Spring 2024 

(Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for a complete listing of courses and check Athena for course descriptions/restrictions.) 

 

ARHI 2400: Art History II

Wallace, I. | CRN 25021

Hobson | CRN 63940

Wallace, I. | CRN 25023 (ARHI 2400H: Art History II Honors)

Anne-Louis Girodet, Portrait of Citizen Belley, Ex-Representative of the Colonies, 1796–97.

This course is an introductory survey of art and architecture from the 15^th century to the present day through select global monuments. It also aims to introduce the discipline of art history through in-depth lectures and broad reading assignments that examine the content, style, and materials of art as well as the impact of geo-political, cultural, and historic developments of the modern era. Students will develop skills for finding and explaining meaning in works of art and cultural production in an increasingly interconnected world.  

ARHI 3004

Roman Art and Architecture

Abbe | CRN 67364

Wall painting from cubiculum (B), Villa Farnesina. Palazzo Massimo, Rome. c. 20 BC/BCE.

This lecture course offers an introduction to the diverse visual arts - especially sculpture, architecture, and wall painting - of ancient Rome and Roman world from the Iron Age (1050 BC/BCE) to the beginning of Late Antiquity (AD/CE 330). In addition to offering a solid chronological survey of this formative artistic culture of classical antiquity, this course will explore the critical issues of materials, techniques, functions, ancient connoisseurship, iconographic analysis, and iconological interpretation. New archaeological discoveries and on-going debates will be highlighted. The immediate firsthand experience of works of art will be encouraged through the study of collections of Roman art, including at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, and in the critical engagement with virtual computer-based reconstructions of Roman architecture and sculpture. 

ARHI 3032

Russian Art and Architecture

Kirin | CRN 60725

This course responds to the current political and cultural discourse in Eastern Europe and the ongoing war in Ukraine by examining the cultural heritage of Kyivan Rus’ (ca. 880-1240) and it place in the formation of two distinct nations with their respective visual cultures. The discussion covers a long chronological span from the late nineth through the twentieth century. The major themes involve: the formation and subsequent Christianization of Kyivan Rus’ and its links with Byzantium and the rest of medieval Europe; the emergence of Muscovy starting in the late 1300s and its heir—the Russian Empire; the westernization of Russia that began in the 17th century; the emergence of Ukrainian identity and its manifestation in works of art and architecture. In lectures and class discussions we will consider how the shared legacy of Kyivan Rus’ relates to the Ukrainian and Russian visual cultures, how a shared past, can lead to a sharply divided present.

ARHI 3077

Latin American Modern Art

Andrew | CRN 60726

arsila do Amaral, Abaporú, 1928, oil on canvas, 85 cm × 73 cm (Museum of Latin American Art, Buenos Aires)

This course is a broad introduction to Latin American visual culture from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular attention to the art and history of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba. Lectures will present works of art as witnesses, documents, and evidence of the legacies of the region’s revolutions, economic development, and of its diverse indigenous histories, colonial pasts, and post-colonial presents. Acknowledging the various constructions of indigenous, national, and global identities amid shifting political, social, and economic forces, we will identify artistic vanguards particular to Latin America that helped shape the history of International Modernism, including Social Realism, Indigenism, Mexican Muralism, Surrealism, Geometric Abstraction, and Concrete art.

ARHI 3056

19th Century Art

Browne | CRN 67365

John Constable, Cloud Study: Stormy Sunset, 1821-1822. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The nineteenth century was a period of revolutions: around the globe, politics, science, industry, and social organizations all experienced rapid change. Following a more or less chronological path, our aim will be to address the dynamic and at times contradictory character of nineteenth-century visual and material culture. This course will examine key concepts of nineteenth-century art—including, but not limited to, landscape painting, orientalism, the rise of photography, world fairs and exhibitions, and art and design—all the while considering questions such as: Were chisels and brushes swift enough to keep pace with burgeoning modernity? Was slowness even conceivable, or a retreat into nostalgia? What is “ugly” about the picturesque? How did artists utilize or reject technologies of reproducibility? As a period of settler colonialism, what role(s) did enslaved, displaced, and freed persons have in artistic production? What can artistic materials tell us about histories of extraction and environmental impact? And how did nineteenth-century medical studies inform representations of sex, race, and gender? 

ARHI 3100

Asian Art and Architecture

Morrissey | CRN 68259

This course will examine a representative survey of the major artistic and architectural achievements from ancient and medieval South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar). Although regional distinctiveness and diversity will be emphasized, a comparative approach will be employed in order to observe, analyze and understand potential commonalities between the various intellectual, social, religious and historical experiences of cultures and communities across these regions of Asia. Topics for this course include: the origins of material culture in South Asia in the Indus Valley, the development of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic visual cultures in India and the transmission of Indian religious traditions to Southeast Asia and their influence on the production of material culture there. Monuments to be considered will include, but are not limited to: the art of the urban centers of the Indus Valley, the Buddhist stupas at Sanchi, the Buddhist rock-cut monasteries of Ajanta, the Hindu temples at Khajuraho and Mammalapuram, early Islamic Architecture of the Indian subcontinent, the Hindu and Buddhist temples of Cambodia at Angkor, the Buddhist pagodas of Myanmar in Yangon, Mandalay and Pagan, and the Buddhist heritage of Java at Borobudur. 

ARHI 4150 / 6150

Classical Indian Art and Religion

Morrissey

Undergrads: CRN 67366 | Grads: CRN 67367 

This class will survey the history of Indian art and religious thought from the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1900 BCE) to the medieval era (circa 11th century CE). Although a comprehensive engagement of material from such a lengthy chronological period falls beyond the scope of a single academic semester, the goal of the course is to track some of the major developments in Indian religion and explore how they impacted the production of Indian art and architecture. While a great deal of attention will be given to the origin and development of Hindu and Buddhist religious thought, practice and art, this course will also include discussion of art historical material associated with the Jain tradition as well as religious cults that may have developed outside of – or perhaps parallel to – the Brahmanical orthodoxy and heterodox religious movements. Throughout the course, particular attention will be given to the evolution of western perceptions of Indian art and culture, especially the extent to which this process has profoundly influenced the manner in which the history of Classical Indian art and religion has been – and continues to be – viewed, interpreted and constructed. In addition to analysis and discussion of readings drawn from secondary textbooks and scholarly articles, students will also engage original primary art historical, literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources.

ARHI 4160 / 6160

Buddhist Visual Worlds (WIP)

Morrissey

Undergrads: CRN 68370 | Grads: CRN 68373

This course will explore the development of Buddhism and Buddhist Visual Culture from its inception in ancient India during the early centuries before the Common Era (4-5th centuries B.C.E.) to the Medieval period (8-15th centuries C.E.) in the Himalayan regions, including Tibet. Emphasis will be placed on studying the genesis of Buddhist art, architecture, thought, institutions and ritual practice in light of the changing historical, social, economic and intellectual circumstances within which Buddhist communities found themselves on the subcontinent and in the Himalayas. In this regard, some of the major topics to be considered in this course include: the socio- religious context out of, and into which the Buddha, presumably, as well as Buddhism emerged in India and Tibet; the historical development of settled monasticism and its influence on the production of – and innovation within – Buddhist art and architecture; the history of the ‘ascetic ideal’ of renunciation in Indian and Himalayan Buddhism; the rise of Mahayana and Esoteric Buddhist communities and their associated literature, art and rituals. Special attention will also be given to the interaction between Buddhism and the indigenous religious and artistic traditions of India and Tibet, the way Buddhism adapted and changed as a result of this interaction, and how this process found expression in different Buddhist artistic traditions. Throughout this course, the various ways in which the often mercurial relationship between doctrine and practice within Buddhism progressed over time will also be a recurring theme, and one of the fundamental goals of this course is to cultivate an understanding of how this dialectic both created and sustained significant changes, continuities and syncretism within different Buddhist visual cultures.

ARHI 4580 / 6580

Postmodern Visual Culture (WIP)

Geha

Undergrads: CRN 60731 | Grads: CRN 60732 

ARHI 4960R / 6050

Icons in Byzantium Senior Seminar

Kirin

Undergrads: CRN 63948 | Grads: CRN 67363

The Greek term “iekon” means “an image”, yet it also denotes a works of panel painting. Accordingly, this class deals with various issues of panel painting in the Byzantine Empire. Also, we consider images rendered in materials, which themselves convey symbolic meanings, such as precious and semiprecious stones, gold, silver, and ivory, among others. The Byzantines not only mastered the production of such works of art but in addition to this they developed a highly sophisticated theory of images—unique in the medieval world. This course explores the dynamics between the theory and the practice of creating, displaying, and venerating icons. 

Students are expected to learn how to analyze works of Byzantine panel painting and to interpret their meaning by taking into account the original cultural context in which they were created. Students will understand the chronological development of art and architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean region over the long span of time between the 3rd and 15th c., as well as the relationship of the visual arts to the social, political, and historical shifts in society. Also, in this class we gain a new perspective to the general history of visual culture and learn how the Byzantine tradition fits in it. We will assess critically the received wisdom that 1) Byzantine culture preserved the intellectual heritage of Ancient Greece and delivered it to early modern Europe; 2) at the end of the 19th c. Byzantine art fueled the rise of Modernism.

ARHI 8700

Seminar in Ancient Art

Abbe | CRN 67368

Triton in blue and white Aphrodisian marble. From Istanbul. I­­­stanbul Archaeological Museum. c. 2nd-3rd century AD/CE. 

This seminar examines the color and materiality of sculpture in the Greek and Roman antiquity from c. 250 BC/BCE to c. 400 AD/CE. Important cultural, stylistic, technical, and material developments will be critically explored and assessed with an emphasis on the contextual meanings of images. Emphasis will be paid to the diverse surface effects of different materials and how artistic processes were made visibly manifest and “legible” to contemporary eyes. Close (re)readings of Pliny’s Natural History and the broader cultural and philosophical understandings of the intersections between art, materials, and natural cosmological matter in antiquity allow us to reframe the often-assumed aesthetic priorities of Greek and Roman viewers. This course demonstrates how we can reconsider traditional assumptions about sculptural media, especially marble, through the reexamination of iconic sculptures (well-known and perhaps thus deceptively familiar) in their ancient contexts. Students will be encouraged to creatively explore different kinds of visual analysis and the historical reception of statuary in light of different forms of textual and archaeological evidence, and to do so by considering some of the innovative methodologies of recent ancient art historical scholarship.

ARHI 8990

Race and American Sculpture

Harris | CRN 67369

---

Summer 2024

(Please refer to the Schedule of Classes for a complete listing of courses and check Athena for course descriptions/restrictions.) 

ARHI 2300E

Art History I

Abbe | CRN 59756

Statues of King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen, Egyptian from Giza. Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty, c. 2490–2472 BCE. Greywacke with painting. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

This course provides a critical introduction to the rich and diverse arts and visual cultures from the Paleolithic period (75,000 BCE/BC) to the Renaissance (1560 CE/AD) in the adjacent areas of Africa, western Asia, and Europe. It will examine and explore important and innovative key works of sculpture, architecture, painting, and portable arts from the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greek and Roman antiquity, Byzantium, the Islamic and Medieval worlds, and the Italian and Northern Renaissance. Students learn through online lectures, readings, and online discussions. The direct, first-hand examination of artworks in regional collections is encouraged. By introducing the fundamental concepts of the discipline of art history, this course offer students the ability to quickly develop skills in the perception, comprehension, and interpretation of visual art forms across diverse historical and cultural eras. Critical methodological issues, recent important discoveries, reappraisals, and debates are highlighted to promote a variety of interpretative strategies applicable to art across time.

ARHI 2400E

Art History II

Andrew | CRN 63121

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

This course is a selective survey of major works of European and American painting and sculpture from the 17th through 20th centuries. We will not only study major works of art and written texts of Western art, but we will interrogate how they contribute to and shape a particular story of Western culture. Through lectures, online discussions, and readings, students will be introduced to the interplay of history, interpretation, and reception, as well as to a range of methods and intellectual structures foundational to the study of Western art history. In particular, students will develop skills for finding and explaining meaning in works of art as we examine the influence of artistic and cultural movements, the context of historical events, and the dominant socio-political ideologies regarding empires, nations, race, and gender in the in the modern era. Most important, the course aims to foster in students the ability to recognize art as historical evidence, both visual and material, and to translate its significance into verbal expression.