ARHI
180F
Using
the resources of the Snite Museum, this course will explore the entry of works
of visual art into verbal discourse.
We will investigate the art of description, and practice looking at
works of art from a variety of different points of view. Two themes will shape this course. In the first part of the semester we
will focus on the implications of form for the discussion of a painting. In the second half of the course we
will consider what authorizes the interpretation of a given work. Exemplary texts from the history of art
will be compared and analyzed.
Above all, this course will explore your ability to police the act of
looking through the rhetorics of speaking and writing. The skills rehearsed in this course
will help you to develop some of the scholarly habits that are essential to
success in the University.
ARHI
230 (every Fall)
This
course will provide an introduction to the visual arts of the period ca. 300 CE to ca. 1400 CE. In the
course of the semester we shall devote much time to considering the possibility
of a history of Medieval art, as the objects and practices of the Middle Ages
will be shown to problematize our assumptions about the nature of art
history. Working from individual
objects and texts we will construct a series of narratives that will attend to
the varieties of artistic practices available to the Middle Ages. From these it will be shown that art
was a vital, complex, lucid and formative element in the societies and
cultures, both secular and sacred, that shaped this period.
ARHI
331
Art
in Late Antiquity has traditionally been characterized as an art in decline,
but this judgement is relative, relying on standards formulated for art of
other periods. Challenging this
assumption, we will examine the distinct and powerful transformations within
the visual culture of the period between the third and sixth centuries AD. This period witnesses the mutation of
the institutions of the Roman Empire into those of the Christian Byzantine
Empire. Parallel to these social
changes we can identify the emergence of a Christian art that defines our basic
assumptions about the role of art in a Christian society. The fundamental change in religious
identity that was the basis for this development had a direct impact upon the
visual material that survives from this period. This course examines the underlying conditions that made
images so central to cultural identity at this period.
ARHI
332
This
course will investigate the art produced in Western Europe between the seventh
and eleventh centuries. Often
characterized as a Dark Age, this period in fact demonstrates a fertile, fluid
and inventive response to the legacy of Late Antique Christianity. The course will focus on the production
and reception of illuminated manuscripts, perhaps the site where the most
original encounters with and re-shaping of this legacy occur. This course should interest those who
wish to think through the relationship of words and images on the page and in
life.
ARHI
333
Byzantine
art has often been opposed to the traditions of western naturalism, and as such
has been an undervalued or little known adjunct to the story of Medieval
art. In order to develop a more
sophisticated understanding of this material we will examine the art produced
in Byzantium in the period from the ninth to the twelfth century, a period
which marks the high point of Byzantine artistic production and influence. Stress will be placed upon the function
of this art within the broader setting of this society. Art theory, the notions of empire and
holiness, the burdens of the past and the realities of contemporary praxis will
be brought to bear upon our various analyses of material from all media. How we, as art historians can write the
history of this rich culture will be a central issue of this course.
ARHI
334
In
this course we will examine the place of art in an expanding culture. The eleventh and twelfth centuries
witnessed the economic and military expansion of the societies of western
Europe. This growth produced a
complex and rich art that can be broadly labelled as Romanesque. We will investigate this phenomenon (or
rather these phenomena) through three actual and metaphorical journeys: the
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a journey to the ruins of ancient Rome,
and a visit to the Palestine of the Crusades. These journeys, in many ways typical of this period, will
provide the means of examining how the art of this period responds to the
various new demands of an increasing knowledge provoked by travel.
ARHI
335
This
course examines the art produced in France in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. Alongside the more
traditional discussions of court culture and of the development of Gothic
architecture, this class will use the visual material of this period to address
wider issues of power, class, gender, spirituality, identity, and
learning. The first part of this
course will treat such institutions as St.-Denis, Chartres, Reims, and the
Sainte-Chapelle as complex cultural phenomena that weave together a variety of
visual media into strong political and spiritual messages. The second part of the course will
examine devotional practices and their importance in defining responses to the
arts available at this period.
ARHI
336
The
political death of the Byzantine Empire is marked by the 1204 fall of
Constantinople to a crusader army.
Although the Empire was revived in 1261 and continued until 1453, it was
little more than a shadow of its former glory. In spite of this, Byzantium remained a vibrant and
influential culture. The court and
church in Constantinople maintained and breathed new life into the rich
tradition of Byzantine art. These
forms were adopted and adapted by the mendicant orders who accompanied the
Venetian colonizers of the Empire.
This course will examine the afterlife for Byzantine culture,
considering the conditions that enabled this late medieval flourishing of a
culture now bereft of a strong political ground.
ARHI
472/572
The
topic and format of this course will vary from year to year.
ARHI
482/582
The subject of this seminar will vary from year to year.