2009-10 Catalog

A course devoted to the study of a single artist of world importance, the name of the artist to be announced prior to registration. This study, grounded in the artist's life and, where possible, his/her writings, will analyze and interpret his/her major works in chronological sequence in their artistic and historic contexts, and attempt, by close aesthetic examination, to account for their greatness-and, sometimes, their failure.

A study of the arts of Western Europe from the disintegration of the Roman Empire circa A.D. 476, to the 14th century. The diverse historical forces at work during this long period produced a correspondingly varied art. Emphasis will be on the later Middle Ages, circa 1200-1350, a period marked by a synthesizing of inherited traditions into a comprehensive whole. Major monuments of architecture, such as the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Westminster, as well as sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, panel painting, and stained glass will be examined within the aesthetic and social framework of countries as culturally diverse as France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Britain. Not offered 2009-10.

A survey of artistic developments in Northern Europe and Spain from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and baroque periods. The course will focus upon the complexity of northern art, from its origins in the still forceful medieval culture of 15th-century Flanders, to its confrontation with Italian Renaissance humanism in the 16th century. The effects of this cultural synthesis and the eventual development of distinct national schools of painting in the 17th century are examined through the works of the period's dominant artists, including Van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein, Velázquez, Rubens, Hals, and Rembrandt. Not offered 2009-10.

A survey of the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the late 16th century to the late 18th century. A confident and optimistic age, the baroque fostered the rise of national schools that produced artistic giants like Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Claude, Poussin, Tiepolo, and Guardi. The masterpieces of these and other artists reflect the wide variety of baroque art and will be studied within the context of certain commonly held ideals and of the differing economic, political, and religious systems that characterized the period. Not offered 2009-10.

A survey of 19th-century art with an emphasis on French painting created between 1780 and 1880. The lectures will focus on issues such as the new image of the artist, the tension between public and private statements in the arts, the rise of landscape painting, the development of the avant-garde, and paintings of modern life during this period. Not offered 2009-10.

A survey of the art of the earliest civilization of the ancient near east and Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to A.D. 300. The major monuments-architectural, sculptural, and pictorial-of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aegean, Greece, and Rome will be examined as solutions to problems of form and function presented by communal political, economic, and religious life. Emphasis will be placed on the creation of Greco-Roman art, the foundation of the Western artistic tradition. Not offered 2009-10.

A basic study of the greatest achievements of Italian painting, sculpture, and architecture in the 15th and 16th centuries. Masterpieces by a succession of artists such as Giotto, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Alberti, the Bellini, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Veronese, and others will be examined for their formal beauty and power, and studied as manifestations of individual genius in the context of their time and place: Italy, fragmented politically, yet at the peak of its cultural dominance. Not offered 2009-10.

An in-depth survey of international painting and sculpture of the first half of the 20th century. Crucial movements, among them fauvism, German expressionism, cubism, dadaism, surrealism, and American abstraction and realism between the two world wars, will be studied, and masterworks by a number of major artists of this period (e.g., Picasso, Matisse, Nolde, Duchamp, Magritte, Hopper) will be closely examined. Not offered 2009-10.

An examination of the impact of Buddhism on the arts and cultures of India, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan from its earliest imagery in the 4th century B.C.E. India through various doctrinal transformations to the Zen revival of 18th-century Japan. Select monuments of Buddhist art, including architecture, painting, sculpture, and ritual objects, will serve as focal points for discussions on their aesthetic principles and for explorations into the religious, social, and cultural contexts that underlie their creation. Not offered 2009-10.

A survey of the development of Chinese art in which the major achievements in architecture, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, and ceramics will be studied in their cultural contexts from prehistory through the Manchu domination of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese art as molded by the philosophies, religions, and history of China. Not offered 2009-10.