37 courses with the subject ARTH, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ARTH 125Survey of Western Art
An introduction to Western art from about 25,000 BC to the 21st century. Students learn some of the many relationships of visual art to various environmental contexts and some of the ways humans have employed art as a means to respond to life's experiences and also to influence those experiences. Additionally, students learn various methodologies of approaching art, such as formalist, feminist, Marxist. Through practice, students learn techniques of visual analysis and build skills to evaluate visual images.
ARTH 126Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art
Study of the history of art from the mid-nineteenth-century to today, loosely from Post-Impressionism to art made within the past five years. We critically engage with the works themselves and situate them with their larger global and cultural context and trace the evolution of artists’ various formal, social, and political commitments. In this class we will ask: What constitutes a vital artistic intervention into any era and why? What are the aesthetic, social, and technological conditions that variously inform the making and interpretation of modern and contemporary art? What publics and whose politics do art and its institutions aim to engage, contest, or occlude? In attending to these questions, we will move more or less chronologically from the mid- nineteenth century up the present, surveying major trends and thematic, while also homing in on specific artists, exhibitions, and works that emblematize both the cultural contradiction of the modern and contemporary moment and the transformative potential of aesthetics within culture.
A survey of the Arts of Asia from Neolithic period to Modern times. Three general topics, including Ancient Civilization, Asian Religion and Art, Traditional China and Japan will be discussed. The course covers different art forms primarily painting, sculpture and architecture from several regions: India, China, Japan, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. The works of art are important in their own contexts and we want to learn what they reveal about their parent cultures. Offered every semester.
Introductory survey of the art and architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome, beginning with the Bronze Age in the Aegean to the reign of emperor Constantine. The course covers the history, culture and social context of major works produced by these civilizations and analyzes developments in style, taste and use of materials. Recommended ARTH 125. Offered once a year. ARTH 201 and CLA 201 are cross-listed.
Survey of the arts of the Middle Ages and their development from the Roman catacomb through the high Gothic cathedral. Analysis of art as a reflection of changing political and social conditions in Europe, with particular emphasis on liturgical arts in the Middle Ages. Recommended prior course: ARTH 125.
Introductory survey of the art of the Northern Renaissance, ranging from the meticulous detail of Jan van Eyck to the superb workmanship of Albrecht Dürer to the mysterious and grotesque figures of Hieronymus Bosch. In lectures, readings and class discussions, students explore the artistic styles, history, culture and social context of works produced during the 15th-16th centuries in Northern Europe. Topics include the rise of naturalism in the Renaissance, the pioneering advances in oil painting and printmaking, the use of “disguised symbolism”, portraiture and genre subjects, and the impact of religious conflict and the Reformation.
Introduction to eighteenth-century painters in Italy, France, and England and their relationship to the Enlightenment. Major emphasis on the evolution of painting in France during the nineteenth century in relation to the changing social, political, and philosophical climate. Alternate years.
any 100-level ARTH, ARTH 201, or permission of instructor.
ARTH 21020th Century European Painting
Study of the schools and critical writings surrounding the major figures in the first half of the 20th century. Such movements as Art Nouveau, Nabis, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, German Expressionism, De Stijl, Dada, and Surrealism are examined. Recommended prior courses: ARTH111, 112, or 120.
An introduction to the history of the art historical discipline and its research and interpretive methods. A broad goal of the course is to have students build a foundation of knowledge and methodology from which to approach works of art with understanding and critical appreciation.
Survey of American painting from the Colonial Period to 1900, studied in relationship to developments in Europe, and with emphasis on the response of art to the changing social and technological environment in America. Alternate years.
"History and Theory of Photography" explores critical issues in photography from its invention in 1839 through the present. The course examines the following themes: the photograph as document, landscape photography in the American West, the relationship between photography and painting, the practice of street photography, and postmodern photography.
An introduction to a world of visual and intellectual richness of Chinese art. The course will provide a base for the students to understand how the Chinese have viewed themselves and the world through time and how this has been expressed in the visual arts. Various art forms will be discussed chronologically. Within each period the arts are not only analyzed visually and stylistically, but are examined in their cultural, social and political contexts. Offered once a year.
A study of Chinese painting and the art forms that have long held prestige positions in Chinese art. This course is intended to introduce the students to artistic practices created by both professional artists and scholar-painters. Class lecture and discussion focus on painting, the history of collections, theories on connoisseurship and aesthetics from the 3rd c to modern times. The interplays between painting and poetry, philosophy and politics are emphasized. Ink and brushworks is also analyzed and demonstrated in class.
We are examining the transnational flows and exchanges that make up the cultures of the African diaspora. We survey theoretical approaches to the African diaspora and visual approaches to race, as well as the processes of forced migration and dispersal that gave birth to a Black Atlantic world. Throughout this process, we encounter a broad set of visual practices and aim to understand how issues such as modernity, race, and coloniality can be complicated when investigated through African diasporic aesthetics.
An overview of art and architecture produced across cultures from the 14th-17th centuries. The course looks at the vibrant array of visual works from different areas of the world to de-center the traditional Euro-centered definitions of “Renaissance” and incorporate diverse perspectives, techniques, materials, iconographies, social expectations and cultural contexts. This course draws on new approaches to art in a global context and explores how different geographies interacted with each other through the circulation of goods, resources and knowledge.
Focuses on specific aspects of the history and theory of art and architecture not usually covered in the regular curriculum. Topics are chosen by individual faculty members; not offered every year.
ARTH 284Wonders of Nature and Artifice: The Renaissance Quest for Knowledge
Examination of Renaissance collections and the social context of their development. The course explores the quest for knowledge by Renaissance naturalists and collectors, whose wonders of nature and artifice were displayed in curiosity cabinets, gardens, and writings. The interaction of art and science and the role of economics, politics and culture are explored. Students engage in hands-on work, analyzing a Renaissance chamber of wonders at the Walters Art Museum and putting together their own "cabinet" in the Schmucker Art Gallery.
Survey of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. Course explores the characteristics of this important historical period, traditionally defined as a time of rebirth. Class material introduces students to primary sources and biographies of prominent artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, as well as the broader historical context of patronage, politics and social customs. Prerequisite: ARTH 115, or 125, or 201, 202; or permission of the instructor. Offered once a year.
Seminar-style course on the late work of Michelangelo Buonarroti, including the Last Judgment, the San Lorenzo projects, and the later Pietas, and his influence on art and architecture in sixteenth-century Italy. The class will study various aspects of his life and working conditions and explore the Age of Mannerism, the 'stylish style', and how artists such as Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Bronzino, Cellini and Vasari reinterpreted Michelangelo's style and celebrated his achievements as part of their own legacy. Readings will include Michelangelo's poetry and biographies by Vasari and Cellini. Prerequisite: ARTH 115, or 125, or any 200-level art history course, or permission of the instructor. Offered alternate years.
ARTH 307Baroque Art in the Age of Caravaggio and Vermeer
Art Study of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe, from the first decades after the Reformation through their transformation under the impact of the Counter Reformation. Artistic developments in Italy are discussed, as well as allied approaches in northern Europe and Spain. Works of some of the world's best known artists are examined, including Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco,
Critical examination of the art forms and issues that identify the current post-modern phase of twentieth-century art. Past and current usages of the terms 'modern' and 'avant-garde' are explored in the context of contemporary modes of visual expression, art criticism, communications technology, and cultural pluralism. Prerequisite: two courses in art history and/or theory or permission of the instructor.
Since 1900 Survey of twentieth-century painting. Course concentrates on two basic themes: the changing social role of painting as America's needs and self-image change, and the on-going eclectic process in which American painters extend and deepen their familiarity with world art.
Discussion of methods, approaches and professional practices of Art History alongside the development of individual research projects and the organization of an academic symposium. Topics for critical discussion include formalism, iconography, social history, feminism and gender, high and low culture, challenging the canon and postmodernism. Students define and carry out an advanced research topic, the results of which will be written as a scholarly paper and delivered as a professional presentation with images in an Art History Symposium open to the public.
