1. Introduction to the History of Art I
08F, 09F: 11
A study of the basic problems in the understanding and criticism of architecture, sculpture, the graphic arts, and painting in Western and non-Western cultures. The course introduces the student to the basic terminology of the arts, the language of stylistic criticism, and the relationship of the arts to each other and to their historical background.
Art History 1 will concentrate on historical periods prior to 1500. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Cohen, Kangas.
2. Introduction to the History of Art II
09W, 10W: 11
A survey of art and architecture from 1500 to the present. The course introduces the student to the basic terminology of the arts, the language of stylistic criticism, and the relationship of the arts to each other and to their historical background. Art History 1 is not prerequisite to Art History 2. Priority for enrollment is given to first- and second-year students. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Carroll, Rosenthal.
4. Introduction to World Architecture
10W: 2
A comparative study of several architectural styles past and present, Western and Non-Western. Consideration will be given to a variety of building types ranging from the monumental to the residential. Dist: ART. Heck, Hockley.
7. First-Year Seminars in Art History
Consult special listings
10. Foreign Study I
09S, 10S: D.F.S.P.
Themes in the History of Roman Art. This course entails the on-site examination of mosaics, paintings and sculptures of particular art historical interest. The approach will be thematic, with emphasis falling on major issues within the History of Art. These may include narrative, iconography, social history, gender, perception, patronage, and formal analysis.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. Kenseth.
11. Foreign Study II
09S, 10S: D.F.S.P.
Roman Architecture. Rome offers a broad array of building types, architectural styles and urban spaces. This course introduces students to the principles of architectural analysis, while simultaneously plotting out a history of Roman architecture and urbanism. The course will begin with the study of ancient architecture. It will, however, focus on the evolution of architectural practices and forms during the late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. Dist: ART; WCult: W. The staff.
12. Foreign Study III
09S, 10S: D.F.S.P.
The Language and Culture of Rome. This course is equivalent to Italian 2. This course aims at expanding students’ knowledge of Italian language and culture. It begins with a review of basic verb forms and moves on to explore new tenses and moods. Throughout, students engage in practical exercises geared to improve their oral and written expression, as well as enhance their vocabularies. All classes will be conducted in Italian. Note that this course may not be counted as part of the Art History major.
Prerequisite: membership in the Foreign Study Program. The staff.
16. Special Topics in the History of Art
09W: 11, 12 09S: 2A 09X: 2A 09F: 10A 10S: 10, 2
In 09W, Section 1 at 11, The Blue Rider Group. The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was an international group of expressionists whose work was centered in Munich, around 1912. The class will study the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, August Macke, and Paul Klee; the group’s exhibitions; and the wide-ranging theoretical statements they published in fin-de-siècle, pre-war Munich. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Jordan.
In 09W, Section 2 at 12, Synagogue and Church: Archaeology of Roman Palestine (Identical to, and described under, Jewish Studies 41). Dist: ART; WCult: W. Kangas.
In 09S, Medieval Manuscript Illumination. Carroll, Corrigan.
In 09X, Sculpture. Rosenthal.
In 09F, Ancient Art and Myth. Rich and suspenseful, ancient mythology holds a central place in our imagination. One thinks of myths as a series of definitive plots, but art reveals all sorts of interpretive disagreements. Ancient art did not just illustrate mythology but participated in its construction. This course considers the notions of myth and visual story-telling from a theoretical perspective; briefly explores mythological narrative in the ancient Near East and Egypt; and focuses on myth-making in Greece and Rome. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Cohen.
In 10S, Section 1 at 10, Mexican Muralism (pending faculty approval). Coffey.
In 10S, Scetion 2 at 2, The Blue Rider Group. See 09W, above. Jordan.
17. Special Topics in the History of Art
09W: 3A 09F: 10 10W: 12
In 09W, Spectacles in Chinese Visual Culture. What sorts of representations or imageries astonish ancient and modern Chinese eyes? This seminar examines various types of “spectacles” constructed by artworks (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and events (festivals and rituals), and explores how intense visual impressions shaped Chinese visual culture from ancient to modern times. Focusing on ten selected cases involving specific ritual and political contexts, we will discuss how spectacles redefined the visual field and altered the everyday order of life in China. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hong.
In 09F, Visual Exchanges in East Asia. In both sacred and secular arts, China, Korea, and Japan shared many cultural foundations, and yet often developed their own distinctive forms of visual expression. This course provides an introduction to East Asia’s shared cultures while exploring how diplomacy, trade, and other forms of mutual exchange facilitated uniquely local variations in art and architecture. Notions of “influence,” “hybridity,” “negotiation,” “assimilation,” “transformation” and “appropriation” inform the conceptual and critical approaches employed in this course. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley, Hong.
In 10W, Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism, the first American artistic movement to gain international recognition, embodied many conflicts and paradoxes. Steeping themselves in earlier European modernism, the artists nonetheless pursued a style that was to be a-historical in its immediacy. They aimed to address the most profound questions of civilization solely through acts of spontaneity. Lectures, readings, and discussions will examine Pollock, Gorky, DeKooning, Rothko, and others amidst the complexities of American culture of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Jordan.
20. The Art of Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East
09W: 10A
A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, and occasionally minor arts in the Near East and Egypt from prehistory through approximately the first millennium B.C.E. The course aims at a parallel treatment of the Egyptian and various Near Eastern civilizations, especially those that developed in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria/Palestine, and Iran. Special attention will be paid to the cultural contacts among different ancient centers at key moments in history, as conjured up by individual monuments. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Cohen.
21. The Art of Greece: Prehistoric to Classical
08F: 2A
The course treats chronologically the history of Greek art from its beginnings to the end of the fifth century B.C. The principal monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting will be examined in terms of style, theme, and context. The question will be posed as to how Greek art came to serve Greek society, while some attention will also be given to the ways in which the classical tradition has persistently served later cultures. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Cohen.
22. Late Classical and Hellenistic Art in the Greek World
10W: 10A
The course examines the principal works of painting, sculpture, and architecture of the fourth through the first centuries B.C. This period marks the change from democracy to an age of kings and empire in the Greek world, a change associated with the rise of Macedonia as the dominant political and cultural force in Greece. In the reign of Alexander the Great, Macedonian power—and with it Greek civilization—expanded beyond the borders of Greece to encompass Egypt and the Near East. Particular emphasis will be given to recent discoveries in northern Greece of important monuments associated with the court of Alexander, his father Philip, and some of his immediate successors. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Cohen.
25. Roman Art
09W: 11 09F: 2A
A study of architecture, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts in Rome and the Empire from the Republican period through the second century A.D. Such issues as the influence of the Etruscan and Greek traditions, stylistic change and its determinants, and the role of art in Roman society will be considered in relation to both the great public monuments of Republican and Imperial Rome and the works made for private individuals. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Corrigan.
30. Early Christian Art
09S: 12
A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the minor arts in the Mediterranean from the third through seventh centuries. Emphasis will be placed on the role of art in late antique society, especially in the process of transformation from the classical to the medieval world. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Corrigan.
31. Byzantine Art
09W, 10W: 2
A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the minor arts of Byzantium from the period of Iconoclasm to the fall of Constantinople. Emphasis will be placed on the use of art during this period to express the beliefs and goals of the church and the state and to satisfy private devotional needs. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Corrigan.
32. Early Medieval Art
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
Though the eighth through eleventh centuries are often erroneously known as the “Dark Ages,” this course will explore the vibrant life in the emerging northern Europe of Charlemagne and William the Conqueror. Evolving methods of societal organization and identity through religion, nationhood and the cult of personality will be examined through the art and architecture of the period. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Carroll.
33. Gothic Art and Architecture
10S: 2A
Characterized by rising urbanism, a growing middle class and developed political states, the Gothic period combines elements of medieval and early modern worlds. This course will explore the influence of new patrons and institutions on the era’s art, the art’s reflection of the period’s religious and political reality, and the popularity of new, more secular subject matter. The works covered will encompass both massive public projects, such as Chartres Cathedral, and the personal, private taste found on ivory mirror backs. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Carroll.
36. Italian Medieval Art and Architecture, 1200-1400
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
What is it to picture divinity? What can paintings do that texts cannot? How do public buildings communicate political ideas? This course addresses such questions in relation to the art and architecture of late medieval Italy. We analyze paintings by Duccio, Giotto, and the Lorenzetti, sculptures by the Pisani, and Italian Romanesque and Gothic architecture. We discuss these in relation to mendicant spirituality, communal politics, and the emergence of Italian vernacular literature. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Randolph.
40. Florence 1400-1450: Culture, Politics, Society
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
This course advances an interdisciplinary account of Florentine art, architecture, literature, politics, and social life during the crucial years in which the Medici family first came to power. Examining the period’s rich historical and historiographical resources, we seek to understand the novel cultural character of Masaccio’s paintings, Donatello’s sculpture, Brunelleschi’s architecture, Alberti’s theoretical writings, and Burchiello’s poetry, within a thematic structure that also addresses the development of linear perspective, of public political art, and of a new architectural language. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Randolph.
41. Italian Visual Culture, 1450-1500
08F: 10A
In this course we explore various Italian cultural centers—Florence, Mantua, Milan, Naples, Rome, Urbino, and Venice—during the second half of the fifteenth century. While focusing on the cultural particularities of each locale, we also consider an array of broader thematic and generic developments, including mythological painting, pictorial narration, the collection and display of art, gender and spectatorship, the emulation of antiquity, and portraiture. Artists studied include Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Botticelli, Perugino, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Randolph.
42. The High Renaissance and Mannerism in Italy
09F: 10A
A study of the major monuments of painting and sculpture in Italy during the sixteenth century. The course surveys the classical style of the High Renaissance (beginning with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Giorgione) and then traces the development of Mannerism and Maniera in the work of such artists as Pontormo, Bronzino, and Tintoretto. The art of the reformers at the end of the century is also considered, especially as it looks forward to the Baroque. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Kenseth.
43. Northern Renaissance Art
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
A survey of the major monuments of painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts in the Low Countries, Germany, and France, from the late fourteenth century through the Reformation. Content as well as style is examined in the light of its relation to social transformation and the cultural evolution of the period. Emphasis is placed on the work of such significant personalities as the van Eycks, van der Weyden, Bosch, Bruegel, Grünewald, Dürer, and Holbein. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Carroll.
45. Southern Baroque Art
10S: 10A
A survey of painting and sculpture from 1600 to 1700. This course focuses upon the art of Caravaggio and his followers in Italy and Spain; the Carracci and the development of seventeenth century classicism; Bernini and the High Baroque; and the art of French visitors to Italy. Special emphasis is given to the relation that the painting and sculpture of this time has to seventeenth century poetry, theatre, science and the aims of the reformed Catholic Church. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Kenseth.
46. Northern Baroque Art
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
Painting in Flanders and Holland from 1600 to 1700. This course considers the naturalistic tradition from Caravaggio’s northern followers to the Haarlem School of Hals; the art of Rembrandt; the classical genre of Vermeer and the Delft School; Rubens and the Flemish High Baroque. The growth of specialized genres of painting and the differing aesthetic aims of Dutch and Flemish painters are viewed against the background of the Protestant reformation and the rise of a mercantile society. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Kenseth.
48. Rococo to Neoclassicism
09F: 2A
This course explores the transformative period in European art and culture between 1700 and 1800, when the Rococo, seen as playful and decadent, gave way to the politically and morally charged art of Neoclassicism. We study painting, sculpture, and prints in France, England, and Italy in relation to academic art theory, the public sphere, the exhibition, the Grand Tour, colonialism, and the socio-political upheavals leading to the French Revolution. Artists include Hogarth, Boucher, Tiepolo, Kauffman, Reynolds, David. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Rosenthal.
50. Romanticism
09S: 10A
From the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century the artistic and intellectual movement of Romanticism dominated European culture. Its emphasis on strong emotions, tumultuous nature, and individual imagination was seen as a reaction against the rationalism of Neoclassicism, and as a response to major social and political changes. This course explores key paintings, sculptures, and prints by Romantic artists from France, Britain, Germany, and Spain, including Delacroix, Géricault, Constable, Turner, Goya and Friedrich. Dist: ART. WCult: W. O’Rourke.
51. Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
09W: 2A 09X: 10A
From 1848 to 1914, French art and the modern city of Paris dominated the international art scene. This course explores the radical visual culture of the period in painting, sculpture, prints and photography, from the realism of Courbet and Manet to the abstraction of Seurat and Cézanne. We will focus on how new technologies, political and social revolutions, and exhibition culture influenced the work of Cassatt, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Rodin, among others. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Rosenthal.
52. Building America: An Architectural and Social History (Identical to History 34)
09W: 2
This course draws upon recent scholarship in anthropology, archaeology, material culture, social history and architectural history in its review of five centuries of American architecture. Course lectures not only emphasize America’s principal architects and their designs, but also summarize the social and cultural forces that shaped the country’s built landscape. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Heck.
53. Classic Modernism: Painting and Sculpture 1900-1914
09F: 2
The founding movements of European modernism: Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, German Expressionism, early abstract art. Sources in Post-Impressionism. Issues of structure and meaning. Special focus on the innovations of Picasso, Matisse, and Kandinsky; extensive readings in artistic manifestos and contemporaneous criticism. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Jordan.
54. The First Crisis of Modernism: Painting and Sculpture 1914-1945
09W: 2
Art after the First World War: International Dada, Surrealism, Suprematism, Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus. The further development of abstraction: Mondrian, De Stijl, Abstraction-Création, early modernism in New York. The idea of the avant-garde and inter-war struggles for leadership will be studied in theoretical and historical context. Readings in primary sources. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Jordan.
55. Late and Post-Modernism: Art from 1945 to the Present
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
Abstract Expressionism (the New York School) as culmination of the modernist tradition. The “Post-Pollock” problem and reactions. Neo-Dada, Pop Art, Hard Edge, Minimalism, Conceptual, New Realism, Neo-Expressionism, Appropriationism, recent movements. Considerations of Modernism and Post-Modernism; problems of the late avant-garde; and changing relationships between the artist and society. Extensive readings in contemporary theory and criticism. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Wolfskill.
59. Modern Architecture
08F: 2
Architectural historians disagree about the origins of the modern era. For many, “modern” suggests principally the built works of the twentieth century. Others find the great projects of the nineteenth-century industrial revolution a more suitable place to begin. Still others—as will we—push the beginnings of “modern” architectural thought and practice back to the late eighteenth century. In this way we place architectural transformation in the context of the great changes taking place in the political, artistic, social and intellectual life of the period.
This course approaches architecture as a cultural product and investigates the relationship between buildings, the ideas embodied in buildings and the cultures that designed them. We will chart the history of modern design from the Age of Enlightenment to the present. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Heck.
60. The Arts of China
08F: 11
Intended as a general introduction to Chinese art and culture, this course will survey major artistic developments from neolithic times to the Republican period. Among the topics to be considered are Shang and Chou bronzes, Buddhist sculpture, and the evolution of landscape painting from the Han to Ch’ing Dynasties. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
63. Sacred Art and Architecture of Japan
09W: 10
This course examines Shinto and Buddhist architectural, sculptural, painting and print traditions from the prehistoric to the modern era. The primary emphasis will be on the relationship of these arts to their doctrinal sources and the ritual, social, and political contexts in which they were created and utilized. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
64. The Japanese Painting Tradition
09S: 2
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the Japanese painting tradition. Surveying a broad range of themes, formats, and styles and exploring the relationship between indigenous sensibilities and the traditions Japanese artists borrowed from continental Asia and the West, it defines the unique aesthetic experience offered by Japanese sacred and secular painting. Its focus on patronage and studio practice emphasizes the social, political, and cultural processes that underscored important developments in the painting tradition. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
65. Japanese Prints
10W: 10
A survey of the Japanese print tradition from its inception in the seventeenth century through modern prints in the early twentieth century, this course emphasizes the relationship between prints and the political, social, and cultural milieu in which they circulated. The curriculum includes applications of recent critiques and theoretical approaches from fields as diverse as sexuality and gender studies, mass culture and media studies, aesthetics of popular arts, and the sociology of consumption. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
66. The Camera in Nineteenth-Century Asia
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
This course examines the use of photography by colonial governments, anthropologists, commercial photographers, and tourists in nineteenth-century Asia. It also takes into account indigenous uses of photography that both conform with and react against Western uses of the medium. Consideration is also given to the diffusion of photographic images into other media including news publications, government documents, academic studies, travelogues, guidebooks, and museum displays. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
67. Contemporary Arts of Asia
09W: 12
This course examines the contemporary art of Asia from a variety of historical, cultural, and critical perspectives. Lectures, readings and discussions range across broad themes such as identity, globalization, trans-nationalism, and feminism and include examination of both traditional and new media. Case studies examine the work of both well-established and emerging young artists. This course is designed to equip students with the critical skills necessary to appreciate, discuss, and analyze contemporary Asian art. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Hockley.
70. American Encounters: From Conquest to 1900
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
This course surveys visual culture in North America from the sixteenth century to 1900. In addition to the development of Anglo-American culture and identity, the course also explores the influence of Dutch, Spanish, and French settlers as well as Native American, African, and Asian contributions to North American art. We will consider painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, graphic art, folk traditions, and material culture with special emphasis on race, nation, gender, and class. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Coffey.
71. The “American Century”: Modern Art in the United States
10S: 12
This course surveys visual culture in North America over the twentieth century. While the United States will be emphasized, we will also consider art produced in Canada and Mexico. In addition to mainstream artists, we will explore art produced by marginalized communities, in particular African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, women, and Queer artists. Genres covered include: painting, sculpture, mural art, performance, installation, photography, and political graphics. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Coffey.
75. Twentieth Century Art from Latin America (Identical to Latin American and Caribbean Studies 78)
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
This course surveys works of art produced by Latin Americans during the twentieth century. We will approach this vast topic through case studies of the major figures and avant-garde movements in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and the United States. We will examine how national identity, racial formation, class difference, gender inequality, political struggle, and state violence have been addressed by artists from the region and in diaspora. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Coffey.
76. Mexican Modernism
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
This course surveys Modern art in Mexico from the turn of the twentieth century through the late 1960s. The course emphasizes Mexican muralism, but we will also examine alternative modernisms developing simultaneously and in opposition to this dominant discourse. We will survey painting, sculpture, murals, photography, popular graphics, folk art, architecture, and urban planning. Class will be devoted to the analysis of visual as well as textual materials from the period. Dist: ART; WCult: CI. Coffey.
80, 81, 82, 83, 84. Advanced Seminars in Art History
Intensive study of special fields in art history. Open to all classes without prerequisite (except as noted), but with the permission of the instructor.
80. 09F: 2A. The Colonial Lens: Photography in Nineteenth-Century Africa and Asia. Hockley.
81. 08F: 2A. Skin: The Surface of Art. Rosenthal.
This seminar explores the relationship between skin and visual representation in a broad range of media from the Renaissance to the present. Topics include depictions of Christ’s incarnation (“becoming flesh”) as the “birth” of art, representation of flesh in Baroque and Romantic painting, complexion in relation to concepts of gender and race, debates on the opacity and transparency of skin, and skin as literal or metaphorical boundary between self and other.
82 10W: 3A. Ideals of Physical Beauty: Gender and the Body in Ancient Art. Cohen.
83. 09W: 10A. Art of the Hapsburgs.
The seminar looks at the history of taste, collecting and patronage under the Hapsburgs, one of the most powerful dynastic families of Europe during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Attention will focus on the art produced and collected at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries at the courts of Rudolph II in Prague and Philip IV in Spain. Besides specific issues relating to patronage, collecting and the political symbolism of imperial art, the contributions of painters such as Titian, Arcimboldo and Velazquez will be discussed. Kenseth.
84.
Not offered in the period from 08F through 10S
85. Senior Seminar in Art Historical Theory and Method
08F: 2A 09F: 10A. Dist: ART. Coffey.
86. Senior Seminar in Art Historical Theory and Method
09W: 3A 10W: 2A. Dist: ART. Randolph.
89. Independent Study
All terms: Arrange
Independent Study is intended for advanced students who have demonstrated their ability to do independent research in art history and who wish to study some topic in greater depth than is possible in a regularly scheduled course or seminar. The Independent Study project should be preceded by at least one Art History course in an area related to the topic under consideration, and may even develop out of that course. A student interested in undertaking Independent Study must first submit a proposal to the faculty member with whom he or she wishes to study. Assuming agreement by that faculty member, the proposal will then be reviewed by the entire Art History faculty. Ordinarily, this must be done in the term immediately preceding the term in which the Independent Study course will be taken. The Independent Study course cannot be used to fulfill any of the requirements for the Art History major or minor.
90-91. Honors
08F, 09W, 09S, 09F, 10W, 10S: Arrange
A sequence of two courses devoted to independent research and the writing of a thesis or execution of a project under direction of a departmental adviser. Students admitted to and participating in the departmental honors program must take these courses in consecutive terms of the senior year.
Prerequisite: consult the statement of the Art History Honors Program. Only one of these courses may be counted as part of the major in Art History. Kenseth.