Art History Recent Course Offerings
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- Winter 2024
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- Spring 2023
Winter 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Survey of Western Art: Renaissance to the Present
ARTH 102 - King, Elliott H.
Chronological survey of Western art from the Renaissance through the present. Topics include the Renaissance, from its cultural and stylistic origins through the Mannerist movement; the Baroque and Rococo; the Neoclassical reaction; Romanticism and Naturalism; the Barbizon School and Realism; Impressionism and its aftermath; Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and the Postmodern reaction to Modernism.
African American Art
ARTH 130 - Castenell, Wendy
This course focuses on the creative production, contemporary reception, and critical interpretation of African American art from the colonial period to the present. While visual representations of and by African Americans provide the content for this course, the broader issues they raise are applicable to images, objects, and structures from a variety of cultures and civilizations. Indeed, this course will engage at least three general themes central to art historical and visual cultural studies generally: 1. Cultural encounters within colonial contexts; 2. Constructions of "race" and "blackness" within African American art; and 3. Conceptualizations of "blackness" as it underpins "Modernism" in 20th-21st century.
Arts of Mesoamerica and the Andes
ARTH 170 - Lepage, Andrea C.
Survey of the art and architecture of Mesoamerica and the Andes before the arrival of the Europeans, with a focus on indigenous civilizations including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Art is contextualized in terms of religious, social, political, and economic developments in each region under discussion. The class includes a trip to the Virginia Museum of fine Arts in Richmond or the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.
Special Topics in Art History: Building Jerusalem: The Making and Remaking of a Holy City
ARTH 195A - Van Loan, Theodore
Since its foundation, the city of Jerusalem has been claimed materially and spiritually by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This survey course will trace the complex and conflicted history of Jerusalem from c. 516 BCE to today’s divided city. Classes contextualize art and architecture in terms of religious, social, political, and economic developments in the region. Students will learn about the Second Jewish Temple, the Holy Sepulcher, the Dome of the Rock, the Ottoman walls, and the West Bank barrier.
ARTH200-02/CLAS200-02 Greek Art & Archaeology
ARTH 200 - Laughy, Michael H.
An introduction to ancient Greek art and archaeology. We encounter some of the greatest works of art in human history, as we survey the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and town planning of the ancient Greeks. We encounter the history of the people behind the objects that they left behind, from the material remains of the Bronze Age palaces and Classical Athenian Acropolis to the world created in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquests. We also consider how we experience the ancient Greek world today through archaeological practice, cultural heritage, and the antiquities trade.
Islamic Art and Architecture: The First 400 Years
ARTH 212 -
The 7th Century CE/1st Century AH was a time of great political, cultural, and religious change in Eurasia. Amid a power vacuum created by conflict between warring Byzantium and Sasanian Iran, a polity emerged, drawing authority from a new faith, Islam. For the subsequent 400 years following the initial Islamic conquest, a series of Caliphates sponsored the construction of vast urban spaces, monuments, mosques, palaces, and other structures, some of which have remained in continuous use since. Alongside this, patronage of the visual arts more broadly including manuscripts, ivories, metalwork, and other media also thrived. The course will consider how this artistic and architectural output came to define Islamic Art as a visual tradition and as an academic discipline. It will do so by tracing artistic developments across the early Islamic world, ranging from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
Harlem Renaissance Art
ARTH 230 - Castenell, Wendy
The Harlem Renaissance, also referred to as the New Negro Movement, stands as a towering and defining cultural moment in 20th-century American history. It was in some respects the period in which African American artists, writers, poets and others tabled bold new agendas for the ways in which they, as individuals, and as a nation-within-a-nation, might advance in what was to become the American century. This class will consider the multiple factors that gave rise to this astonishing and compelling cultural moment. The mixed results of the reconstruction era; the Great Migration, which saw very large numbers of African Americans move from the South to other parts of the country, namely the West coast and the great northern industrial centers; the defining contribution of Howard Professor Alain Locke, and so on. The class will also look at the variety of cultural expressions and artistic practices emerging out of the new epicenter of Black American life, Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance is of course something of a misnomer. It was not limited to Harlem, but in effect took place in many different parts of the US, from San Francisco to Chicago. Furthermore, it was perhaps a cultural birth, as much as it was a cultural rebirth, hence the important differentiation between the New Negro and the Old predecessor. Setting the Harlem Renaissance into a multiplicity of contexts, from African American art practices of the 19th century, to the reception African Americans received in European cities such as Paris, the class will be hugely informative, not just on what African American artists were doing in the early 20th century, but also the ways in which so many of today's debates and questions on race matters in the US can be traced back to what was happening in the country a century ago.
Medieval Art in Southern Europe
ARTH 253 - Bent, George R.
Examination of the art and culture of Italy and Greece from the rise of Christianity to the first appearance of bubonic plague in 1348. Topics include early Christian art and architecture; Byzantine imagery in Ravenna and Constantinople during the Age of Justinian; iconoclasm; mosaics in Greece, Venice and Sicily; sculpture in Pisa; and the development of panel and fresco painting in Rome, Florence, Siena and Assisi.
Northern Renaissance Art
ARTH 255 - Bent, George R.
A survey of Northern painting from 1300 to 1600, examined as symbols of political, religious, and social concerns of painters, patrons, and viewers. Among the artists covered are Campin, van Eyck, van der Weyden, Durer, Holbein, and Brueghel. Emphasis placed on interpretation of meaning and visual analysis.
Dutch Arts, Patrons, and Markets
ARTH 257 - Lepage, Andrea C.
During the 17th century, the practices of making and buying art boomed as never before in the Dutch Republic. With the creation of the first large-scale open art market, prosperous Dutch merchants, artisans, and civil servants bought paintings and prints in unprecedented numbers. Dutch 17th-century art saw the rise of new subjects, and landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life replaced religious images and scenes from classical mythology. Portraiture also flourished in this prosperous atmosphere.
20th-Century European Art
ARTH 263 - King, Elliott H.
This course covers major European art movements and criticism from the late 19th century through the 20th century. Lectures and discussions explore the implications of what it means for art to be/appear modern," the social and aesthetic goals of the early avant-garde, the "rise and fall" of abstraction, and artistic responses to post-war mass culture. Movements discussed include Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and New Realism."
Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Neocolonialism and the Study of Art in the Middle East
ARTH 311 - Van Loan, Theodore
How does the study of art and architectural history interface with colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial structures of power? This is a pressing question for those who study the visual cultures of the Middle East, a region in which these power structures have had considerable impact historically as well as in the contemporary moment. This class will consider from theoretical and practical vantage points how colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial systems and institutions have governed or influenced the methods of study, scope, and modes of display of historical art from the Middle East. Topics will include colonial-era collection and museum practices, Orientalism and its critics, post-colonial nationalist discourses and art history, cultural heritage in and during the 'wars on terror', and visual discourses of contemporary Islamophobia.
Fall 2023▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Survey of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval
ARTH 101 - Bent, George R.
Chronological survey of Western art from the Paleolithic Age through the Middle Ages in Italy and Northern Europe. Examination of cultural and stylistic influences in the art and architecture of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Consideration of distinct interests of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Europe. Focus on major monuments and influential images produced up to circa 1400.
Survey of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval
ARTH 101 - Van Loan, Theodore
Chronological survey of Western art from the Paleolithic Age through the Middle Ages in Italy and Northern Europe. Examination of cultural and stylistic influences in the art and architecture of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Consideration of distinct interests of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Europe. Focus on major monuments and influential images produced up to circa 1400.
FS: First-Year Seminar: From Pain to Power: The Revolutionary Art of Frida Kahlo
ARTH 180A - Lepage, Andrea C.
This seminar explores the life and work of the iconic Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. Classes explore Kahlo's use of symbolism, her engagement with surrealism and the Mexican Revolution, her depictions of Mexican culture and politics, and her numerous self-portraits. The course examines Kahlo's life experiences, including her long recovery process following a serious accident, her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, and how these factors influenced her art. Through the study of Kahlo's artworks, students gain an understanding of the cultural and social context of Mexico during the 20th century. The course explores Kahlo's lasting impact on the art world and her influence on contemporary feminist art.
Islamic Art and Architecture
ARTH 211 - Van Loan, Theodore
This survey course introduces the art and architecture of the Islamic world from the origins of Islam in the 7th Century C.E. to the present day. Students will develop analytical and conceptual tools through rigorous engagement with a diverse set of buildings, artworks, and relevant textual sources (all available in English translation). Lectures will emphasize a diversity of methodological approaches to the visual traditions of the Islamic World, while also critically engaging with the field's complicated status within the History of Art.
Italian Renaissance Art
ARTH 256 - Bent, George R.
Survey of the art and architecture of Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries. The course focuses on innovations of the Early, High, and Late Renaissance through the work of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Alberti, Leonardo, Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Images are considered as exponents of contemporary political, social, and religious events and perceptions.
Baroque and Rococo Art
ARTH 258 - Lepage, Andrea C.
A survey of the art and architecture that focuses on the stylistic and ideological issues shaping western Europe during 17th and 18th centuries.
History of Photography
ARTH 261 - Castenell, Wendy
An art-historical introduction to the history of photography, from its origins in the 19th century to the present day. Lectures and discussions examine photography's aesthetic, documentary, and scientific purposes; important contributors to photography and its history; the evolution of the camera and related technical processes; and issues of photographic theory and criticism. Photography is considered as a medium with its own rich history - bearing in mind stylistic shifts and changes in subject matter related to aesthetic, social, and cultural concerns - but also as a key component in the wider narrative of modern art.
Art Since 1945
ARTH 267 - King, Elliott H.
This course introduces students to art and art theory from 1945 to the present. The objectives of the course are: (1) to enhance student knowledge of the major works, artists, and movements of art in Europe and the United States since 1945; (2) to integrate these works of art within the broader social and intellectual history of the period; and (3) to help students develop their skills in visual analysis and historical interpretation. Among the issues we examine are the politics of abstract art; the ongoing dialogue between art and mass culture; the differences between modernism and postmodernism; and contemporary critiques of art history's prevailing narratives. This is a lecture course with a heavy emphasis on in-class discussion.
Seminar in Art History: Surrealism
ARTH 394C - King, Elliott H.
This seminar course studies surrealism.
Seminar in Art History: Turn-of-the-Century American Spectacles and Race
ARTH 394D - Castenell, Wendy
The U.S. at the turn of the century was undergoing profound technological and societal transformations. This seminar will examine the growth of spectacles in response to these sweeping changes. This marked a turning point in the U.S. where people’s interests shifted from an interest in the natural world to the technological. This change, spurred by the myriad inventions and innovations flooding the consumer market, led to new ways of seeing and new forms of entertainment, often in the form of spectacles and popular amusements. This class will examine how America’s burgeoning fascination with spectacles celebrated the country’s ingenuity on the one hand, while simultaneously reinforcing and re-inscribing racial hierarchies. In the post-Reconstruction era, when white anxiety about the status of people of color within American society was at its zenith, spectacles were used to circulate and normalize racist ideologies about white superiority. The repercussions of this expression of hegemonic power by European Americans will likewise be examined. Topics will include panoramas, world’s fairs, early cinema, vaudeville, minstrelsy, amusement parks, wild west shows, as well as perverse spectacles like lynching postcards and before-and-after photographs from indigenous boarding schools.
Senior Seminar: Approaches to Art History
ARTH 395 - Bent, George R.
This capstone seminar studies the origins, applications, strengths, and weaknesses of various methodological approaches that art historians use to study art. Topics include Formalism; Iconography and Iconology; Social History and Marxism; Feminism; Psychoanalysis; Semiotics; Structuralism and Post-Structuralism; Deconstruction; Reception Theory; Post-Colonialism; and Critical Race/Ethnicity Theories.
Directed Individual Study: Independent Research and Teaching Assistance in ARTH180 FY Seminar: The Revolutionary Art of Frida Kahlo
ARTH 403C - Lepage, Andrea C.
The student taking this three-credit course will provide teaching assistance for the class. That person will be a contact for students and will answer questions, help students prepare for assignments, set up meeting times outside of class, and will on occasion present course material and current events related to the course. The student will also produce a significant independent research paper focused on the course topic.
Directed Individual Study: Baroque or Rococo Art History
ARTH 403D - Lepage, Andrea C.
The student taking this three-credit course will expand upon work completed during a study abroad experience. The student will conduct a broad overview of the art historical period as a foundation to produce a significant research paper focused on an aspect of Baroque or Rococo art history.
Senior Thesis
ARTH 473 - Lepage, Andrea C.
An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student's preparedness and the project's validity, designating each as a 'Pass,' 'Provisional Pass' (requiring resubmission of proposal), or 'Re-direction' (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.
Senior Thesis
ARTH 473 - Van Loan, Theodore
An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student's preparedness and the project's validity, designating each as a 'Pass,' 'Provisional Pass' (requiring resubmission of proposal), or 'Re-direction' (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.
Senior Thesis
ARTH 473 - King, Elliott H.
An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student's preparedness and the project's validity, designating each as a 'Pass,' 'Provisional Pass' (requiring resubmission of proposal), or 'Re-direction' (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.
Senior Thesis
ARTH 473 - Castenell, Wendy
An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student's preparedness and the project's validity, designating each as a 'Pass,' 'Provisional Pass' (requiring resubmission of proposal), or 'Re-direction' (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.
Senior Thesis
ARTH 473 - Bent, George R.
An art history thesis. A thesis abstract with a written statement of the objective must be presented in the spring of the junior year. The Art History faculty will evaluate all thesis proposals within three weeks to determine the student's preparedness and the project's validity, designating each as a 'Pass,' 'Provisional Pass' (requiring resubmission of proposal), or 'Re-direction' (to a 300-level seminar or independent study). Student writing a thesis will be recognized at the baccalaureate department awards ceremony.
Spring 2023▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
The Art History of the Qur'an
ARTH 214 - Van Loan, Theodore
Shortly after its revelation in the 7th Century, the Qur’an became an object of aesthetic and artistic attention. This class will explore the art historical development of Quranic manuscripts, architectural inscriptions, calligraphy, and other examples from the 7th century to the present day. Visits to the Special Collections department at Leyburn Library and to the American Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC will provide hands on experience with a number of Qur’an manuscripts.
Chicana/o Art and Muralism: From the Street to the (Staniar) Gallery
ARTH 276 - Lepage, Andrea C.
This class examines the process by which Chicana/o artists have garnered public attention and respect, taking their artworks from the peripheries of the art world to museum and gallery spaces. Using the half-mile long mural entitled The Great Wall of Los Angeles as a connecting thread, this class considers the broad theme of identity creation and transformation as expressed by Chicana/o artists from the 1970s to the present.
Seminar in Museum Studies
ARTH 398 - El-Beshir, Isra
This seminar explores the history, development, and practical aspects of museums and considers museum practices of the present and the future. Topics of discussion include museum administration, collections management, exhibition planning, interpretation and storytelling, and museum education. Students collaborate to produce an exhibition, and gain skills in developing a master plan, concept development, design, installation, label writing, and evaluation. The course may include field trips to regional museums.