The Department of Art History offers an exciting sequence of courses—from introductory surveys to more specialized seminars—that explore the complex world of visual art in its different historical contexts. A central part of the art history program is dedicated to the analysis of the significant facts and forms of visual art from Antiquity to Postmodernism. This analysis encompasses an effort to frame critically and understand historically the plurality of ways in which art has been conceived, produced, used and interpreted throughout time, according to the mutable interplay of material conditions and cultural expectations that characterizes different societies. Consequently, the courses cover a vast horizon of topics, problems, and questions pertaining to artistic traditions belonging to a wide variety of periods and geographic areas, from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Through these courses, students are gradually introduced to all the methodologies traditionally adopted by art historians, such as Formalism, Pure Visibility, Iconography and Iconology, Art Literature and Art Criticism. In the more specialized courses, students are also introduced to more recent methods of investigation, becoming familiar with theories and practices of analysis such as Feminism, the Sociology of Art, Hermeneutics, and Deconstruction among others. Thanks to a conscious, critically mediated adoption of these methodologies, students are able not only to increase their personal skills of interpretation, but also to enlarge significantly their own horizons of research.
In order to achieve such a highly individual-oriented process of learning, in which each student will be constantly stimulated to develop further his or her intellectual potential, the courses have been organized into four complementary levels, each with specific goals, aims and requirements.
With the exception of the Senior Seminar, which is exclusively reserved for Art History majors, all courses organized by the Department of Art History are also open to any interested Willamette student, regardless of his or her specific major.
Department offices are located in Ford Hall, an award-winning “green” structure designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and built by Hoffman Construction Company. The building opened officially in 2009. The building is named in honor of the late Hallie Ford, a Willamette lifetime trustee and benefactor, who donated funds for its construction. Her portrait by Portland artist Paul Missal hangs in the main lobby of Ford Hall, creating an implicit link between the department offices and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, which was also made possible through her generous gifts. Classrooms in Ford Hall include various seminar spaces and Ford Theater, which features a wall-to-wall screen, auditorium-quality sound, and seating to accommodate 110 people. Two large textile artworks (9 x 17 ft.) donated in 2012 by Willamette alumna, contemporary artist Marie Watt, grace the building, further reminding students and staff of the ongoing exchange between Ford Hall and the campus museum.
Closely connected to the programs and activities of the Department of Art History is the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, located a few blocks from Ford Hall. The Museum constitutes an important addition to the intellectual and cultural life of the university, for it offers an incomparably rich opportunity to contemplate works of American, Native American, European, and Asian art displayed in its permanent collection or temporarily loaned for special events and exhibits. The Museum is also an ideal place for faculty and students to conduct their research and experience, firsthand, curatorial practices and similar activities directly related to the fields of Art History, Archaeology, Museology and Art Criticism. Furthermore, many Art History classes and lectures take place in the museum’s elegant Roger P. Hull Lecture Hall, named for the much beloved professor emeritus of art history who helped found the museum (tenure at Willamette, 1970-2010).
Requirements for Art History Major (40 semester hours)
Core courses (20 semester hours)
(It is recommended that the 100-level introductory courses be taken in the intended chronological sequence)
- Two of the following:
- ARTH 105 Introduction to Art History of the Stone and Bronze Age (2)
- ARTH 106 Introduction to Art History from Ancient Greece to the Roman Republic (2)
- ARTH 107 Introduction to Art History from the Roman to the Byzantine Empire (2)
- ARTH 108 Introduction to Art History of the Western Middle Ages and Islam (2)
- ARTH 116 Introduction to Renaissance and Early Modern Art History (4)
- ARTH 117 Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art History (4)
- ARTH 362W Theories and Methodologies of Art History (4)
- ARTH 496W Art History Senior Seminar (4)
One course in Early or Asian Art History from the following (4 semester hours)
- ARTH 112 Introduction to South Asian Art History (4)
- ARTH 113 Introduction to Chinese Art History (4)
- ARTH 114 Introduction to Japanese Art History (4)
- ARTH 259 Medieval Art and Architecture (4)
- ARTH 270 Roman Art and Architecture (4)
- ARTH 271 Greek Art and Architecture (4)
One course in Early Modern Art History from the following (4 semester hours)
- ARTH 263 Baroque and Neoclassical Visual Culture (4)
- ARTH 267 Renaissance Visual Culture (4)
- ARTH 275W Art Literature and Criticism (4)
One course in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the following (4 semester hours)
- ARTH 243 Contemporary Art: 1970-present (4)
- ARTH 246 Modern Art [Europe and America]: 1890-1945 (4)
- ARTH 247 18th- and 19th-Century Art History (4)
- ARTH 339W Post-War Art: 1945-1970 (4)
- ARTH 376W History of Photography (4)
Two additional courses in Art History (8 semester hours)
- Two electives in Art History
Requirements for Art History Minor (20 semester hours)
Students will complete 20 semester hours in art history with no more than 12 semester hours at the 100-level
Indicators of Achievement
Student Learning Outcomes for the Art History Major
- Visual Literacy and Historical Thinking
- In the 100-level classes, students will acquire an introductory background of historical data as well as a basic set of interpretive tools in order to critically locate and understand the production, reception and diffusion of visual codes, styles and techniques belonging to the field of art, from the prehistoric cave paintings of Southern France to the aesthetic challenges of Post-modernism. Cultivating Visual Literacy is a primary goal of the required introductory courses (Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Art History, Introduction to Renaissance and Early Modern Art History, Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art History), preferably undertaken in chronological sequence. Formal analysis and basic historical investigations will constitute, therefore, the methodological core of this formative sequence.
- Critical Terminology and Interpretive Skills
- In the 200-level classes, students will further develop the capacity for recognizing, critically de-structuring and historically interpreting different forms of artistic creation as well as other typologies of visual production properly set in their specific contexts. In these courses, students will become able to describe, explore and explain, thanks to the adoption of more sophisticated interpretive strategies and appropriate critical terminology, the processes of elaboration, reception and dissemination of styles, techniques and visual codes in different historical contexts. Philologically-based analysis of primary and secondary sources (i.e., art literature and criticism) will be introduced as fundamental tools within the hermeneutic process.
- Metacriticism and Discussion/Oral Presentation Skills
- In the 300-level art history classes, students become familiar with a broader bibliography in the Humanities by reading books and articles written not only by art historians, but also by scholars belonging to other disciplines, such as Anthropology, Philosophy, and Literature. In this way, students will be exposed to a more consistent critical vocabulary regarding historical as well as methodological matters. By systematically adopting this new lexicon in class discussions and individual oral presentations, students will enhance their own interpretive vocabulary and rhetorical skills, simultaneously inaugurating a dialogue with ideas, problems, and hypotheses related to the general network of studies in Art History and Visual Culture, and thereby establishing a fundamental background of meta-critical references.
- Research Tools and Art Historical Writing
- Finally, in the 400-level classes and, more specifically, throughout the required Art History Senior Seminar (ARTH 496W), students will learn how to effectively organize and undertake a rigorous research project in the fields of art history and visual culture, applying the various methodologies and interpretive tools they have so far studied and incorporated, in order to explore, in a historically-grounded process of cross examination, specific objects and themes of investigation. The historical, philological and formal analysis of artworks as well as the critical interpretation of subjects pertaining to the fields of art history and visual culture will thus constitute the starting point for research in which students, by exploring different methodologies and increasing their familiarity with metacritical concerns, will be expected to provide personal contributions to their areas of investigation, as young scholars. For that purpose, the course ARTH 362W (Theories and Methodologies of Art History) is a required prerequisite for ARTH 496W. A primary goal of both courses is the cultivation of critical writing on visual art.
Faculty
- Ricardo De Mambro Santos , Professor, Department of Art History, Department Chair
- Ann M. Nicgorski, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Faculty Curator, Hallie Ford Museum of Art,
- Abigail Susik, Associate Professor of Art History
- Ann Wetherell, Adjunct Faculty for Art History
Course Listings
ARTH 105 Introduction to Art History of the Stone and Bronze Ages (2)
This class is part of a group of courses intended to introduce the major monuments and themes of ancient and medieval art, architecture, and visual culture. Chronologically, it explores the production of architecture and artworks in diverse media from 35,000 to 1200 BCE. Subject areas covered include Prehistoric Europe, the ancient Near East and Egypt, as well as the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures of the Bronze Age Aegean. This course also seeks to introduce students to the basic art historical methods of visual and comparative analysis, with a focus on the production, function, reception, and power of visual images from historical periods before the modern conception of fine art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 106 Introduction to Art History from Ancient Greece to the Roman Republic (2)
This class is part of a group of courses intended to introduce the major monuments and themes of ancient and medieval art, architecture, and visual culture. Chronologically, it explores the production of architecture and artworks in diverse media from 1200 to the end of the first century BCE. Subject areas covered include ancient Greece and Etruria, as well as Roman Republic. This course also seeks to introduce students to the basic art historical methods of visual and comparative analysis, with a focus on the production, function, reception, and power of visual images from historical periods before the modern conception of fine art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 107 Introduction to Art History from the Roman to the Byzantine Empire (2)
This class is part of a group of courses intended to introduce the major monuments and themes of ancient and medieval art, architecture, and visual culture. Chronologically, it explores the production of architecture and artworks in diverse media from the first century to the fourteenth century CE. Subject areas covered include the Roman and Byzantine Empires, Early Christian and Jewish visual culture, as well as Christian art and architecture from Ethiopia. This course also seeks to introduce students to the basic art historical methods of visual and comparative analysis, with a focus on the production, function, reception, and power of visual images from historical periods before the modern conception of fine art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 108 Introduction to Art History of the Western Middle Ages and Islam (2)
This class is part of a group of courses intended to introduce the major monuments and themes of ancient and medieval art, architecture, and visual culture. Chronologically, it explores the production of architecture and artworks in diverse media from sixth century to the fourteenth century CE. Subject areas covered include the visual culture of the migratory peoples in Western Europe, Christian art and architecture of the Early Medieval, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic periods, as well as Islamic art and architecture of the Middle Ages. This course also seeks to introduce students to the basic art historical methods of visual and comparative analysis, with a focus on the production, function, reception, and power of visual images from historical periods before the modern conception of fine art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 112 Introduction to South Asian Art History (4)
This course is intended to introduce major protagonists, monuments and themes of South Asian art, architecture and visual culture, focusing on India. The chronological scope is vast, from prehistory to the present, and it is therefore a selective survey focusing on particular artistic traditions in depth, chosen from the major periods of South Asian history. Examples include prehistoric art, The Harappan Civilization, Early Buddhist sculpture and architecture at the Great Stupas, Hindu temple architecture, Chola bronze sculpture, Islamic architecture, painting of the Mughal court and Rajput kingdoms, and Modern and Contemporary art in South Asia. The creation, reception and diffusion of selected art forms over time will be examined and interpreted using various analytical perspectives (such as formal, functional, iconographic, and expressive) in order to better appreciate their significance in a South Asian cultural context, and in relation to the history of Western interaction with South Asian art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Wetherell
ARTH 113 Introduction to Chinese Art History (4)
This course is intended to introduce major protagonists, monuments and themes of Chinese art, architecture and visual culture. The chronological scope is vast, from prehistory to the present, and it is therefore a selective survey focusing on particular artistic traditions in depth, chosen from the major periods of Chinese history. Examples include prehistoric art, bronze ritual vessels, the renowned terra-cotta army, Buddhist sculpture, landscape painting, imperial architecture, scholars' gardens, Tibetan Buddhist art, art of the Cultural Revolution, and contemporary experimental art. The creation, reception and diffusion of selected art forms over time will be examined and interpreted using various analytical perspectives (such as formal, functional, iconographic, and expressive) in order to better appreciate their significance in a Chinese cultural context, and in relation to the history of Western interaction with Chinese art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Wetherell
ARTH 114 Introduction to Japanese Art History (4)
This course is intended to introduce major protagonists, monuments and themes of Japanese art, architecture and visual culture. The chronological scope is vast, from prehistory to the present, and it is therefore a selective survey focusing on particular artistic traditions in depth, chosen from the major periods of Japanese history. Examples include prehistoric art, Shinto architecture, early Buddhist art and architecture, art of Heian court, narrative handscroll painting, Kamakura Period sculpture, Zen and the arts, castles, gardens, Ukiyo-e prints, Meiji period decorative arts and Nihonga, and experimental art. The creation, reception and diffusion of selected art forms over time will be examined and interpreted using various analytical perspectives (such as formal, functional, iconographic, and expressive) in order to better appreciate their significance in a Japanese cultural context, and in relation to the history of Western interaction with Japanese art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Wetherell
ARTH 116 Introduction to Renaissance and Early Modern Art (4)
This course intends to introduce the major protagonists, monuments and themes of Western art, architecture and visual culture. Chronologically, it will explore the production and reception of artworks from the 14th to the end of the 18th century from the Early Renaissance to the Napoleonic period, the age of Neoclassicism. Special attention will be paid to formal, compositional and structural analysis of important artworks, in an attempt to establish a critically-based connection between styles, techniques and historical conditions. The course will also explore critical issues such as how art functioned in relation to religion or under the different systems of power, or why certain iconographies were more prominent than others in specific social contexts. Given the introductory approach of this class, the artistic production of certain masters (such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Canova) will be examined in a more detailed way, in order to examine the complex interplay of personal choices and normative patterns related to the process of creation of a visual work.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: De Mambro Santos
ARTH 117 Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art (4)
This course intends to introduce the major protagonists, monuments and themes of Western art, architecture and visual culture. Chronologically, it will explore the production and reception of artworks from the beginning of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century, from Romanticism to Post-Modernism. It will explore the increasing proliferation of images and the new ways they are conceived and diffused in different historical contexts, from the visions of German Romanticism to the aesthetic challenges addressed by contemporary artists working in a new, global scale. A substantial part of the class will be dedicated to the historical analysis of significant movements of European avant-gardes in the early 20th century, from the visual redefinitions of time-and-space inaugurated by Cubism to the exploration of the new territories of art and psychology undertaken by Surrealist masters. Discussions will also focus on the articulate ways in which art functions in relation to society, popular culture, and mass media in order to better understand how the dominions of creativity and visual communication affect us today.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Susik
ARTH 121W Art Historical Inquiry (4)
This seminar course is designed to introduce students to the nature of art historical inquiry. Through the exploration of a designated topic, the course will focus on a core set of artworks and relevant primary literature. The course will also introduce students to selected issues in art historical interpretation and argument, as well as theory and criticism. Emphasis on writing in art history as well as discussion and oral presentation skills. May be repeated for credit one time if the topic is different.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 140W African American Art (4)
This introductory writing-centered seminar introduces students to the history of African American art from the colonial period to the present day. Major works of art as well as select examples of architecture, monuments, design and visual and material culture (c. 1800-present) will be analyzed, discussed and written about at a beginner level. In the context of art historical analysis, students will study at the history of slavery in the United States, African American history following emancipation, and the civil rights movement. Students will also discuss how oppression, privilege and structural power functions in relation to African American art production between the colonial period and the present day. Students will gain a basic introduction to art historical vocabulary and concepts, and will acquire an introductory-level ability to describe, analyze, compare, and interpret works of art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; PDE
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 199 Topics in Art History (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Art History. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 202W Introduction to Museum Studies (4)
This course is designed to introduce students to the museum as a distinctive, cultural institution, arising in the late 18th and early 19th century, which produces, organizes, and structures knowledge, and thereby shapes the ways we understand art and material culture, historical narratives, cultural differences, social hierarchies, and individual identities. The course will cover the origins, history and typology of museums and related institutions around the world; the mission and organization of different kinds of museums; selected theories and methodologies of museology, and selected rhetorical and ethical issues related to accessibility, authenticity, censorship, racism, colonialism, repatriation, nationalism, multiculturalism, diversity, and technology. The course will include several field trips, hands-on activities, and a final exhibition project.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate Years
- Instructor: Nicgorski
ARTH 225W Monographic Studies in Art History (4)
The course will be organized according to one of three different modalities: first, to explore the works of a single artist belonging to a specific context; second, to analyze the characteristics of a certain period or movement in Art History in order to critically examine historiographical categories (such as "Gothic," "Renaissance," or "Modernism"); third, to investigate in detail a monument or a complex of monuments from structural, material and historical viewpoints. Conceived as a 200-level course, the class will focus on advanced lecture-based meetings as well as on group discussions in which various methodologies (from Iconology to Semiotics) will be applied. Consequently, one of the central goals of the course will be to provide a more sophisticated set of hermeneutic tools and an appropriate terminology of research to students. The choice among artists, movements and monuments will vary in accordance with the interests of student and faculty. This class may be repeated for credit with different topics.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: A 100-level art history course
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 230W Principles of Visual Literacy (4)
Why do we respond to particular forms and colors in certain ways? How can an image express emotions and ideas? Why do we see figures in the clouds? This course answers those and many other questions by providing an introductory set of concepts, paradigms, and methods of interpretation that will allow students to undertake a critical analysis of images and their different processes of creation and reception. By examining the variable definitions of “image” over time, the course analyzes the power of visual phenomena from a historical perspective. Principles and procedures borrowed from various disciplines - in particular, Semiotics, Art History, Psychology, and Literary Analysis – will compose the frame of reference to investigate the multiple functions and roles played by images in different societies. Students will explore the autonomy of “visuality” in relation to “textuality” in order to verify the distinctiveness of image-based processes of communication and expression.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: De Mambro Santos
ARTH 237 Modern and Contemporary Chinese and Chinese-American Art and Visual Culture (4)
Surveys modern and contemporary art and visual culture in China and the Chinese diaspora from the fall of the Qing dynasty (1911) to the present within the context of political, economic, and cultural changes in modern Chinese history and society. Investigates the relationship between art and politics in emergence of Chinese modernism in the pre-modern period, the New Woodcut movement in the 1930s, revolutionary art for the masses under Mao Zedong, the avant-garde movement and opening to the west in the post-Mao period. Also examines the art and visual culture of the Chinese diaspora, particularly themes of identity in Chinese American art.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Wetherell
ARTH 243 Contemporary Art: 1970-Present (4)
A multimedia and transnational overview of art production and consumption from 1970 to the present, with special attention given to the breakdown of traditional academic mediums, the rise of a global art market, and the dominance of museums and mega-exhibits. Photorealism, Feminist Art, Land Art, Activist Art, Graffiti, and Internet Art are topics of inquiry among several others. Contemporary formats such as video, performance and installation are examined in relation to broader social issues such as racial identity, gender designations and class distinctions.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Susik
ARTH 246 Modern Art [Europe and America]: 1890-1945 (4)
Focuses on the development of avant-garde art and culture in Europe and America from the last decade of the nineteenth century to the end of the second World War. Investigates the rise of Post-Impressionism and subsequent movements such as Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism, among others. Also considers aesthetic shifts during the 1930s related to Fascist politics and the increased commercialization of art in mass media. Primary texts by artists and critics, selections from relevant theory and current art historical scholarship contribute to class discourse.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Susik
ARTH 247 18th- and 19th-Century Art History (4)
A survey of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and architecture in Europe and the United States, with consideration of influence from other cultures and nationalities such as Japan and Northern Africa in appropriate period contexts. Discussions commence with transformations in art and visual culture in France and the United States during the revolutionary era, and shift to detail the rise of Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and other relevant movements. Further topics include the impact of imperialism, colonialism and slavery, the establishment of a bourgeois art market, new media developments such as photography and phantasmagoric spectacles, and the increasingly prominent role of professional female artists.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Susik
ARTH 259 Medieval Art and Architecture (4)
This course explores the development of medieval art and architecture in the Byzantine East and Western Europe from its beginnings in the late Roman Empire to its most grandiose expression in the great Gothic cathedrals. Emphasis will be placed on the historical, social and political context of this artistic development including artists and their patrons, the practice of pilgrimage, the Crusades, and the emergence of monasteries and universities. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic visual culture will be covered. Key subjects include the catacombs, sacred architecture, icons and iconoclasm, relics and reliquaries, calligraphy, manuscript illumination, tapestries, frescoes, sculpture, and stained glass.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 263 Baroque and Neoclassical Visual Culture (4)
This course will explore the development of visual arts, architecture, and the increasing circulation of different kinds of images in Europe, as well as in other continents, from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the late eighteenth century. Particular attention will be dedicated to the analysis of specific artistic phenomena (for instance, the influential diffusion of Caravaggio's style in Europe, the appearance of new religious iconographies in the colonial areas, and the growing activity of European artists in other geographic regions, such as China and Japan). The course will also investigate the emergence of a new concept of art in the second half of the eighteenth century in relation to the poetics of Neoclassicism and the debates inaugurated by the theories of the Picturesque and the sublime.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: Recommend a 100-level art history course
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: De Mambro Santos
ARTH 267 Renaissance Visual Culture (4)
This course will cover important topics related to the production, reception and circulation of artworks, as well as other typologies of images, from the fourteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the attempt to analyze significant problems connected to the making of Renaissance visual culture. By following recent methodological approaches such as Postcolonial criticism, Semiotics, and Gender Studies, this course will intentionally extend the geographic boundaries usually adopted by Renaissance scholars in order to explore the world of art and the increasing process of visual dissemination on a more global scale. The objects of the historical investigations, therefore, will not be exclusively centered in the forms of art produced in Europe, but also centered in the visual culture present in different colonial areas.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: Recommend a 100-level art history course
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: De Mambro Santos
ARTH 270 Roman Art and Architecture (4)
This course offers a comprehensive study of Roman civilization through its artistic and architectural monuments beginning with its roots in the Etruscan and Greek past, through the varied stylistic idioms of the Empire, to its gradual transformation in the Constantinian era, the prelude to the new Christian civilization of Byzantium. Topics include the Villa of the Mysteries, the Ara Pacis Augustae, the column of Trajan, Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, and the Arch of Constantine. A special emphasis will also be placed on art historical methodology (i.e., which questions are posed, what evidence is cited and how meaning is construed) and on exploring issues of gender and private patronage as well as imperial propaganda and social policy.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 271 Greek Art and Architecture (4)
This course explores the development of historical Greek sculpture, painting, and architecture from its beginnings (ca. 1200 BCE) to the end of the Hellenistic period (31 BCE). Central themes include the Greek interest in mythological narrative, and the pursuit of idealism, naturalism, and ultimately, the expression of raw emotion. The classic expressions of Greek architecture, in their stylistic unity and variety, will also be studied, especially the way buildings serve different functions with a very limited architectural language. The course will address the role of archaeology in providing these artifacts with physical contexts and chronologies that enhance our knowledge of the material and our understanding of ancient Greek culture. Ancient literary sources will also be examined in order to place this material in its full religious, social, and political context.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Nicgorski
ARTH 275W Art Literature and Criticism (4)
This course will provide a set of interpretive tools and hermeneutic principles in order to critically analyze textual sources directly related to the dominion of Art History, from Antiquity to Modern period. The class will focus primarily on the study of significant primary sources, such as Vitruvius' influential book On Architecture or the Natural History by Pliny the Elder, as well as on different medieval treatises on art. The central part of the course, however, will be dedicated to the philological analysis and the historical exegesis of Renaissance art treatises written by either humanists or artists such as Leon Battista Alberti, Cennino Cennini, Leonardo de Vinci and Giorgio Vasari. The class will also explore later sources (from seventeenth century France and Holland to eighteenth century England and Germany), in the attempt to establish the basis for an epistemological distinction between Art Literature and Art Criticism as complementary fields of research, equally indispensable for any historically-based investigation on art and visual culture.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: ARTH 100-level course
- Offering: Alternate Years
- Professor: De Mambro Santos
ARTH 299 Topics in Art History (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Art History. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 339W Post-War Art: 1945-1970 (4)
A detailed examination of the most important developments in art and aesthetics in Europe and the United States following World War II, with brief excursions to Asia and South America. Discussions highlight Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Dada, Pop, Minimalism, Fluxus, Arte Povera, COBRA and Conceptual Art, among other significant movements. Experiments in video, performance and happenings are also examined in relation to contextual issues such as, for instance, the Civil Rights movement, the International Student Movement, and the Vietnam War.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: Recommended 100- or 200-level art history course
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Susik
ARTH 345W Advanced Topics in Art History (4)
This course will provide specialized study in areas and themes of art history from different periods that are usually not included in the curriculum, or directly addressed in other courses (for instance, the representation of human body in Renaissance art, the development of the art market in 18th century England, falsifications and restorations in art, etc.). As a 300-level class, the course will be primarily concerned with the development of more articulated methods of analysis and historical interpretation in order to allow students, on the one hand, to enlarge significantly their critical terminology and, on the other hand, to develop their metacritical skills. In other words, the acknowledgement of previous scholarly publications and a deeper recognition of current theories of art criticism will become central issues within their course, in the attempt to increase students' awareness of the historicity and the epistemological grounds of their own work. This class may be repeated for credit with different topics.
- General Education Requirement: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: A 100- or 200-level art history course
- Offering: Alternate years
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 362W Theories and Methodologies of Art History (4)
This course seeks to provide an overview of the history of art history. Its main subject will be art history as a specific field of research in the attempt to understand its epistemological boundaries as well as its ramified network of connections with other disciplines, such as Literary Criticism, Anthropology, Semiotics, Social History, Philosophy, Gender Studies, and Film Studies. The course will thereby survey the various methodological approaches to art history in an interdisciplinary way, starting with a close examination of traditional art historical tools and concepts of analysis: style, form, iconography. It will explore art history as a literary genre since the sixteenth century and as an academic discipline from the nineteenth century until the so-called "linguistic turn" in the 1960s. Particular focus will also be dedicated to theoretical questions that arise in the interpretation of contemporary art and culture. Case studies will provide a set of concrete examples of practical applications of each method, in order to introduce specialized terminologies and to explore critical ways of thinking.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: A 100-level art history course
- Offering: Annually
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 372 Independent Study in Art History I (1-4)
Reading and conference for advanced students in art history.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
- Offering: On demand
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 376W History of Photography (4)
A seminar-style course that investigates significant moments from the invention and development of the medium of photography in Europe and the United States, from its inception in the first half of the nineteenth century to its digital manifestations in the late-twentieth century. Historical debates surrounding photography as both an art and a commercial enterprise ground discussions in issues of popular culture as well as aesthetics. Technical approaches to the medium are analyzed in conjunction with theoretical texts and documents of period reception. Emphasis on writing (including a final research paper) as well as discussion and presentation skills.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Prerequisite: A 100- or 200-level art history course recommended
- Offering: Alternate years
- Instructor: Susik
ARTH 394 Internship in Art History (1-4)
See the internships section for more information. This course may be repeated for credit.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: On demand
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 399 Topics in Art History (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Art History. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 429 Topics in Art History (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Art History. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
ARTH 496W Art History Senior Seminar (4)
This course is exclusively devoted to the process of research and writing of the final thesis for Art History majors. It is, therefore, the epistemological continuation of ARTH 362W (Theories and Methodologies of Art History). The class will consist of weekly meetings in which students will discuss topics, methods and interpretive issues directly related to the writing of their thesis, in order to acknowledge the gradual advancement of their individual research. To that purpose, students will be required to prepare, within specific deadlines, drafts of their work to be read and critiqued by their thesis advisors. As a logical consequence of this pedagogical agenda, class meetings, as well as office hours, will be primarily dedicated to the discussion of issues relating to the preparation of the written thesis, such as bibliographical matters, historical clarifications, critical suggestions, and methodological assessments. At the end of the semester, as a formal conclusion of the course, students will be required to deliver an oral presentation of their thesis in which they are expected to critically present the most significant results of their research.