ART HISTORY
(AS) {ARTH}
Introductory Courses
L/R 001. Architect and History. (A) Humanities & Social Science Sector.
Class of 2010 & beyond. Haselberger.
Human experience is shaped by the built environment. This
course introduces students to the interrelated fields
of architecture, art history, and engineering and explores
great architectural monuments from the ancient to the
modern period, from India across the Mediterranean
and Europe to the US. The focus will be on understanding
these works in their structure and function, both as
products of individual ingenuity and reflections of
Zeitgeist. Questioning these monuments from a present-day
perspective across the cultures will be an important
ingredient, as will be podium discussions, guest lectures,
excursions, and all kinds of visualizations, from digital
walk-throughs to practical design exercises.
Regularly taught
in fall term. It replaces the former ARTH 101
introductory course and satisfies History of Art 100-level
course requirements.
In consultation
with the Undergraduate Chair, CGS students may be allowed
to substitute CGS-taught ARTH 101 or 102 courses for
the new ARTH 001 OR 002, respectively.
L/R 002. The Rise of Modern Visual
Media. (B) Arts
& Letters Sector. All Classes. Silver/Leja.
We live in a world inundated with media and saturated with
images. What might be reported through television,
documentary films, or magazines was once presented
via illustrated texts and prints or else commemorated
in public murals or statues. This course will
follow the emergence of modern media - culminating
in photography, film, and digital media - in an increasingly
public and democratic sphere of art. Social changes
in courts and cities, especially in the wake of the
Industrial and French Revolutions, resulted from increasing
capitalism and democracy. Artists had to adjust
to new roles, media, and means of support. This
course will introduce students from diverse backgrounds
to visual media in culture and society, providing both
critical and historical tools for visual literacy in
the modern world. No Prerequisites.
Taught regularly
in spring term. It replaces the former ARTH 102
introductory course and satisfies History of Art 100-level
course requirements.
In consultation
with the Undergraduate Chair, CGS students may be allowed
to substitute CGS-taught ARTH 101 or 102 courses for
the new ARTH 001 OR 002, respectively
SM 100. Introduction to Art. (C) Staff. For Freshmen Only.
Topic Varies.
101. European Art &
Civilization before 1400. (B) Staff. This course satisfies the General Requirement in Arts & Letters
for CGS Students ONLY and is offered only through CGS.
This is a double introduction: to looking at the visual arts;
and, to the ancient and medieval cities and empires
of three continents - ancient Egypt, the Middle East
and Iran, the Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age, the
Greek and Roman Mediterranean, and the early Islamic,
early Byzantine and western Medieval world. Using
images, contemporary texts, and art in our city, we
examine the changing forms of art, architecture and
landscape architecture, and the roles of visual culture
for political, social and religious activity.
102. European Art &
Civilization after 1400. (A) Staff. This course satisfies the General Requirement in Arts &
Letters for CGS Students ONLY and is offered only through
CGS.
The great epochs of art and their relation to corresponding
phases of Western political and sociological history. For
the student who desires an introduction to the arts
as well as for those who seek a foundation for more
specialized study in the field.
L/R 103. (EALC013) East Asian Art
& Civilization. (M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Davis, Steinhardt.
Introduction to major artistic traditions of China and Japan
and to the methodological practices of art history. Attention
given to key cultural concepts and ways of looking,
in such topics as: concepts of the afterlife and its
representation; Buddhist arts and iconography; painting
styles and subjects; and more broadly at the transmission
of styles and cultural practices across East Asia. Serves
as an introduction to upper level lecture courses in
East Asian art history cultures. If size of class
permits, certain sessions will be held in the University
Museum or the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
104. (SAST200, SAST500) Introduction
to Art in South Asia. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Meister.
This course is a survey of sculpture, painting and architecture
in the Indian sub-continent from 2300 B.C., touching
on the present. It attempts to explore the role
of tradition in the broader history of art in India,
but not to see India as 'traditional' or unchanging. The
Indian sub-continent is the source for multi-cultural
civilizations that have lasted and evolved for several
thousand years. Its art is as rich and complex
as that of Europe, as diverse. This course attempts
to introduce the full range of artistic production
in India in relation to the multiple strands that have
made the cultural fabric of the sub-continent so rich
and long lasting.
105. (ANCS101, CLST104) Ancient
World Cultures. (M) Distribution
Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Pittman.
This course presents a comparative overview of the ancient
civilizations around the world. It is designed
as a gateway course for the many specialized courses
available at Penn. Its focus is two fold: first,
the various forms that ancient cultures have developed
are explored and compared and second, the types of
disciplines that study these courses are examined.
The course has a number of guest lecturers, as well as
visits to museums and libraries to examine original documents. This
course meets the requirement for the Ancient Studies
Minor.
Core Courses
209. (AFRC209, AFST209) African
Art. (M) Staff.
This selective survey will examine a variety of the circumstances
of sub-Saharan African art, ranging from imperial to
nomadic cultures and from ancient times to contemporary
participation in the international market. Iconography,
themes and style will be concered, as will questions
of modernity, religious impact, tradition and colonialism.
210. (CINE223) Post War Japanese
Art. (M) Davis.
Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujiro, and Kurosawa Akira are recognized
today as three of the most important and influential
directors in Japanese cinema. In their films
of the late 1940s and 1950s, these directors focused
upon issues surrounding the human condition and the
perception of truth, history, beauty, death, and other
issues of the postwar period. This course will
pay place their films in period context, and will pay
particular attention to the connections to other visual
media, such as painting, photography, and printmaking,
as well as to the modern concepts of
"art" and "history" in the cinematic
context. How three directors of the 1980s and 1990s
- Itami Juzo, Takeshi Kitano, and Miyazaki Hayao - also
took up these issues, and referred to the "big three"
will be disussed at the end of the course.
211. Art in India. (C) Meister.
A survey of sculpture, painting and architecture in the Indian
sub-continent from 2300 B.C. to the nineteenth century. An
attempt to explore the role of tradition in the broader
history of art in India.
212. (SAST201, SAST501) Indian
Temple Architecture. (C) Meister.
The wooden architecture of ancient India's cities is represented
in relief carvings from Buddhist religious monuments
of the early centuries A.D. and replicated in remarkable
excavated cave cathedrals.
This course will trace that architectural tradition,
its transformation into a symbolic vocabulary for a new
structure, the Hindu temple, and the development of the
temple in India from ca. 500-1500 A.D.
213. (EALC157, EALC557) Arts of
Japan. (K) Davis,
Chance. May include visits to the PMA, University
Museum, or other local collections, as available.
This course will introduce the major artistic traditions of
Japan, from the Neolithic period to the present, and
teach the fundamental methods of the discipline of
art history. Our approaches will be chronological,
considering how the arts developed in and through history,
and thematic, discussing how art and architecture were
used for philosophical, religious and material ends.
Special attention will be given to the places of Shinto,
the impact of Buddhism, and their related architectures
and sculptures; the principles of narrative illustration;
the changing roles of aristocratic, monastic, shogunal
and merchant patronage; the formation of the concept
of the 'artist' overtime; and the transformation of
tradition in the modern age.
L/R 214. (EALC127, EALC527) Arts of
China. (M) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Steinhardt.
The goals of this course are to introduce the major artistic
traditions of China, from the Neolithic period to the
present and to teach the fundamental methods of the
discipline of art history. Our approaches will
be chronological, considering how the arts developed
in and through history, and thematic, discussing how
art and architecture were used for philosophical, religious
and material ends. Topics of study will include;
Shang bronzes; Han concepts of the afterlife; the impact
of Buddhism; patronage and painting; the landscape
tradition; the concept of the literatus; architecture
and garden design; the "modern" and 20th-century
artistic practices; among others.
215. Japanese Painting. (M) Davis.
An investigation of Japanese painting and practice from the
earliest pictorial representations through the late
twentieth century.
Painting style and connoisseurship will form the basis
of analysis, and themes such as landscape, narrative,
and the expression of cultural identities in painting,
will be considered in the context of larger social and
cultural issues. Topics include: tomb painting,
Heian development of
"yamato-e," ink painting and the adaptation
of Chinese styles, the expansion of patronage in the
18th century, and the turn toward internationalism in
the late 19th and 20th centuries. May include visits
to the PMA or other local collections, as available.
L/R 216. (EALC227, EALC627) Chinese
Painting. (M) Steinhardt.
Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial
representation through the late twentieth century. Painting
style forms the basis of analysis, and themes such
as landscape and narrative will be considered with
regard to larger social and cultural issues. The
class will pay particular attention to the construction
of the concepts of the
"artist" and "art criticism" and
their impact on the field into the present. Visits
to look at paintings at the University of Pennsylvania
Museum, PMA and/or local collections will be offered
when possible.
217. Introduction to Visual Culture
of the Islamic World. (C) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 &
beyond. Holod. Also fulfills General Requirement in
History & Tradition for Class of 2009 and prior.
A one-semester survey of Islamic art and architecture which
will examine visual culture as it functions within
the larger sphere of Islamic culture in general. Particular
attention will be given to relationships between visual
culture and literature, using specific case studies,
sites or objects which may be related to various branches
of Islamic literature, including historical,didactic,
philosophical writings, poetry and religious texts. All
primary sources will be available in English translation.
218. Early Modern Japanese Art
and the City of Edo. (H) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Davis.
Study of the major art forms and architecture of Tokugawa
(or Edo) period (1603-1868). In this course,
we will consider how the arts of this era occur within
an increasingly urban and modern culture, particularly
with regard to the city of Edo. Issues of the
articulation of authority in the built environment,
the reinvention of classical styles, and patronage,
among others.
May include visits
to the PMA, University Museum, or other local collections,
as available.
L/R 220. (CLST220) Introduction to
Greek Art & Architecture. (A) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Haselberger, Kuttner.
This course surveys Greek art and architecture, from Sicily
to the Black Sea, between the 10th and 2nd centuries
BCE (Dark Age to Hellenistic).
Civic, religious, and domestic buildings and spaces were
intimately connected with images. These reange
from public sculpture and painting on and around grand
buildings gardens, to domestic luxury arts like jewelry,
cups vases, mosaic floors. Art and architecture
addressed heroic epic religious and political themes,
and also every-day life and emotions. Current themes
include Greek ways of looking at art and space, and Greek
ideas of invention and progress; the role of monuments,
makers and patrons in Greek society; and connections
with the other cultures who inspired and made use of
Greek artists and styles. The course will exploit the
University Museum, regional museums where possible.
L/R 221. (CLST221) Introduction to
Roman Art & Architecture. (B) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Haselberger, Kuttner.
An intensive introduction to the art and architecture of Rome
and her empire from Republican and later Hellenistic
to Constantinian times.
Variable emphasis on topics ranging from major genres,
styles, and programs of commemorative and decorative
art, historical narrative, and political iconography
to building types and functions and the specific Etrusco-Roman
notion of space, land division, and city planning.
222. Minoan Cycladic and Mycenaean
Art. (A) Shank.
This course is designed to give the student an overview of
the cultures of the Aegean Bronze Age. The art
and architecture of Crete, the Cyclades and the Mainland
of Greece will be examined in chronological order,
with an emphasis on materials and techniques. In
addition, larger issues such as the development of
social complexity and stratification, and the changing
balance of power during the Aegean Bronze Age will
be examined. There are two texts for the course:
Sinclair Hood's The Arts in Prehistoric Greece and
Donald Preziosi and Louise Hitchcock's Aegean Art and
the Architecture.
223. Egyptian Art. (M) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Pittman.
Survey of the art of Ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period
through the New Kingdom. Emphasis on major monuments
of architecture, sculpture, relief and painting; questions
stylistic change and historical context.
240. Medieval Art. (C) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Maxwell.
An introductory survey, this course investigates painting,
sculpture, and the "minor arts" of the Middle
Ages. Students will become familiar with selected
major monuments of the Late Antique, Byzantine, Carolingian,
Romanesque, and Gothic periods, as well as primary
textual sources. Analysis of works emphasizes
the cultural context, the thematic content, and the
function of objects. Discussions focus especially
on several key themes: the aesthetic status of art
and the theological role of images; the revival of
classical models and visual modes; social rituals such
as pilgrimage and crusading; the cult of the Virgin
and the status of women in art; and, more generally,
the ideology of visual culture across the political
and urban landscapes.
241. Byzantine Art and Architecture.
(C) Maxwell.
This course surveys the arts of Byzantium from the fall of
Rome to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Study
of major monuments, including icons, mosaics, architecture,
and ivories will provide us with an overview of this
rich artistic culture. We will pay special attention
to the role of the Orthodox Church and liturgy in the
production and reception of art works.
Weekly recitation sections will focus on selected major
issues, such as the relationship of art to the Holy,
the uses and abuses of Iconoclasm, and imperial patronage. The
course will also grapple with the Empire's relationship
to other cultures by looking at the impact of the Christian
Crusades and Moslem invasions - as well as Byzantium's
crucial impact on European art (e.g., in Sicily, Spain).
242. Introduction to Medieval Architecture.
(C) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Maxwell.
This course provides an introduction to the built environment
of the Middle Ages. From the fall of Rome to
the dawn of the Renaissance, a range of architectural
styles shaped medieval daily life, religious experience
and civic spectacle. We will become familiar
with the architectural traditions of the great cathedrals,
revered pilgrimage churches, and reclusive monasteries
of western Europe, as well as castles, houses, and
other civic structures. We will integrate the
study of the architecture and with the study of medieval
culture, exploring the role of pilgrimage, courts and
civil authority, religious reform and radicalism, crusading
and social violence, and rising urbanism. In
this way, we will explore the ways in which the built
environmentprofoundly affected contemporary audiences
and shaped medieval life.
L/R 252. Art in the Time of Michelangelo.
(C) Cole.
Introductory survey of the art of the late Renaissance, with
an emphasis on drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture
in central Italy. The course will cover works
by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, among
others.
L/R 255. Italian Renaissance Art. (C) Cole.
Survey of the visual arts in Italy in the fourteenth, fifteenth,and
sixteenth centuries, with emphasis on painting, sculpture
and architecture in the major cultural centers. Topics
may include the origins of modern urbanism, the rise
of art theory, the art of the courts, and the role
of art in the religious conflicts that ended the period. The
course will devote attention to Donatello, Leonardo,
Michelangelo, and Titian, among other artists.
256. Italian Renaissance and Baroque
Architecture. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Cole.
An introductory survey of architecture on the Italian peninsula,
ca. 1300-1750. The course will cover both standard
types (palaces, churches, squares) and distinctive
individual monuments. Topics may include urban
planning, garden and fountain design, and the relation
of practice to theory.
261. Netherlandish Art. (M) Silver.
Dutch and Flemish painting in the 15th and 16th centuries
with special emphasisonthecontributions of Robert Campin,
Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden, Bosch, and Bruegel.
SM 262. (DTCH230) German Art. (M) Silver.
This course will focus on paintings, prints, and sculptures
produced in the Geraround 1600. Principal attention
will focus on the changing role of visual culand altarpieces
but evolves into an era of "art,"
and collecting of pictures. German politics and
religion will be examined in relation to the images. Cultural
exchange with neighboring regions of Italy and the low
countries.
271. European Baroque Art. (C) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Cole/Silver.
European art and architecture of the late sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
275. Roman Baroque Art. (M) Cole.
An introduction to the city of Rome from the late sixteenth
to the mid-eighteenth century. The course will
look at works by such artists as Caravaggio, Bernini,
Poussin, and Borromini, considering them in relation
to the conditions in which they were originally produced
and viewed.
L/R 281. Early Modern Architecture.
(A) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Brownlee.
The history of western architecture from about 1700 until
the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Topics
to be considered include Palladianism, neo-classicism,
the picturesque, historicism, and the search for a
new style.
L/R 282. Modern Architecture. (C) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Brownlee.
The history of Western architecture from the late nineteenth
century until the present. Topics to be considered
include the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau,
Expressionism, the International Style, and
"Post-modernism".
L/R 283. The Modern City. (C) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Brownlee.
A study of the European and American city in the eighteenth,
nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Emphasis
will be placed on the history of architecture and urban
design, but political, sociological, and economic factors
will also receive attention. The class will consider
the development of London, St. Petersburg, Washington,
Boston, Paris, Vienna and Philadelphia.
L/R 284. Revolution to Realism: 1770-1870.
(A) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Staff.
The death of the revolutionary hero, the search for spiritual
meaning, the "rape" of the countryside by
industrialization, the anxious masculinity of romanticism,
abolition and its aftermath, the quest for a national
identity: these are only some of the themes that will
be addressed through the art of this early modern period,
as they emerged in the art of painters working in France,
England and Germany. Among other things, we will
analyze Jacques-Louis David's "martyr portraits" of
the French Revolution; the romantic "anti-heroes"
of Delacroix; Friedrich's nationalist landscapes; the
fantastic visions of J.M.W. Turner and William
Blake; Gericault;s representations of madness; and the
politicized "realism" of Gustave Courbet, the
painter who would so profoundly influence the later generation
of Impressionists.
L/R 285. Impressionism: European Art
1870-1900. (C) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Staff.
French Impressionism is the centerpiece of this course, which
will explore paintings, and some sculptures, produced
between 1848 and 1906. We consider French, Dutch,
and Scandanavian artists who painted and exhibited
in Paris during these years, exploring not only their
historical stature and reputation, but their contemporary
relevance. We will reflect on such myths of modernism
as the "misogyny"of Degas; the
"obsessiveness" of Cezanne; the "primitivism" of
Gauguin; and, of course, the "madness" of Van
Gogh. All art is considered within the context
of the social, economic and political changes that were
taking place in Paris--the capital of the nineteenth--century.
L/R 286. Twentieth Century Art: 1900-1945.
(C) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Poggi.
The art of the early twentieth century is marked by a number
of exciting, and sometimes bewildering, transformations. This
period witnessed the rise of abstraction in painting
and sculpture, as well as the inventions of collage,
montage, constructed sculpture, performance art, and
new photography-based practices. Encounters with
the arts of Africa, Oceania and other traditions unfamiliar
in the West spurred innovations in media, technique,
and subject matter. Artists also began to respond
to the challenge photography, to organize themselves
into movements, and in some cases, to challenge the
norms of art through "anti-art." A new gallery
system replaced traditional forms of exhibition organizers. This
course will examine these developments, with attention
to formal innovations as well as cultural and political
contexts. The emphasis will be on major movements and
artists in Europe.
L/R 287. Twentieth Century Art: 1945-Now.
(B) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Poggi.
Major artists and movements of the twentieth century, from
1945 to the present,and their relation to other modern,
cultural and historical developments.
288. Modern Design. (M) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Marcus.
This survey of modern utilitarian and decorative objects spans
the century, fromt he Arts and Crafts Movement to the
present, from the rise of Modernism to its rejection
in Post-Modernism, from Tiffany glass and tubular-metal
furniture to the Sony Walkman. Its overall approach
focuses on the aesthetics of designed objects and on
the designers who created them, but the course also
investigates such related topics as industrialization,
technology, ergonomics, and environmental, postindustrial,
and universal design. Among the major international
figures whose graphics, textiles, furniture, and other
products will be studied are William Morris, Frank
Lloyd Wright, Josef Hoffmann, Le Corbusier and Charlotte
Perriand, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Raymond Loewy,
Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Eero Saarinen,
Paul Rand, Jack Lenor Larsen, Ettore Sottsass,Jr.,
Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, and Philippe Starck.
L/R 289. Contemporary Art. (M) Staff.
291. (CINE209) The Road Movie.
(C) Beckman.
This course will allow us to study the changing shape of the
road movie genre from Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to the
French feminist revenge narrative, Baise-moi (Rape
me), (2000). In addition to considering the possibilities
and limits of genre as a category of analysis, we will
grapple with a number of questions that will persist
throughout the course: What is the relationship between
cinema and the automobile? Is the road trip a
particularly American fantasy, and if so, what does
it mean when non-U.S. filmmakers adopt the road-movie
genre? Is the road movie a
"masculine" genre? What role do urban
and rural spaces play in the development of the genre? What
happens to race/gender/sexuality/national identity in
the road movie? What kinds of borders does this
genre dream of crossing? Do the radical fantasies
of characters within the road movie genre necessarily
translate into films with radical politics?
292. (CINE208, GSOC228) Women and
Film. (C) Beckman.
This course will introduce students to the work of mainstream
and experimental women filmmakers from around the world. As
we examine films from the nineteenth, twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, we will consider how a counter-history
of women's cinema alters more conventional versions
of the medium's history, whether gender is a useful
category of analysis for film studies, how women filmmakers
have responded to each others' work, and how other
markers of identity like race and class complicate
utopian narratives of "sisters in cinema."
293. History of Photography. (M) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff.
A history of world photography from 1839 to the present and
its relation to cultural contexts as well as to various
theories of the functions of images. Topics discussed
in considering the nineteenth century will be the relationship
between photography and painting, the effect of photography
on portraiture, photography in the service of exploration,
and photography as practiced by anthropologists; and
in considering the twentieth century, photography and
abstraction, photography as "fine art", photography
and the critique of art history, and photography and
censorhip.
L/R 295. American Art Before 1865. (M) Leja, Shaw.
296. American Art: 1865-1968. (M) Leja, Shaw.
This course surveys the history of modern art in the U.S.
from its international prominence during the 1950s
and then to its alleged replacement by "postmodernism." We
will explore relation of this art to historical processes
of modernization (industrialization, urbanization,
technological development, the rise of mass media and
mass markets, etc.) and to the economic polarization,
social fragmentation, political conflict, and myriad
cultural changes these developments entailed.
Undergraduate Seminars &
Independent Study
SM 301. (ENGL294) Undergraduate Seminar.
(C) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Meister, Holod, Brownlee, Poggi, Haselberger,
Kuttner, Davis, Maxwell, Cole, Pittman, Silver, Beckman,
Leja, Shaw. Undergraduate Major Preference.
Topic varies.
397. Senior Project in Architectural
History. (C) Holod. Permission of instructor required.
Topic Varies
398. Senior Thesis. (E) Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor
required. See department for appropriate section numbers.
399. Independent Study. (C) Distribution Course in Arts &
Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. See department
for appropriate section numbers.
Intermediate Courses
412. Indian Temple Architecture.
(C) Meister.
The history of Hindu temple architecture from A.D. 400-1400,
concentrating on the means by which a "language" for
symbolic architecture was developed. Lab sessions with
photographs as well as lectures will be included.
417. (COML417) Later Islamic Art
and Architecture. (M) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Holod.
Istanbul, Samarkand, Isfahan, Cairo and Delhi as major centers
of art production in the fourteenth to seventeenth
centuries. Attention will be given to urban and architectural
achievement as well as to the key monuments of painting
and metalwork. The visual environment of the
"gunpowder empires".
422. (AAMW422, NELC422) Art of
the Ancient Near East. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Pittman.
Emphasis on monumental art work of the Ancient Near East as
the product of cultural and historical factors. Major
focus will be on Mesopotamia from the late Neolithic
to the Neo-Assyrian period, with occasional attention
to related surrounding areas such as Western Iran,
Anatolia, and Syria.
425. (AAMW425) Art of Ancient Iran.
(C) Pittman.
This course offers a survey of ancient Iranian art and culture
from the painted pottery cultures of the Neolithic
era to the monuments of the Persian Empire. The
format is slide illustrated lecture.
427. (AAMW427, CLST427) Roman Sculpture.
(M) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Kuttner.
Survey of the Republican origins and Imperial development
of Roman sculpture - free-standing, relief, and architectural
- from ca. 150 BC to 350 AD. We concentrate
on sculpture in the capital city and on court and state
arts, emphasizing commemorative public sculpture and
Roman habits of decorative display; genres examined
include relief, portraits, sarcophagi, luxury and minor
arts(gems, metalwork, coinage). We evaluate the
choice and evolution of styles with reference to the
functions of sculptural representation in Roman culture
and society.
431. (AAMW431) Early Christian
and Byzantine Architecture. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Maxwell.
Architecture and its decoration from Early Christian times
in East and West until the sixth century A.D., and
in the Byzantine lands until the Turkish Conquest.
432. Early Medieval Architecture.
(M) Maxwell.
Selected problems in pre-Carolingian, and Ottonian architecture. The
course will be conducted as a colloquium, focusing
on current issues ans methodologies for dealing with
them. A reading knowledge of French, German,
or Italian is desirable.
441. Medieval Architecture. (M) Maxwell.
442. Medieval Art in Italy to 1400.
(M) Distribution
Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Maxwell.
A survey of sculpture, painting, and architecture in Italy
from c. 300 to 1400.
473. (DTCH473, HIST407, RELS415)
Baroque Painting in Northern Europe. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Silver.
Emphasis on the "Golden Age" of painting traditions
of Holland and Flanders from the outset of the Dutch
Revolt in the 1560s to the French invasions around
1670. Principal artists include: Pieter and Jan
Brueghel, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goltzuis, Hals, Rembrandt,
Ruisdael, Vermeer, and Steen. Attention to the
rise of pictoral genres: landscape, still life, tavern
scenes, portraiture, as well as relationship of art
to the rise of Absolutist rulers, religious conflicts,
and the Thirty Years War.
500-Level Seminars
500. Problems of Interpretation.
(L) Silver.
Consideration of the problems of definition, analysis, and
interpretation of artworks, chiefly painting, sculpture
and graphic arts.
Topics for consideration will include: the changing status
of the artist, sites of visual display, the relationship
between art and authority, the representation of cultural
difference (including both national/ethnic and gender
difference), and the "art for art's sake: purposes
of
"modernism."
Requirements will
consist of short analytical papers on visual images
as well as on class readings, comprised of some primary
texts and samples of scholarship. Principal texts
will derive from the Open University series "Art
and its Histories" (Yale University Press).
SM 501. (AFRC501, SAST502) Museum
Methods. (M) Staff.
Topic varies. Organized in cooperation with local museums
and collections.
SM 503. Origins of Graphic Art. (M) Silver.
History of prints in the period from about 1400 to Albrecht
Durer (d 1528). Relation of early Northern and Italian
woodcuts, engravings, and etchings to contemporary
art forms - sculpture, painting.
Topic varies.
SM 504. (AAMW504) Structural Archaeology.
(C) Staff.
A proseminar designed to acquaint the participants with the
physical evidence of buildings. It treats the
properties of pre-modern building materials, their
static and dynamic behavior, their contexts and reasons
for their use, and the means for their procurement
and working. It considers the methodologies for
the historical interpretation of physical evidence,
including the recording, analysis, and presentation
of evidence, determining the date and original form
of buildings, their sequence of construction, and their
subsequent modifications. Each participant carries
out a small-scale field exercise. No prerequisites.
SM 511. Ukiyo-e: Japanese Prints and
Paintings of the "Floating World". (M) Davis.
In this course we will study Japanese woodblock prints from
the seventeenth through the twentieth century. For
most of the course, we will be concerned with prints
from the Edo, or Tokugawa, period (1615-1868) in the
style known as "ukiyo-e" ("images of
the floating world") and the culture that produced
them, but in the final weeks we will also consider
the continuation and adaptation of woodblock printing
in modern print movements. Study of prints at
the Philadelphia Museum of Art and other local collections.
SM 512. (SAST512) Proseminar in Indian
Art. (C) Meister.
Topic varies.
SM 513. Pro-Seminar in East Asian
Art. (C) Davis.
Topic varies.
SM 514. Aspects of Indian Art. (C) Meister.
Aspects of sculpture, painting, iconography, or architecture
in the Indian sub-continent. Topic varies.
SM 515. (SAST503) Aspects of Indian
Architecture. (M) Meister.
Indian temples explored in terms of the morphology of a symbolic
architecture. Topic varies.
SM 516. (AAMW516) Islamic Epigraphy.
(M) Holod.
Topic varies.
SM 517. (AAMW517) The Islamic City.
(C) Holod.
Approaches to the study of the City in the Islamic World.
SM 518. (AAMW518, NELC617) Art of
Iran. (M) Holod.
Iranian art and architecture of the Parthian, Sassanian and
Islamic periods, with particular emphasis on regional
characteristics in the period. Different themes are
explored each time the course is offered. In the past,
these have been Ilkhanid and Timurid painting, the
city of Isfahan, metropolitan and provincial architecture
in the fourteenth century.
SM 519. (AAMW519) Art of Andalusia.
(M) Holod.
A discussion of the arts of the Islamic period in the countries of
the western Mediterranean. The particular focus is
the art of Muslim Spain (Andalusia), dealing with the
importance of its architectural and artistic achievements
for the art of the western Mediterranean.
SM 521. (AAMW521, CLST521) Proseminar
in Classical Art. (M) Kuttner.
Topic varies.
No prerequisite. Open
to advanced undergraduates with permission of the instructor.
SM 522. (AAMW522) Art of the Ancient
Near East. (M) Pittman.
Topic Varies
SM 525. (AAMW525, CLST525) Aegean
Bronze Age. (C) Distribution
Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Betancourt.
Topic Varies.
SM 526. (CLST526) Material &
Methods in Mediterranean. (C) Kuttner.
The art of Greece and its neighbors from the time of Alexander
the Great to Roman dominion of the Mediterranean (c.
323 to 31 B.C.). Focus on painting and sculpture from
major centers such as Alexandria and Pergamon.
SM 527. (AAMW527) Proseminar in Classical
Architecture. (C) Haselberger.
Topic Varies
SM 528. (AAMW528, CLST528) Proseminar
in Roman Architecture. (M) Haselberger, Kuttner.
Topic varies.
SM 529. (AAMW529) Vitruvian Studies.
(C) Haselberger.
Topic Varies.
SM 541. (RELS536) Topics in Medieval
Art. (M) Maxwell.
Topic varies.
SM 542. (AAMW542) Early Medieval Architecture.
(M) Maxwell.
Colloquium on selected problems in the history of Western
European architecture from the seventh century to the
dawn of the Romanesque.
Topic varies.
SM 543. Medieval Frescoes and Mosaics.
(C) Staff.
Study of the major centers of Romanesque art ca. 1000-ca.
1200. Cluniac and Montecassino revivals. Frescoes in
France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Problems of Carolingian
and Ottonian origins and Eastern influence, iconography,
and style. Concentration on frescoes and mosaics in
church programs.
SM 552. Proseminar in Renaissance/Baroque
Art. (C) Cole.
Topic Varies.
SM 562. Northern Renaissance Art.
(M) Silver.
Topic varies.
SM 579. (DTCH579, GRMN589) Seminar
in Baroque Art. (M) Silver.
Topic varies.
SM 580. Neoclassical Architecture.
(M) Haselberger.
This proseminar will explore the architecture of the Neoclassical
century (ca. 1750-1850), the "true style",
as it made its appearance all over Europe and parts
of North America, with a new revival from the 1890s
to the 1940s. We will do research on the intellectual
preconditions and key treatises (e.g., Laugier, Stuart
and Revett) as well as on selected monuments, some
of them right in Philadelphia (e.g., Second Bank; Water
Works; PMA). Field trips and practical instructions
of analysis. No prerequisites.
SM 581. Modern Architectural Theory.
(C) Brownlee.
A survey of architectural theory from the mid-eighteenth century
to the present. The discussion of original writings
will be emphasized.
SM 582. Proseminar in Modern Architecture.
(C) Brownlee.
Topic varies.
SM 583. (CINE548, ITAL588) Cinema
and the Sister Arts. (M) Staff. Undergraduates by permission of instructor. Reading knowledge
of Italian desirable but not required.
This course explores cinema as a pan-generic system constructed
of other art forms; fiction, theater, painting, photography,
architecture, music and dance. The interrelationships
between film and its sister arts will be discussed
1) with respect to the historical emergence of cinema
as a new medium that evolved from antecedents in painting,
photography, and (melo)drama; 2) as a reflection of
an individual director's own sytle and programmatic
choices (e.g., Visconti in his relationship with opera);
3) to consider how the conscious citation and appropriation
of non-verbal narrative forms function emblematically
to enhance cinematic meaning (e.g., in musical commentary
on a soundtrack; in the incorporation of folksongs
to serve "realism"; in the use of dance as
a metaphor for social interaction or sexual seduction). Emphasis
will be on Italian cinema, with selected films and
texts from other national cultures. Each week
class discussion will focus on one film and draw as
well on one or more secondary films, using clips to
focus discussion. Students will be responsible
for viewing supplementary films independently each
week and for weekly readings. The latter include
literary texts on which films have been based as well
as film theory and criticism.
SM 585. Proseminar in Nineteenth-Century
Art. (C) Staff.
Topic varies.
SM 586. (COML586) Proseminar in Twentieth-Century
Art. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Poggi.
Topic varies.
SM 588. Proseminar in American Art.
(M) Staff.
Topic Varies.
SM 589. Proseminar in Contemporary
Art. (M) Distribution
Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior
only. Staff.
Topic varies.
SM 599. (SAST516) Photo Archival Studies.
(M) Meister.
Topic Varies
600-Level Courses
SM 603. Prints & Printmakers. (C) Silver.
SM 611. Art in India. (C) Meister.
A survey of sculpture, painting and architecture in the Indian
sub-continent from 2300 B.C. to the nineteenth century. An
attempt to explore the role of tradition in the broader
history of art in India.
SM 612. (SAST501) Indian Temple Architecture.
(C) Meister.
The wooden architecture of ancient India's cities is represented
in relief carvings from Buddhist religious monuments
of the early centuries A.D. and replicated in remarkable
excavated cave cathedrals. This course will trace
that architectural tradition, its transformation into
a symbolic vocabulary for a new structure, the Hindu
temple, and the development of the temple in India
from ca. 500-1500 A.D.
SM 613. Arts of Japan. (K) Davis, Chance.
This course will introduce the major artistic traditions of
Japan, from the Neolitic period to the present, and
teach the fundamental methods of the descipline of
art history. Our approaches will be chronological,
considering how the arts developed in and through history,
and thematic, discussing how art and architecture were
used for philosophical, religious and material ends.
Special attention will be given to the places of Shinto,
the impact of Buddhism, and their related architectures
and sculptures; the principles of narrative illustration;
