant examples of their work, the course discusses how the functions and audiences of art criticism have changed, and how its writing has not only helped to criticize, but also simultaneously shape the practice of art.