Art History (ARH)

ARH200. Introduction to the Visual Arts. 3 Credits.

Introduction to the visual language of art and architecture, formal artistic means, art historical and critical terms. Comparison of major art styles and periods in Western and non-Western art.

ARH201. Art of the Western World I. 3 Credits.

Introductory survey of the history of Western art from the Old Kingdom of Egypt to the end of the Middle Ages.

ARH202. Art of the Western World II. 3 Credits.

This course will study the history of Western art from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Lectures and readings will emphasize cultural and historical context as well as the formal qualities of works of art. The student will become familiar with general ways to analyze art as well as diverse qualities of specific styles and movements in art.

ARH207. Film Aesthetics and Criticism I. 3 Credits.

Aesthetic and critical functions of film within two primary structural models: film as illusion vs. film as reality. Critical references from numerous stances: formalist, psychological, symbolist, existential, sociological, semiotic.

ARH208. Film Aesthetics and Criticism II. 3 Credits.

Continuation of ARH207. Works of selected film critics. Film showing at each class.

ARH210. Images and Ideas Asian Art. 3 Credits.

Study of selected art traditions in pre-modern India, China, and Japan. Various art historical perspectives will be applied. Students will gain practice in using analytic tools of art history, and in conducting art history research.

ARH212. Images and Ideas in World Art. 3 Credits.

An interdisciplinary exploration of cultural, artistic, and architectural traditions of Africa, the Americas, Oceania, West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia from ancient to modern times.

ARH293. Art Hist Select Topic. 3-12 Credits.

Selected topics courses are regularly scheduled courses that focus on a particular topic of interest. Descriptions are printed in the Schedule of Classes each semester. Selected topics courses may be used as elective credit and may be repeated for credit, provided that the topic of the course changes.

ARH295. Independent Study Art History. 0 Credits.

ARH296. Departmental Elective. 0 Credits.

ARH340. The Arts of Early China. 3 Credits.

Survey of Chinese art from neolithic times to around A.D. 900. Archaeology, mortuary and religious art and secular traditions will be included as well as the entrance of Buddhism and the beginnings of landscape painting.

ARH341. The Arts of Later China. 3 Credits.

Survey of Chinese Art from the tenth century to the present including landscape painting, literati painting, garden art, calligraphy, and ceramics.

ARH342. The Arts of Japan. 3 Credits.

Survey of Japanese art from neolithic times to the nineteenth century. Wide range of media, including ceramics, sculpture, painting, architecture, and calligraphy.

ARH343. Japanese Arts of the Edo Period. 3 Credits.

Exploration of Japan's final "pre-modern" period, the Edo or Tokugawa (1600 - 1868), emphasizing its stunning variety in types of artistic medium (lacquer, painting, ceramics, prints, etc.) and in sources of artistic patronage (aristocratic, military, commoner, etc.).

ARH344. History of Buddhist Art. 3 Credits.

We follow and analyze the development of Buddhist art from its beginnings in northeast India through central and East Asia, considering its impact on and adaptation to various Asian traditions; presentations and a research paper are required.

ARH345. Art in Modern China. 3 Credits.

Examination of the many artistic roads and philosophical solutions that have been explored in the Chinese art world, and of the astonishng changes this world has undergone, between the mid 19th and early 21st century.

ARH348. History of Film. 3 Credits.

Survey of film history from its invention in the late 19th century, including key developments in film form through the silent era, and selective study of key concepts and genres to the present day. PREREQUISITE: Sophmore or greater.

ARH354. Nature & Science in 19th Century American Art. 3 Credits.

Explores influence and role of nature and science in nineteenth-century American art and architecture, with an emphasis on the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on art.

ARH355. African-American Art of the Twentieth Century. 3 Credits.

An exploration of African-American art from the early twentieth century to the present, in all media, focusing on the role of visual art in shaping personal, social, and political identity. Special attention is given to the Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights movement, contemporary trends, and to debates about specific controversial exhibitions.

ARH356. Architecture of New York City. 3 Credits.

The architectural history of the five boroughs from the earliest Dutch buildings of the seventeenth century to the most recent skyscrapers.

ARH358. Modern Art, 1900-1970. 3 Credits.

Major artists and artistic movements, primarily in Europe and the U.S., from the beginning of the twentieth century to 1970.

ARH359. Contemporary Art, 1970 to the Present. 3 Credits.

Theory and criticism of developments in art since 1970, including earthworks, feminist art, public art, collaboration, and internationalism.

ARH361. Art of the Renaissance in Italy. 3 Credits.

Architecture, sculpture and painting in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with emphasis upon the Early and High Renaissance.

ARH362. Northern European Painting from Van Eyck to Bruegel. 3 Credits.

Religious and secular painting in the Low Countries, France and Germany during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

ARH363. Early Medieval Art. 3 Credits.

European art from the fall of the Roman Empire through the barbarian invasions and Carolingian Revival to the end of the Romanesque period.

ARH364. Later Medieval Art: Gothic. 3 Credits.

The evolution of the Gothic style in architecture and sculpture in France during the twelfth century. The iconography of programs in portal sculpture and stained glass. The dissemination of the Gothic style in Europe to the end of the fifteenth century.

ARH365. Early Greek Art. 3 Credits.

Greek art from ca. 900 B.C. to the end of the Archaic period.

ARH366. Later Greek Art. 3 Credits.

Focus on the art of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, fifth to first centuries B.C.

ARH367. The Art of Ancient Rome. 3 Credits.

The art and architecture of the Roman Republic and Empire from the first century B.C. to the fourth century A.D.

ARH368. History of Photography. 3 Credits.

A survey of the art and techniques of photography from the earliest forms in the 1840's. The mutual influences between photography and painting, especially in the nineteenth century. The development of cameras and films. The work of individual photographers and the language of criticism of photographs.

ARH369. History of Modern Design. 3 Credits.

Significant developments in design and the decorative arts of the Modern Movement, largely in the twentieth century. A variety of object types will be considered and situated within the major movements in Europe and the United States, with emphasis on their social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

ARH371. Columns and Cast Iron: Architecture of the Nineteenth Century. 3 Credits.

The development of the picturesque eclectic building styles in Europe and America including Romantic Classicism, Renaissance, Gothic, Queen Anne, Romanesque and Colonial Revivals. Some examination also of the influence of technology on architecture.

ARH372. Building the Twentieth Century: Architecture and Urban Design. 3 Credits.

The development of new forms in architecture and urban design before World War II by theorists such as Wright, Gropis, Miles and LeCorbusier. The dissemination of these ides, especially in America. The anti-formalist reaction of the 1960s. Post-Modernism and eclecticism.

ARH375. History of Decorative Arts. 3 Credits.

From the general categories of furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles and interior design, the course focuses on certain media and historical periods.

ARH378. Sacred Spaces, Divine Images. 3 Credits.

The formation and development of Hindu Art on the Indian subcontinent and the genesis, as well as transformation, of Islamic art in India and its relationship to pan-Islamic traditions.

ARH381. Arts of Asia II: The Continuing Tradition. 3 Credits.

The arts of China, India and Japan; seventh century to the present. Hindu sculpture and architecture; Chinese painting and ceramics; the imagery of Zen Buddhism; Asian responses to the West.

ARH382. American Art. 3 Credits.

American architecture, painting, and sculpture from the Colonial period to the present.

ARH384. Art of the Nineteenth Century. 3 Credits.

Major directions in European art such as Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Academic Art, the Pre-Raphaelites, Realism, and Impressionism.

ARH385. Visualizing Greco-Roman Myth. 3 Credits.

An in-depth exploration of mythological imagery’s many functions in ancient Greece and Italy, including the enforcement of social values, formation of collective identities, political propaganda, and allusions to contemporary events.

ARH386. Art of Ancient Egypt. 3 Credits.

Development of Egyptian art from the Pre-Dynastic Era through the end of the Late Period.

ARH387. Art of the Islamic World. 3 Credits.

A survey of Islamic art in Persia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and India.

ARH388. Intro. to the Native Arts of Africa, Oceania and No.America. 3 Credits.

Traditional sculpture, painting, building and crafts of the indigenous peoples of Africa, the islands of the South Pacific, and North America.

ARH391. Baroque Painting. 3 Credits.

The development of the national schools of painting in Italy, the Low Countries, Spain, France, and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

ARH393. Art History Selected Topic. 3-12 Credits.

Selected topics courses are regularly scheduled courses that focus on a particular topic of interest. Descriptions are printed in the Schedule of Classes each semester. Selected topics courses may be used as elective credit and may be repeated for credit, provided that the topic of the course changes.

ARH396. Departmental Elective. 0 Credits.

ARH399. Modular Course. 0 Credits.

ARH401. Art of the Ancient Near East. 3 Credits.

The art and architecture of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Iran from the Neolithic era to the Achaemenian Persian Empire studied in relation to myth, religion and social structure.

ARH420. Art of the Hudson Valley. 3 Credits.

Survey of painting and architecture in the Hudson Valley from the Colonial period to 1940; some references to sculpture and the decorative arts.

ARH442. Eighteenth-Century Arts. 3 Credits.

The era from Louis XIV to Napoleon in painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts.

ARH444. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. 3 Credits.

Covers development of art in late nineteenth century France and various approaches represented by Manet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, and others. Avant-garde movements in the wake of Impressionism includes discussion of Seurat, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cezanne.

ARH445. Encounters with Islam: Art and Appropriation, 9th - 19th Century. 3 Credits.

An interdisciplinary exploration of artistic exchange between the Islamic sphere, Europe, and North America between the ninth and nineteenth centuries CE, highlighting the circulation of objects, techniques, designs, and ideas across cultural, political, religious, and geographical boundaries.

ARH446. Surrealism. 3 Credits.

Surveys Surrealist ideas, writings, paintings, films, objects, etc. in their historical contexts, examining the various positions of those who claim the label "Surrealist," the impact that the movement had in its own time, and since.

ARH451. Introduction to Museum Studies. 3 Credits.

Historical development of art museums and their function, including the related fields of public art education, arts administration, art conservation, etc. Career options in the field.

ARH452. Chinese Painting: Figure in Landscape. 3 Credits.

Exploration of the major developments and issues affecting the landscape genre (s) in Chinese painting between the second century BC and the present, with emphasis on how figures relate to the depicted landscape visually and/or conceptually.

ARH456. Art History: Theories and Approaches. 3 Credits.

What is art history? This question is explored through reading selected passages from the history of art history and from recent theoretical writings that question traditional approaches to the discipline. We look at diverse approaches that have been used to interpret art, including biography, style, periodization, iconography and iconology, psychoanalysis, patronage, feminism, Marxism, reception theory, social history, and semiotics.

ARH461. Honors Thesis in Art History I. 3 Credits.

Independent study and writing of a thesis under faculty supervision on a topic selected by the student in consultation with the faculty. Open to qualified Art History majors who have been admitted to the Art History honors program. Credit for ARH461 is not allowed unless ARH462 is completed.

ARH462. Honors Thesis in Art History II. 3 Credits.

Continuation of ARH461.

ARH493. Art History Selected Topic. 3-12 Credits.

Selected topics courses are regularly scheduled courses that focus on a particular topic of interest. Descriptions are printed in the Schedule of Classes each semester. Selected topics courses may be used as elective credit and may be repeated for credit, provided that the topic of the course changes.

ARH494. Fieldwork In Art History. 1-12 Credits.

ARH495. Indep Study Art History. 1-12 Credits.