| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ART HIS 40B | HIST OF WESTERN ART | POWELL, A. | The history of Western Art is a year-long introduction to art and visual culture in the West from prehistory to the present. In Winter Quarter, the course focuses on the long period that extends from the end of the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Less a survey than a series of case studies of specific issues, monuments, and artists, the course will examine the emergence of Christian visual culture, its dialogue with other cultures, its questioning of the nature and validity of representation, and its eclipse by the modern “work of art” in the Renaissance. |
| ART HIS 42B | HIST OF ASIAN ART | WUE, R. | This course surveys the traditions of architecture, ceramics, painting, and other media in relation to the social, political, and economic environments of China from the imperial era through the 20th century. Written work includes a midterm, final examination and short essays with emphasis on both reading and visual analysis. Regular attendance of lectures and discussion sessions are required. |
| ART HIS 114 | GOTHIC ART | GONOSOVA, A. | This course will examine the flourishing of religious and secular art (painting, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts) in the European Middle Ages in the 13th through the early 15th centuries, both in the context of the institutional use of art by the Church, royalty and rising urban governments, and in the context of the private devotional and cultural use. Course requirements include short quizzes, mid-term and final examinations, and two short papers. |
| ART HIS 120 | BAROQUE ROME | MASSEY, L. | This course will focus on the city of Rome from ca. 1590 to 1700. Traditionally referred to as the Age of the Baroque, this is a period in European history in which art is produced against the backdrop of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the rise of absolutism and the modern state, and the birth of modern science and philosophy with Galileo and Descartes. The class will begin with a discussion of the Counter-Reformation, its effects on Roman religious and artistic milieus and the rise of the great Counter-Reform orders, the Jesuits and the Oratorians. We will then move on to explore the work of Caravaggio and his followers and the work of the Carracci and the rebirth of Classicism at the dawn of the 17th century. We will then discuss Bernini and the aspirations of the papacy at St. Peters and look at some of the other architectural achievements of the era by Borromini and other architects, as well as some of the great illusionistic ceilings that appeared throughout Rome. The course will end with discussions of International Classicism and Poussin , the rise of the academies and the spread of grand Baroque Illusionism from Italy into other parts of Europe. |
| ART HIS 123 | NORTHRN RENAISSANCE | POWELL, A. | An introduction to the visual culture of northern Europe circa 1400 -1550, with an emphasis on painting, sculpture, and print making in the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany. The course traces the transition from the middle ages to the early modern period in the work of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Matthias Grünewald, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, with special attention to the issues of gift giving, the private devotional image, art and liturgy, the print revolution, artistic self-awareness, and the emergence of genres including portraiture and landscape. |
| ART HIS 134C | EUROP ART:1851-1907 | HERBERT, J. | This class takes as its subject the cultural and political crucible of Paris and its surrounds during the second half of the nineteenth century. The fine art of painting, at the time a highly privileged medium for the formulation and expression of ideas, will deservedly receive a great deal of our attention, but we will also investigate urban planning, drawing and printing, and a bit of sculpture. We will analyze the engagement of many of these visual artifacts in the cultural and social battles of their day during a contentious period of French history. Artists studied include Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Cassatt, Seurat, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Matisse. |
| ART HIS 164A | AFAM ART: 1619-1929 | COOKS CUMBO, B. | This course is part one of a two part investigation of the history and aesthetics of African American art with a particular focus on the politics of African American representation. Beginning chronologically with the arrival of Africans to the British colonies in 1619 and ending with the cultural phenomenon of the New Negro Movement, students will study African American cultural environments, and the objects of material culture (i.e. slave houses, jugs, quilts, furniture) and artworks created by African Americans. Course readings and class discussions are the primary means of investigating the topics discussed. |
| ART HIS 183C | AFAM & PHOTOGRAPHY | COOKS CUMBO, B. | This course explores the ways in which African Americans have been depicted and have depicted the world around them through photography. Students will examine the history of photography in relationship to African American culture through a variety of media from early daguerreotype processes to digital imagery. The course focuses on African American photographers' experiences, perspectives, and strategies for representation in visual culture. Students will use course readings and class discussions as the primary means of investigating the ideas discussed. |
| ART HIS 190W | PRACTCUM FOR MAJORS | WUE, R. | A required course for junior and senior art history majors, the practicum cultivates basic skills and knowledge necessary for specialized study in art history. We shall concentrate on basic bibliographic research skills and analytic reading skills in the field, while constantly honing skills in writing about art, and writing about writing on art. Accordingly, students should expect to write, edit, and revise numerous descriptive, technically oriented, and analytically oriented reading and research assignments. |