Art History Courses
Art History Survey Courses
No previous study is required for admission to the following courses (ARTH-UA 1 through 6). These courses are the prerequisites for many of the advanced-level courses. Students cannot receive credit for both History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1) and Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3) or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4); or for both History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2) and Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5) or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), as their contents overlap.
History of Western Art I
ARTH-UA 1 Identical to MEDI-UA 1. Students who have taken ARTH-UA 3 or ARTH-UA 4 will not receive credit for this course. Offered every semester. 4 points.
Introduction to the history of painting, sculpture, and architecture from ancient times to the dawn of the Renaissance, emphasizing the place of the visual arts in the history of civilization. Includes the study of significant works in New York museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, and the Brooklyn Museum.
History of Western Art II
ARTH-UA 2 Identical to MEDI-UA 2. Students who have taken ARTH-UA 5 or ARTH-UA 6 will not receive credit for this course. Offered every semester. 4 points.
Introduction to the history of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the early Renaissance to the present day. Includes the study of significant works in New York museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Morgan Museum and Library, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Ancient Art
ARTH-UA 3 Students who have taken ARTH-UA 1 will not receive credit for this course. Offered periodically. 4 points.
History of art in the Western tradition from 20,000 B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E, from the emergence of human beings in the Paleolithic Age to the developments of civilization in the Near East, Egypt, and the Aegean; the flowering of the classical age in Greece; and the rise of the Roman Empire to the beginnings of Christian domination under the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century C.E. Study of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum is essential.
Medieval Art
ARTH-UA 4 Identical to MEDI-UA 200. Students who have taken ARTH-UA 1 will not receive credit for this course. Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introduction to the arts of the Christian Middle Ages in the Greek East and Latin West ca. 200-1400 C.E. Covers architecture, monumental sculpture, painting, mosaics, stained glass, ivory and metalwork, and panel painting in their historical, religious, political, and social contexts. Topics include the creation of a vocabulary of Christian symbols, imagery, and architectural forms; medieval patrons, artists, and audiences; arts of pilgrimage, monastery, and cathedral; and the roles and functions of images. Study of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters is included.
Renaissance and Baroque Art
ARTH-UA 5 Identical to MEDI-UA 333. Students who have taken ARTH-UA 2 will not receive credit for this course. Offered every year. 4 points.
An introduction to art and architecture, 1400-1750, against the context of historical, cultural, religious, technological, and social change. Topics include the emergence of humanism and its engagement with the ancient past; the development of transformative new techniques and technologies for making art; the function of art in religious, public, and domestic settings; the role of the patron; the impact of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on art and society; and the proliferation of new genres. Close study of works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Morgan Museum and Library is an integral part of the course.
Modern Art
ARTH-UA 6 Students who have taken ARTH-UA 2 will not receive credit for this course. Offered every year. 4 points.
Art in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present. Content includes neoclassicism and romanticism, realism, the impressionists, parallel developments in architecture, the new sculptural tradition of Rodin, postimpressionism to fauvism, expressionism, futurism, cubism, geometric abstraction in sculpture and painting, modernism in architecture in the 20th century, and Dadaism and surrealism. Also covers developments since 1945, such as action painting, pop art, minimal art, and postmodernism. Study of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art is included.
Advanced Courses in Ancient Art and Architecture
Birth of Greek Art: From the Bronze Age to the Geometric Period
ARTH-UA 101 Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Surveys the art, archaeology, and culture of the Aegean Bronze Age and early Iron Age: from ancient Thera, to the palace-based states of Minoan Crete and the Mycenaean Greek mainland, to developments within communities of the eighth century B.C.E. Architecture, wall painting, sculpture, ceramics, and narrative in early Greek art are among the topics to be examined. Emphasis on critical approaches to material culture within the contexts of religion, sociopolitical and economic organization, burial practices, trade networks, and interactions with neighboring cultures.
Archaic and Classical Art: Greek and Etruscan
ARTH-UA 102 Identical to CLASS-UA 312. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Covers the seventh through the fourth century B.C.E., including the orientalizing and archaic styles, the emergence of the classical style, and the impact of Macedonian court art under the conquests of Alexander the Great. Studies architecture, sculpture, and vase painting within their historical and cultural contexts. Includes study of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections.
Hellenistic and Roman Art
ARTH-UA 103 Identical to CLASS-UA 313. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Traces developments in art from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the beginnings of Christian domination under Constantine in the fourth century C.E. Includes Macedonian court art; the spread of Hellenistic culture from Greece to the Indus Valley; the art of the Ptolemaic, Attalid, and Seleucid kingdoms; the expansion of Rome in the western Mediterranean; and the art of the Roman Empire. Study of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum collections is essential.
Greek Architecture
ARTH-UA 104 Identical to CLASS-UA 353. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Covers the archaic through the Hellenistic periods (eighth to first centuries B.C.E.). Provides a chronological survey of the Greek architectural tradition from its Iron Age origins, marked by the construction of the first all-stone temples, to its radical transformation in the late Hellenistic period, most distinctively embodied in the baroque palace architecture reflected in contemporary theatre stage-buildings. Related topics include city planning and urbanism, building methods, and traditions of architectural patronage.
Roman Architecture
ARTH-UA 105 Identical to CLASS-UA 354. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Ancient Art (ARTH-UA 3), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTHUA 601), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Covers the Hellenistic to the early Christian periods (first century B.C.E. to sixth century C.E.). Provides a chronological survey of Roman architecture from its early development against the background of the Greek and Etruscan traditions to the dramatic melding of the divergent trends of late antiquity in the great Justinian churches of Constantinople and Ravenna. Related topics include city planning and urbanism, Roman engineering, and the interaction between Rome and the provinces.
Ancient Egyptian Art
ARTH-UA 110 No prerequisite. Offered every year. 4 points.
Traces developments in the sculpture, painting, and architecture of ancient Egypt from predynastic beginnings through the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms until the conquest of Augustus (3100-40 B.C.E.). Special emphasis on Egyptian art in the context of history, religion, and cultural patterns. Includes study of Egyptian collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Advanced Courses in Medieval Art and Architecture
Art of the Early Middle Ages
ARTH-UA 201 Identical to MEDI-UA 201. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Christian architecture, sculpture, painting, mosaic, manuscript illumination, and luxury arts in the Greek East and Latin West from their origins ca. 200 C.E. through ca. 950 C.E. Considers the visual and material culture of Christianity in light of the religious, historical, political, social, and cultural contexts of their creation. Style periods include early Christian, early Byzantine, barbarian, insular, Merovingian, and Carolingian. Topics include art and the commemoration of the dead; Christian attitudes toward Judaism and the classical tradition; art and theology; the emergence of the cult of saints and its art and architecture; early medieval patrons; arts of pilgrimage and early monasticism; word and image in early medieval culture; and iconoclasm and debates about the role of images in early Christianity.
Romanesque Art
ARTH-UA 202 Identical to MEDI-UA 202. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Examines the architecture, sculpture, painting, manuscript illumination, and treasury arts of the Latin West during the period ca. 950-1200 C.E., including Ottonian, Anglo-Saxon, Mozarabic, First Romanesque, and Romanesque art. Considers the visual arts of Christianity in light of the historical, religious, political, social, and cultural contexts of their creation. Topics include the cult of saints and the arts; the art and architecture of pilgrimage and crusade; monasticism and the arts; Romanesque patrons, artists, and audiences; the Romanesque revival of monumental sculpture; Christian encounters with Islam and Judaism; secular themes in Romanesque art; word and image in Romanesque art; and medieval attitudes toward the classical tradition.
Gothic Art in Northern Europe
ARTH-UA 203 Identical to MEDI-UA 203. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
The art of the "age of the cathedrals"—including architecture, sculpture, stained glass, manuscript illumination, wall painting, luxury arts, and tapestry—from the origins of the Gothic style in the 12th-century Ile-de-France through the early 15th century. Considers artistic developments in light of the religious, historical, political, social, and cultural contexts of their creation. Topics include Gothic patrons, artists, builders, and art-making; lay literacy and the patronage and reception of art; the cult of the Virgin and the arts; the Gothic image as bearer of religious, political, and social values and ideologies; arts of chivalry and courtly love; naturalism and developments in portraiture; the roles of art in devotional and mystical experience; and Gothic art and late medieval notions of vision and the self.
Art and Architecture in the Age of Giotto: Italian Art, 1200-1400
ARTH-UA 204 Identical to MEDI-UA 204. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Traces the evolution of the painted altarpiece in relation to its liturgical, devotional, and cultic functions and with consideration of artistic personalities such as Duccio, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti. Studies the great fresco cycles in churches and chapels from the point of view of artists (including Giotto and Taddeo Gaddi), patron(s), and program. Surveys key monuments of religious and civic architecture and their painted and sculpted decoration within the historical and political contexts of the emerging Italian city-states. Topics include the mendicant orders and the arts; the Black Death and art; the status of the artist; and gender and social class in representation and patronage.
Medieval Architecture
ARTH-UA 205 Identical to MEDI-UA 205. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or Medieval Art (ARTH-UA 4), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Surveys the architecture of the Middle Ages in Western Europe with emphasis on the period from ca. 1000-1500 C.E., from the emergence of the Romanesque to the late Gothic period. Examines monumental religious and secular projects, such as cathedrals and civic palaces, from stylistic, technical, functional, iconographic, and ideological perspectives. Topics include regionalism, patronage, the status of the "architect," and the concept of the multimedia ensemble. Situates buildings within their social, religious, and political contexts.
Advanced Courses in Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture
Architecture and Urbanism in Renaissance Europe
ARTH-UA 301 Identical to MEDI-UA 301. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
A new style of architecture developed in 15thcentury Florence against the background of a vigorously evolving humanist culture and spread throughout Italy and beyond over the course of the 16th century. Traces the evolution of Renaissance architecture through the work of major figures such as Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Palladio. Special attention is given to the social, cultural, and historical conditions that shaped the built environment.
Architecture and Urbanism in the Age of the Baroque
ARTH-UA 302 Formerly European Architecture in the Age of Grandeur. Identical to MEDI-UA 302. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTH-UA 1), or History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
An architectural history of Europe, 1600-1750, with emphasis on the social, cultural, and historical conditions that shaped the built environment. Palaces, churches, villas, gardens, and urban spaces such as streets and piazzas are studied in terms of the life that went on in and around them. Themes include the pursuit of status through architectural patronage; the use of buildings to communicate political power or religious authority; the role of ceremony and spectacle in shaping architectural space and design; and the dissemination of the baroque style beyond Europe to the colonies.
Northern Renaissance Art, 1400-1530
ARTH-UA 303 Identical to MEDI-UA 303. Prerequisite: History of Western Art I (ARTHUA 1), or History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Addresses painting north of the Alps, ca. 1380- 1530, partly late medieval, partly Renaissance. Examines the connection of breathtaking technique and deeply religious aspects of the art to function, symbolic thought, patronage, and changes in the society to which painting was related. Also explains ways in which we write history when most of the vital written documents are missing or destroyed. Artists discussed include Jan van Eyck, the Master of Flemalle, Rogier van der Weyden, Jean Fouquet, Hugo van der Goes, Jerome Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Hans Holbein.
16th-Century Art North of the Alps
ARTH-UA 304 Identical to MEDI-UA 304. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Topics include the development of landscape as a separate subject in art; the Reformation's effects on subject matter and aesthetics; what northerners learned from the classicizing Italians and what the Italians learned from northern realism; aspects of patronage and the art market; the northern interest in peasant life and in the grotesque; the sociopolitical significance of dress; and the importance of printmaking. Among the artists considered are the German artists Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Holbein the Younger, and the Cranach family; the Netherlandish artists Hieronymus (Jerome) Bosch, Quentin Massys, Lucas van Leyden, Jan Gossaert, and Pieter Brueghel the Elder; and Jean and François Clouet and other artists associated with the French court.
Italian Renaissance Sculpture
ARTH-UA 305 Identical to MEDI-UA 305. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
The role of sculpture in the visual arts in Italy from ca. 1400-1600. Begins with Donatello and his contemporaries, including Ghiberti, Verrocchio, and Pollaiuolo, before moving on to Michelangelo's sculpture and a comparison of his works with those of contemporaries and followers, ending with Giambologna.
Early Masters of Italian Renaissance Painting
ARTH-UA 306 Identical to MEDI-UA 306. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Achievements of the chief painters of the 15th century with special attention to the Tuscan tradition. A brief introduction to Giotto and his time provides background for the paintings of Masaccio and his artistic heirs (Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Piero della Francesca). In the later 15th century, social and cultural changes generated by power shifts from Medici Florence to papal Rome also affected art patronage, creating new tensions and challenges for artists and fostering the emergence of new modes of visualization. Topics include the role of pictorial narrative, perspective, and mimesis; the major techniques of Renaissance painting; and the relationship of painting to the other visual arts.
The Age of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo
ARTH-UA 307 Identical to MEDI-UA 307. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered in the spring. 4 points.
Painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts in Florence and Rome from about 1470 to the mid-16th century. Begins with Andrea del Verrochio, Leonardo, Perugino, Raphael, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Michelangelo; investigates new pictorial modes emerging after 1510 in Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano, and other members of Raphael's school; and then considers their younger contemporaries and successors, including Bronzino and Vasari. Emphasizes the patronage, symbolic tasks, and functions of Renaissance painting and critically examines historical concepts such as high Renaissance, mannerism, and maniera.
The Golden Age of Venetian Painting
ARTH-UA 308 Identical to MEDI-UA 308. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
The art of Venice and its surroundings, Emilia and Lombardy. Covers the Bellini and Vivarini artistic families, Giorgione, Titian, and Sebastiano del Piombo; the itinerant careers of Carlo Crivelli and Lorenzo Lotto; and the origins and implications of Correggio's and his student Parmigianino's daring experiments. Examines the significance of the mature Titian for his contemporaries Veronese, Tintoretto, and Bassano. In the 18th century, Tiepolo brings Venice's golden age to a close. Stresses artistic reciprocity between northern and central Italy.
Italian Art in the Age of the Baroque
ARTH-UA 309 Identical to MEDI-UA 309. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Painting and sculpture in Italy, 1580-1700. Highlights major developments in the visual arts and the work of leading artists including Caravaggio, Carracci, Bernini, and Poussin. Examines the blurring of boundaries between the real and the imaginary, the instantaneous and the infinite, the imitative and the innovative. Special attention is paid to the creative process and the influences on it: the role of the patron, the logistics of site, and the artist's own thought process as revealed through preparatory drawings and sketches.
Dutch and Flemish Painting, 1600-1700
ARTH-UA 311 Identical to MEDI-UA 311. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
In Flanders, Rubens overturned all previous concepts of painting and was the first to deserve the term "baroque." Van Dyck, his pupil, took Rubens's style to England. Dutch painters, including Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, moved in a different direction, addressing every aspect of their country and society: the peasant, the quiet life of the wellordered household, the sea and landscape, views of the cities, and church interiors.
French Art from Versailles to the Age of Rococo, c. 1660-1760
ARTH-UA 313 Formerly French Art: Renaissance to Rococo, 1520-1770. Identical to MEDI-UA 313. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or permission of the instructor. Offered periodically. 4 points.
French art, architecture, and material culture from the mid-seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries. Topics include the artistic splendors of the court of Louis XIV at Versailles and the relationship of art and politics; the French Academy and the Paris Salon; cross-cultural exchange and its impact on decorative arts and interior design; gardens and landscape; intersections between Enlightenment art, philosophy, and science; gender and patronage; and the rise and fall of the rococo.
Art in Spain from El Greco to Goya
ARTH-UA 315 Identical to MEDI-UA 315. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or permission of the instructor. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Begins with El Greco in Italy and Toledo, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo, Ribera, and Valdés Leal before moving to the 18th century (the Tiepolo family, Meléndez). Defines Spain in the 16th and 17th century as a global power by considering colonial-era art in such New World centers as Mexico City and Lima. The focus then shifts to the art of Francisco de Goya and the projection of Spanish art into the modern era.
Latin American Art: From Colonial to Modern
ARTH-UA 316 Identical to MEDI-UA 316. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance and Baroque Art (ARTH-UA 5), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Begins with a brief consideration of the achievements of the great pre-Hispanic civilizations (Aztec, Maya, Inca, and others) prior to contact with the Iberian world. Emphasis on colonial painting, sculpture, and architecture in Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andes. Examines painting and sculpture of the 19th century and the secularization of Latin American art, and then the establishment of modernism from 1900 onward. Important modern artists such as Frida Kahlo, Joaquín Torres-García, Tarsila do Amaral, Wifredo Lam, and the surrealists bring the survey to approximately 1950.
Advanced Courses in Modern Art and Architecture
American Art
ARTH-UA 404 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Examines the art that developed in what is now the United States, from the beginnings of European colonization until the First World War and the internationalizing of American art. Includes painting, sculpture, and architecture, concentrating on the work of Copley, Cole, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and others. New York City provides major collections of painting and sculpture, as well as outstanding examples of architecture.
Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art
ARTH-UA 407 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Begins by considering the varied avant-gardes of the United States, England, France, Italy, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia in the years immediately after World War II, then focuses on the development of the New York School from abstract expressionism, through neo-dada and other movements of the late 1950s, and into the pop art and minimalism of the 1960s. Also examines the parallel but divergent development of an international avant-garde linking France, Italy, and South America. Emphasizes the global perspective by surveying avant-gardes of the 1950s and ¡¥60s in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Japan, and how they responded to developments in Paris and New York.
Early Modern Architecture: 1776-1914
ARTH-UA 408 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or Expressive Culture: Architecture in New York Field Study (CORE-UA 722), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Focuses on the creation of modern building types such as the bank, state capitol, museum, railroad station, and skyscraper. After considering the forms and meanings associated with neoclassicism, examines the Gothic revival and subsequent 19thcentury movements (e.g., high Victorian Gothic, Second Empire, beaux-arts classicism) as efforts to find appropriate expressions for diverse building forms. Students consider changes resulting from the Industrial Revolution, including developments in technology, and the reforms of art nouveau and secession architecture.
Modern Architecture: 1914 to the Present
ARTH-UA 409 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or Early Modern Architecture: 1776-1914 (ARTH-UA 408), or History of Architecture from Antiquity to the Present (ARTH-UA 601), or Expressive Culture: Architecture in New York Field Study (CORE-UA 722), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
Considers such subjects as currents on the eve of the First World War, new technology, and the impact of the war; architecture and politics between the wars; the rise of expressionist design; the international style and the concurrent adaptation of traditional styles; art deco design; mid-century glass curtain-wall architecture; brutalism; and reactions to modernism. Includes ideological and political considerations and works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, James Stirling, and Frank Gehry, among others.
Neoclassicism to Realism
ARTH-UA 411 Formerly Age of Revolutions, 1750-1860. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
The Enlightenment's valorization of cool rationalism contributed to the rise of neoclassicism as a dominant style, while the era's opposing celebration of emotion as the purest form of intellectual and spiritual expression (as in Rousseau) gave rise to romanticism. Following on the heels of romanticism, realism has been seen as both a rejection and an extension of it. Focuses on these three stylistic movements and examines how late 18th- and early 19th-century artists negotiated not just the aesthetic ideas of the Enlightenment but its political consequences as well.
Impressionism to Post-Impressionism
ARTH-UA 412 Formerly Impressionism and After, 1860-1900. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
Begins by considering how impressionism refined and redirected the artistic aims of 19th-century realism, then follows the development of progressive art to the brink of cubism and pure abstraction in the first years of the 20th century. Following impressionism and post-impressionism, close attention is paid to symbolism, aestheticism, art nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement, fauvism, and expressionism. The aesthetic aims of these movements are analyzed in tandem with the social and cultural conditions that generated them.
Cubism to Surrealism
ARTH-UA 413 Formerly Era of the Avant-Gardes, 1900-1945. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
After analyzing the invention of cubism by Picasso and Braque, examines its international reverberations, including Italian futurism, the later phases of German expressionism, and constructivism in revolutionary Russia. The dada movement in the period during and after World War I is considered as a reaction to the apparent cultural and artistic bankruptcy of Western civilization. Addresses the tensions in the multiple currents of surrealism: metamorphic, academic, and abject, and then analyzes painting after World War II, from Pollock to Dubuffet, as an extension and transformation of prewar trends.
Contemporary Art
ARTH-UA 414 Formerly Postmodern to Contemporary Art, 1970-2014. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
First concentrates on the development of contemporary art in New York, London, and Berlin. Discussion of the decade 1975-1985 is organized around the opposition between art as social critique and art as spiritual expression. Discussion of 1985-1995 focuses on the re-emergence of narrative, and on identity and bodily experience as organizing metaphors. Discussion of 1995-2010 focuses on comic-book imagery, amusement park installation, and allegorical abstraction. Finally, considers the diverse art scenes of Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Australia, and China from 1989 to the present. Considers how "Western" art formats have provided vehicles for responding to diverse experiences such as the collapse of Communism, rapid industrialization, and ethnic and religious conflict.
Aesthetic History of Photography
ARTH-UA 431 Identical to PHTI-UT 1102. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every spring. 4 points.
Chronicles the history of photography's complex and symbiotic relationship to painting, sculpture, architecture, installation, and performance. Beginning with the medium's invention and the early fights of its practitioners to establish themselves as fine artists, describes photographers' unique attempts to negotiate their relationships with both artistic movements and the media culture of which they are a part. Assesses the impact of art movements, cultural attitudes, and new technologies on photographers across the history of the medium.
Social History of Photography
ARTH-UA 432 Identical to PHTI-UT 1101. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every fall. 4 points.
A social and political history of photography, from its beginnings to the present day. Focuses on the popular forms of photographic imagery, such as advertising, fashion, travel photography, family portraits and snapshots, scientific documents, documentary reform, and photojournalism, and describes the medium's relationship to Western (and global) social history during the modern era. Readings from Susan Sontag, John Berger, and Roland Barthes.
Toward a Critical Vocabulary of Photography
ARTH-UA 433 Identical to PHTI-UT 1129. Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every fall. 4 points.
Emphasizes the analysis and synthesis of visual and written information. Critical readings from Roland Barthes, Donna Haraway, Susan Sontag, Boris Groys, bell hooks, Thomas Kuhn, Mircea Eliade, John Berger, and George Kubler, as well as selections from fiction and graphic novels, are considered in relation to historical and contemporary pictures. Considers topics in philosophy, art history, science, literature, and cultural studies that are relevant to photography.
Museums and the Art Market
ARTH-UA 701 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered every year. 4 points.
An overview of history and theory. Presents a series of lectures and case studies examining such issues as the birth of the museum, the role played by world's fairs and biennials, the impact of collectors, the art market, and the gallery system. Visits to museums, galleries, and auction houses in New York.
Courses in Non-Western Art and Architecture
No previous study is required for admission to the following courses unless a prerequisite is stated in the description.
East Asian Art I: China, Korea, Japan to 1000 C.E.
ARTH-UA 510 Identical to EAST-UA 91. Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introduction to the art and culture of the Far East, presented in a chronological and thematic approach corresponding to the major dynastic and cultural changes of China, Korea, and Japan. Teaches how to "read" works of art in order to interpret a culture or a historical period; aims at a better understanding of the similarities and differences among the cultures of the Far East.
East Asian Art II: China, Korea, Japan from 1000 C.E. to the Present
ARTH-UA 511 Identical to EAST-UA 92. Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introductory survey. Emphasizes an overall understanding of the development of art and culture, as well as mastery of specific works of art. East Asian Art I followed the development of the common cultural heritage of the Northeast Asia region. Part of this commonality is due to the extraordinary influence of an early-developing Chinese civilization on Japan and Korea. However, Japan and Korea also developed their own cultures and arts. Topics include Song landscape paintings, Edo "floating world" prints, Koryo celadons, and modern art.
South Asian Art I: Indus Valley to 1200
ARTH-UA 530 Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introductory survey of the history of South Asia from 2000 B.C.E. to 1200 C.E., with an emphasis on the Indian subcontinent. From the Indus Valley culture to the present day, artistic production has played a critical role in the transmission of religious beliefs and the development of cultural systems in and around South Asia. We consider the historical circumstances surrounding the production of South and Southeast Asian art, as well as the problems that art historians face when trying to interpret the surviving evidence. Examines art in a variety of media, including architecture, urban form, sculpture, painting, and performance.
South Asian Art II: 1200 to Present
ARTH-UA 531 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Begins with the introduction of Islamic artist traditions into the Indian subcontinent through the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, which effectively integrated itself into a widely diverse and multicultural range of preexisting artistic practices. Follows the cultivation of new tastes in the Mughal and Rajput courts through the vigorous interaction among Persian, Indic, and European artists and elites. Finally turns to the colonial and postcolonial artistic responses to South Asia's complex past(s). By looking at art in a range of media—including painting, sculpture, architecture, and photography—examines how art actively served as an expression of political authority and cultural identity.
Art in the Islamic World I: From the Prophet to the Mongols
ARTH-UA 540 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Provides an outline of Islamic material in its early and classical periods, from 650 to 1200 C.E. The period saw the initial formation of an Arab empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, a decline in centralized authority, and the rise to political prominence of various North African, Iranian, and Central Asian dynasties from the 10th century onward. These political developments are reflected in the increasingly heterogeneous nature of Islamic material culture over this time span.
Art in the Islamic World II: From the Mongols to Modernism
ARTH-UA 541 Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introduction to the arts of Islam during a period of dynamic cultural and political change in the Islamic world. Beginning with the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, traces the development of Islamic art and architecture through the eras of Timur, the "gunpowder empires" (the Mughals, Ottomans, Safavids), and European colonialism, to the art of the nation-state in the 20th century.
Arts of Africa
ARTH-UA 560 Identical to SCA-UA 787. Offered periodically. 4 points.
The traditional art of sub-Saharan Africa—its diversity and cultural contexts, as well as its universal aspects. African art is studied in relation to its meaning and function in traditional societies, wherein art has socialized and reinforced religious beliefs, reflected male and female roles, and validated systems of leadership. Covers architecture, sculpture, textiles, paintings, jewelry, and ceramics. Field trips to museums and/or private collections.
North American Indian Arts
ARTH-UA 570 Offered periodically. 4 points.
An introductory survey of North American Indian and Eskimo art. It covers the following art-producing areas and cultures: Northwest Coast (Ozette, Salish, Nootka, Haida, Kwakiutl, Tlingit); Alaska (Old Bering Sea, Ipiutak, and Yupik Eskimo); Southwest (Hohokam, Mogollon, Anasazi, Hopi, Navajo); Plains (Arapaho, Kiowa, Mandan, Sioux); Woodlands (Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian, Ojibwa, Iroquois); and contemporary art (tradition and innovation in contemporary Native American and Eskimo art).
Other Advanced Courses in Art and Architecture
European and American Decorative Arts: Renaissance to Modern
ARTH-UA 10 Prerequisite: History of Western Art II (ARTH-UA 2), or Renaissance Art (ARTH-UA 5), or Modern Art (ARTH-UA 6), or a score of 5 on the AP Art History exam. Offered periodically. 4 points.
History of the design of objects used in daily life. Studies works of art in a social and historical context. Beginning with the Italian, French, and northern Renaissance, surveys the Louis styles in France, international neoclassicism, and the Victorian style. Concludes with the modern period. Stresses the history of furniture, although also covers glass, silverware, tapestries, ceramics, wallpaper, carpets, and small bronzes.
Special Topics in the History of Art
ARTH-UA 150, ARTH-UA 250, ARTH-UA 350, ARTH-UA 450, ARTH-UA 550, ARTH-UA 750, and ARTH-UA 850 Prerequisites vary by topic. 4 points.
Topics change from semester to semester and are sometimes outside of the usual classification areas. Those that carry prerequisites are normally considered advanced courses in the major, satisfying requirements in the ancient or medieval, Renaissance or baroque, or modern areas.
Advanced Seminar in Art History
Advanced Seminar
ARTH-UA 800 Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open to departmental majors who have completed five 4-point art history courses. Offered in the fall and spring. 4 points.
Exposure in small-group discussion format to historical/ critical problem(s) of concern to the faculty member offering the seminar. Requires oral report(s) and/or a substantial paper.
Honors Thesis and Independent Study in Art History
Senior Honors Thesis
ARTH-UA 801 4 points.
Open to departmental majors who have been accepted as candidates for honors in art history in the first term of their senior year and who have the permission of the director of undergraduate studies. See this department's subheading "Graduation with Departmental Honors" for eligibility requirements. Students are expected to work on their theses over a period of two semesters by following ARTH-UA 801 in the fall with ARTH-UA 804 in the spring (see Independent Study, below). Applicants must have a GPA of 3.65 in art history courses and an overall GPA of 3.65 as stipulated by the College's honors program regulations.
Independent Study
ARTH-UA 803, 804 Prerequisite: prior permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies and of an adviser. 1 to 2 points per term. Approved on a case by case basis.
Independent study consists of either 1) an investigation, under the guidance and supervision of a designated instructor, of a research topic agreed on by the student and instructor, or 2) an internship experience deemed academically valuable by the department adviser. In either case, a substantial paper is required, to be written by the end of term. Internships receive a maximum of two points.
Graduate Courses Open to Art History Majors
Juniors and seniors who have a 3.65 grade point average in five art history courses may take, for undergraduate credit, the 1000- and 2000-level courses offered in the Graduate School of Arts and Science at the Institute of Fine Arts, 1 East 78th Street. For more information, please consult the Graduate School of Arts and Science Bulletin or the announcement of courses of the Institute of Fine Arts. Before registering for these courses, students must obtain the permission of the director of undergraduate studies, as well as that of the instructor of the course.