Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Erie-Behrend College · Courses
ARTH
105 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 100Introduction to Art3
An approach to the understanding of art through a critical analysis of selected works of architecture, painting, and sculpture. ARTH 100 Introduction to Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA). This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 100 provides an introduction to the history of art from prehistory to the present, through selected topics, rather than a comprehensive survey. Areas covered usually include prehistoric art, art of the Near East and Egypt, ancient Greek and Roman art, medieval art culminating with the Gothic, Renaissance art both in Italy and northern Europe, Baroque and Rococo art, and modern developments often highlighting Romanticism, Impressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Feminist, and contemporary art. The course also introduces selected artistic traditions in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and to help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing ce an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts, both historical and contemporary. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender and the incorporation of non- European art forms into the Western tradition. Requirements typically include examinations combining short answer and essay questions, and one paper based library research or intensive examination of an actual work of art. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to selected themes in the broad history of art for students in any major. It has no prerequisite and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. This course is not a requirement of Art History major
This course introduces students to the history of art as a global phenomenon, interconnected by millennia of cross-cultural encounters. Rather than seeking to provide an exhaustive history of world art and architecture, this course focuses on key concepts that operate across cultures, geographies and time periods. Students will learn the basic techniques of the art historian while being exposed to a variety of in- depth case studies of concepts like (but not limited to): Significant Materials and their Use, Mapping the Cosmos, Interacting with the Divine, Honoring the Dead, Representing the Natural World, Picturing Humanity, Power and Propaganda, Cross-Cultural Encounters, and Global Art in the Modern World. Depending on the instructor, other themes/concepts could be substituted or added. Each theme/concept will be treated as a module with introductory lessons and readings followed by case studies of a single work or group of related works. Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: Humanities Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH) General Education - Integrative: Interdomain GenEd Learning Objective: Global Learning GenEd Learning Objective: Integrative Thinking GenEd Learning Objective: Key Literacies GenEd Learning Objective: Soc Resp and Ethic Reason
This course is an interdisciplinary study of the central role played by agriculture in a global history of art. We will pay attention to cultural objects made of plants and animals affected by human intervention: cordage and textiles from fibers (flax, sisal, silk, cotton, wool); dye colors from plants, trees and insects; clothing and shelter from leather; writing surfaces from hide; engineered objects from fast-growing plants like bamboo. We will consider definitions of agriculture by examining perceived distinctions between foraging and farming. Exploring images of farms and farmers, we will study fundamental preconceptions of agricultural design. The course will employ concepts and methods drawn from the natural sciences and the humanities. Cross-listed with: ABSM 104N
This online course investigates select rocks and minerals used in the production of art between the Prehistoric Era and the Early Modern period. Topics covered include chemical and physical properties, occurrence in nature, the processes by which natural materials are acquired and worked, their symbolic and monetary value, and specific works of art in which they are found. Each material (ochre, garnet, lapis lazuli, rock crystal [quartz], igneous rocks [basalt, diorite and porphyry], alabaster and marble) is addressed in a 2-week unit. The seven units are split equally between scientific analysis of the materials and art historical case studies. A final project integrates Geosciences and Art History topics to investigate the use of a chosen natural material in a specific work of art. Each material addressed in the course plays a crucial role in the history of art, and each one was particularly prized for its physical and material properties (color, hardness, etc.). Ochre was the first known pigment, and was in use by early humans for bodily adornment and for drawing and painting in caves and shelters as early as 100,000 years ago for bodily adornment and 40,0000 years ago in cave art. Its availability worldwide and in multiple strong colors made it a desirable choice. Lapis lazuli, by contrast, was difficult to obtain, and difficult to refine as a pigment. It was first used to make small sculptures and cylinder seals in the Ancient world, and was prized for its brilliant blue color. The difficulty in grinding and purifying blue pigment from
• Complete and document a minimum of 40 hours of paid or volunteer work with age appropriate population (PreK-12). At least 20 of these age-appropriate 40 hours need to be satisfied by working with "under-represented" learners whose cultural, social, or ethnic backgrounds differ from the candidate's own. University Requirements and General Education Notes: US and IL are abbreviations used to designate courses that satisfy Cultural Diversity Requirements (United States and International Cultures). W, M, X, and Y are the suffixes at the end of a course number used to designate courses that satisfy University Writing Across the Curriculum requirement. General Education includes Foundations (GWS and GQ), Knowledge 15 Domains (GHW, GN, GA, GH, GS) and Integrative Studies (Inter-domain) requirements. N or Q (Honors) is the suffix at the end of a course number used to help identify an Inter-domain course, but the inter-domain attribute is used to fill audit requirements. Foundations courses (GWS and GQ) require a grade of 'C' or better. All incoming Schreyer Honors College first-year students at University Park will take ENGL 137H/CAS 137H in the fall semester and ENGL 138T/CAS 138T in the spring semester. These courses carry the GWS designation and satisfy a portion of that General Education requirement. If the student’s program prescribes GWS these courses will replace both ENGL 15/ENGL 30H and CAS 100A/CAS 100B/CAS 100C. Each course is
Survey of Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Early Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic art, with an emphasis on sculpture and painting. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
This course is a broad survey of the most important artists and developments in Western art from the early 14th century to the present, including architecture, sculpture and painting. In addition to being a survey of major monuments in art, the course is also intended as an introduction to the field of art history: to its studies of artistic style, iconography (the study of subject matter and its meaning), patronage and contextual history. Art history not only studies the formal elements of art, like the use of color and line, but also analyzes the historical circumstances (social, political, economic) that surround the production of art, and it questions the meaning of works of art for viewers of the time and for later generations. Around 1310, an artist known as Giotto painted several major series of frescoes (mural painting done on wet plaster) in which we see the beginnings of a modern Western notion of composition, dramatic narrative, and the illusion of perspective. We will look at the refinements of these elements of art through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when artists we now call avant- garde-notably Cézanne but also predecessors such as Courbet and Manet, and successors such as Picasso and Matisse-presented serious challenges to these fundamental elements of painting. We will look at the extraordinary art produced between the time of Giotto and Cézanne,
Survey of Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Romantic, Modern, and Contemporary art, with an emphasis on painting, sculpture, and graphic arts. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
This course will familiarize students with expressions of love in Western arts and literature. Students will analyze the artistic, philosophical and literary representations of courtship, friendship, homoeroticism, sexuality, marriage, adultery, and familial bonds and explore how the preceding phenomena are inflected by gender roles, race and miscegenation, and class and religious differences. We will also trace the way particular narratives about love have been adapted by different artistic media. Love is a universal human experience and its study transcends disciplinary boundaries. It is a linchpin of human existence, uniting and enriching nearly any subject worthy of serious study. Cross-listed with: ENGL 115N General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH) General Education - Integrative: Interdomain GenEd Learning Objective: Crit and Analytical Think GenEd Learning Objective: Integrative Thinking GenEd Learning Objective: Soc Resp and Ethic Reason
This course surveys Asian art and architecture from the earliest civilizations to the present day, focusing more on the arts and monuments from China, Japan and India but also introducing those from Korea, Southeast and Central Asia. We will study how artistic traditions develop, transmit and become localized in those distinctive yet interconnected societies, and how those traditions interact with the political, religious, social and cultural contexts in which they grow. Issues investigated include (but are not limited to) the spread and metamorphosis of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic art and architecture, the production and consumption of art as related to political power (including Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3641 colonialism, decolonization and nationalism), social hierarchies and market mechanisms, and various forms of modernity in Asian art and culture. In addition to regular class meetings, requirements include slide identification exams, essay exams and short papers. We will also have field trips to museums with collections of Asian art that are suitable for this course, and you will curate an online exhibition of artworks of your choice. As a general education course, this class provides an introduction to Asian art for students of any major. Art History majors will broaden their vocabulary, methodology and knowledge of the discipline. Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
Survey of the art and architecture of Islamic lands from the late seventh century until the eighteenth century. ARTH 125 Islamic Architecture and Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 125 provides an introduction to the arts of Islam from its birth and early formation in the seventh-eighth centuries to the eighteenth century through the examination of architecture, painting and calligraphy, and the decorative arts (metalworking, ceramics, glassware, ivory carving). The focus is on the traditional Islamic areas including Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, although the spread of Islam to other regions (e.g., Southeast Asia and especially Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic country) may also be included. Each of the major traditions of Islamic art will be examined in a generally chronological sequence; these include the Abbasids, the Ummayads of Spain, the Fatimads of Egypt, the Seljuqs, the Ilkhanids (Mongols), the Timurids, the Mamluks of Egypt, the Safavids of Persia, the Ottoman Turks, and the Mughals of India. The course will conclude with a discussion of "Orientalism" and more recent developments in Islamic art and architecture. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to develop skills of visual analysis and a critical vocabulary for discussing the media, technologies, styles, and composition of Islamic art. The second is to foster an understanding of art--and visual culture in general--according to social, economic, political, and religious contexts. Key topics include: patronage, issues of reception and aesthetics, the important link between art and text in the Islamic tradition, the organization and use of sacred space, gender issues, relationships between the art of various regions and cultures, and the western interpretation of Islam as part of the discourse on "Orientalism." Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course, this class provides an introduction to Islamic art and architecture for students of any major. It has no prerequisites, and presumes no prior exposure to art history. Students majoring in Art History will learn vocabulary, methodology, and theory that is not only basic to the field, but which will also broaden their knowledge of the discipline as a whole. Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
A selective overview of the indigenous art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. ARTH 130 African, Oceanic, and Native American Art (3) (GA;US;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. ARTH 130 provides a selective introduction to major developments and issues in African and Oceanic art. The beginning of this course will concentrate upon the art and architecture of selected regions of Africa, during the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods. This will be followed by a discussion of the traditional arts of Oceania in Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Australia. The course will conclude with an introduction to the Pre-Columbian art and architecture of the Americas and art from the Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, the Southwest and Pacific Northwest of North America. Art will be examined within its cultural and social contexts. Special attention will be given to the role that art serves in a culture's religion, rituals, ceremonies, political structure, gender roles, and ethnic identity. The impact of the West upon the art of these regions, both in colonial and post-colonial contexts, will be a reoccurring issue in this course. The actual time devoted to each topic and the sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor. The objective of the course is to introduce students to diversity in art. In so doing, negative stereotypes associated with traditional notions of the "primitive" will be challenged. Also, the course emphasizes visual analysis and critical thinking. The course requirements will consist of exams and a paper. As a general education course, this class provides an introduction to African and Oceanic art for students of any major. The course has no prerequisites, and presumes no prior exposure to art history. On the other hand, students majoring in Art History will learn vocabulary, methodology, and theory that is not only basic to the field, but which will also broaden their knowledge of the discipline as a whole. Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
ARTH 140Introduction to the Art and Architecture of the1
Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas Supporting Courses and Related Areas Supporting Courses and Related Areas: Require a grade of C or better Select 6 credits of 1 to 400-level ARTH courses, except ARTH 100 Select 6 credits of 400-level ARTH courses; ARTH 495 may not be used to satisfy this requirement. Note: Students are encouraged to use these supporting courses to focus their studies in one or two areas of art history and should discuss these course selections with an Art History faculty member. These 9 credits must include one course in Western art and one course in non-Western art. ARTH 100 and ARTH 107N do not count for either the Western or non-Western requirement.
/Maximum of 9 Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
A survey of Prehistoric, Ancient Near Eastern Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Early Christian, Byzantine, Early Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic architecture. ARTH 201 Ancient to Medieval Architecture (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course is an introduction to architecture from the Prehistoric to the Gothic periods. Some of the topics covered in this course include prehistoric architecture in Europe and the Mediterranean, architecture of the ancient Near East, Egyptian architecture, Minoan and Mycenean architecture, the classical architecture of ancient Greece, ancient Roman architecture throughout the empire, the Early Christian architecture of western Europe and Byzantium, early medieval architecture, Middle Byzantine architecture, Islamic architecture, and the Romanesque and Gothic architecture of Western Europe. Selected major individual buildings and architectural complexes will be emphasized and will include types of buildings/complexes such as the sanctuary, temple, tomb, forum, basilica, cathedral, monastery, and castle. Architecture will be analyzed with regard to materials' construction, engineering and design, and in the contexts of culture, society, and urban or rural setting. Political, economic, religious, ethnic and gender-related issues will be presented as they are part of the dynamics contributing to many of these structures. The course has no prerequisite and is intended for both students of architecture/art and students unfamiliar with the field. This course also serves as an introductory foundation course for students in the arts, particularly architecture and landscape architecture. The companion
Supporting Courses and Related Areas Supporting Courses and Related Areas: Require a grade of C or better Select 3 credits in studio art (0-499 level) Select 9 credits of ARTH geographical distribution with one course from three of the following four geographic categories, chosen in consultation with the department or faculty adviser: 1) Africa
ARTH 204The Art of Marvel: Italy and Spain 1600 - 17503
This class is intended to provide a general introduction to the art and architecture of Italy and Spain from roughly 1590-1750. Discussion will concentrate on what constitutes the baroque and its interpretation in each geographic area as well as issues such as patronage, primary sources, iconography, and historical context. The goal is to increase your visual analysis skills and help build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second goal is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
ARTH 207The Eternal City: Rome from Antiquity to the Present3
This class provides an introduction to the architecture and urbanism of the city of Rome from its founding to the present. The class will examine the ways in which the city came into being and was shaped over time, thereby allowing students to come away with a profound understanding of the different ways human societies have used the arts to both reflect Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3643 and reinforce social and cultural traditions. Selected architects, structural ideas, buildings, and urban developments will be emphasized. In the ancient period, the class will look at the founding myths of Rome and buildings from the republican and imperial periods. With the fall of the Roman empire, the class will look at the city during the period it was controlled by the papacy, examining projects of various popes, ecclesiastical institutions, and secular patrons. The final portion of the course will look at how Rome was remade into the capital of modern Italy, and how the image of Rome was used in film. Throughout the course, buildings and urban spaces will be considered within the contexts of religion, politics, philosophy, economics, gender, and society. This course has no prerequisite and is intended for both students of architecture/art and students unfamiliar with the field. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
ARTH 218NLand and Us: Modern Art and the Environment3
What art has done - and can do - in repositioning humans in relation to our shared planet, hopefully towards a better future for both? This course introduces selected artists, movements, and ideas in the 20th and 21st century that help us to see, experience, and interact with our lived environment differently. We will discuss topics such as the painting and sculpting of landscapes, "land art" and Earthwork in and out of museums, materials used in art and their ecological impacts, artistic engagement with other species, and art projects that call for communal participation and seek direct social impact. You are welcome to this course if you are curious about art and concerned about the environment--or if you are an aspiring artist, curator, or activist interested in planetary justice. You wil learn about artworks in our proximity and create projects that connects art with ecological thoughts and actions. General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH) General Education - Integrative: Interdomain
A general survey of the great periods of Chinese art from the Shang dynasty until the modern period. ARTH 220 Chinese Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. ARTH 220 provides an introduction to the art of China from the Neolithic period through the twentieth century. Emphasis will be placed on the major dynastic periods (Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Ming, Yuan, and Qing); however, regional developments throughout China are examined as well. Students are introduced to a variety of artistic traditions and media, including jades, bronzes, ceramics, sculpture, painting, and architecture. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to develop skills of visual analysis and a critical vocabulary for discussing the media, technologies, styles, compositions and iconographies of Chinese art. The second is to foster an understanding of art--and visual culture in general--according to social, economic, political, and religious contexts. Key topics include: the ritual use of objects, patronage, issues of reception and aesthetics, Buddhist art, the organization and use of sacred space, depictions of gender, and regional developments/interactions. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course, this class provides an introduction to Chinese art for students of any major. This course has no prerequisites and presumes no prior exposure to art history or the history of China. Students majoring in Art History will learn vocabulary, methodology, and theory that is not only basic to the field, but which will also broaden their knowledge of the discipline as a whole. Because China (currently the world's most populous nation) has one of the longest recorded and continuous artistic traditions, the course also contributes to a broader understanding of important global issues. Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
This course explores the many links between modern art and literature, including fiction about artists, illustrations of fiction and poetry, efforts to write in the styles associated with modern art, and practices of ekphrasis (the evocation of visual art in language). These links between authors and o artists have exerted a formative influence on the development of modern fiction and poetry as authors and artists in various avant-garde groupings collaborated and competed to generate modes of artistic expression appropriate to modernity. This course examines those interactions. Course objectives are to bring together for comparative examination: * Formal or generic relationships between texts and images at particular historical moments; under this rubric we will consider issues such as ekphrasis. * Creative collaboration and cross-pollination between writers and artists, which have been crucially important in the history of literature and poetry; examples include Pre-Raphaelite poetry and painting, Virginia Woolf and Post-Impressionism, Gertrude Stein and Cubism * Conceptions of creativity as these have been expressed by writers using the figure of the artist; texts in this category range from Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece, through Hawthorne's The Marble Faun, to Paul Auster's appropriation from the performance artist Sophie Calle This course explores the ways knowledge of literature and skills in critical reading can be rewardingly brought to bear on the visual arts, and considers how visual art can illuminate the workings of literature both for individual readers and in the classroom. Cross-listed with: ENGL 224N General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH) General Education - Integrative: Interdomain GenEd Learning Objective: Effective Communication GenEd Learning Objective: Crit and Analytical Think GenEd Learning Objective: Integrative Thinking GenEd Learning Objective: Key Literacies
ENGL 225N / ARTH 225N / WMNST 225N Sexuality and Modern Visual Culture (3) (GA;GH) An examination of the visual expression of gender and sexual identities in English-speaking cultures since the late nineteenth century. The terms "feminist" and "homosexual" were invented by the Victorians and reflect profound shifts in conceptions of identity. Another invention of the nineteenth century was the idea of the literary and artistic "avant-garde" as a minority contingent with politically and/or aesthetically advanced views. These ideas of minority culture were deeply enmeshed with one another, and have exerted profound influence ever since. This course explores that history with the objectives of expanding students' knowledge of modern art and literature, and of fostering more sophisticated understandings of how evolving socio- political ideas affect our sense of who we are and how we relate to texts and images. The course is relevant to students of American and English studies, art, art history, and women's, gender and sexuality studies. Cross-listed with: ENGL 225N, WMNST 225N General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH)
ARTH 226The Comic Book: A History of Sequential Art3
An overview and examination of the history of sequential art with a focus on comic books and graphic novels. ART H 226 The Comic Book: A History of Sequential Art (3)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 226 will lead students on a journey through one of the world's most interesting and yet most misunderstood art forms. In this class, students will familiarize themselves with various styles, terminology, and major examples of sequential art beginning with the cave paintings of Lascaux and ending with the more popular and critically acclaimed comic books of recent years. Students will not only learn a bout and appreciate sequential art, but they will also understand how deeply and significantly these works have melded into various aspects of our culture and society. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
A survey of photography's place and influence in a social, cultural, and historical context. ART H 250 A Chronological Survey of Photography (3) This course explores the role played by photography over time in providing understanding and insight in a social, cultural, and historical context of the impact of the development of the photographic medium and its effect on social, political, cultural and technological events. Emphasis will be given to understanding the context that surrounds the scientific and aesthetic development of photography. This is a survey of the chronology of events in western culture that transpires from the inception of photography until the year 2000. It includes the influences and outcomes of photographers and those associated with the medium on our culture. Emphasis will be placed on the influence of photography on the world around it, and significant events and individuals in the development of the medium as a vital art form. The structure of the course will consist of research and discussion of events and individuals that characterized years selected for examination. Each week one or two decades of western culture will be highlighted. Although the thrust of research will relate to photographic subject matter, the events studied will span the culture. We will explore the development of art, literature, music, and photography, as well as, historic landmarks, and the events that have shaped present society. Each week a selection of visual material will be presented highlighting selected events, students will read literature from the period of discussion, significant pieces of music will be introduced, and accounts of periodic events will be surveyed.Each week, a group of students will be assigned to research at least one decade. Each student will gather information about a significant figure or event that occurred in the course of a given period. The student will be expected to prepare a short paper and give a five-minute oral presentation about his/her assigned year, historical figure or event. As each student presents, the chronology of events becomes clear and the multiple threads of history weaves a brilliant tapestry of our culture. For the final presentation the student will prepare a ten-page research paper about a historical figure or event.Students will be graded on the quality of the weekly oral presentations and the demonstrated level of commitment to research. Another significant part of their grade will be derided from the length of committed scholarship given to the ten-page term paper. Students must exhibit a level of originality, clarity, and insight. The student must demonstrate the capacity for the assimilation of facts and events relative to their subject and demonstrate how their subject relates to other events that occurred around the same time of their event. Toward this end students will be encouraged to work together to illustrate the interconection of the chronology. Cross-listed with: PHOTO 201
This course provides a well-rounded introduction to strategic communications, marketing, and publicity in arts institutions. In this course, students will gain an understanding of marketing and communications theory while also acquiring the practical skills used by art-world professionals. The ever-changing world of digital marketing, content, and messaging are essential to the success of museums, galleries, auction houses, art fairs, publishers, and other arts institutions responsible for branding and promoting the arts. This course will serve art history majors and minors by giving them practical, career-oriented skills and knowledge; non-majors will likewise benefit from theoretical and practical knowledge of strategic communications, publicity, and marketing as they are practiced in arts institutions.
This course provides students with an introduction to the history of artistic and art historical applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the earliest examples of "creative" automata to contemporary Machine Learning (ML) models for image-generation and image-analysis. Along with becoming familiar with the history of AI in relation to art and art history, students will be introduced to the history of such concepts as artistic genius, originality, aesthetics, and copyright. New museum practices that utilize AI for collections management and enhanced visitor experiences will be addressed. Students will also discover how ML models for image-generation, such as diffusion models like DALL-E and its successors, are affecting the art market. The aesthetic and art historical significance of blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will also be considered. The course will draw on philosophical and historical texts as well as novels, comics, films, and t.v. shows. This is a humanities course that presumes no prior technical training or experience with ML or computer vision. General Education: Arts (GA)
ARTH 280The Secret Lives of Things: Design and Decorative Arts since3
the 18th Century This course will study the meanings of ordinary and extraordinary objects of daily life. Ranging from pre-Revolutionary France to the global present, we will look at furniture, interiors, graphics, appliances, ceramics, and other ornamental and useful goods in Europe and America within their aesthetic, historical, economic, social and political contexts. Among
ARTH 292NWitches and Witchcraft from the Middle Ages to the Present3
This course will explore the social and cultural history of witches and witchcraft from the late Middle ages in Europe and the U.S. to the present. The very nature and broad scope of the topic lends itself to an interdisciplinary approach that combines history, folklore, religious studies, criminology, women's studies, art history, English literature and popular culture. Historically, real individuals were accused of witchcraft and suffered persecution and punishment accordingly. Others proclaimed themselves to be witches and the practice continues to attract adherents today such as in the modern Wiccan movement. However, modern consensus views witches as fictions: figures of magical power in folklore, literature, visual art and popular culture. From Shakespeare's Macbeth to the characters in the popular Harry Potter books and films, fictional witches have haunted European and American culture for centuries. This course will explore the complex interplay of fact and fiction in the history of witches and witchcraft. In other words, how do fictions become powerful enough to inform history? The course will also focus on the historical status of witches as a source of power outside of, and in opposition to, established political, religious and social structures. Since those accused of witchcraft were predominately women, how has witchcraft functioned as a means of empowerment for women as well as a tool for their persecution? And how has the representation of witches influenced attitudes towards women both historically and today? The course will begin with an historical inquiry into the belief in witchcraft during the late Middle Ages in Europe and the social and cultural role witches played in society. We will look at texts such as the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) published in 1486 as a guide for hunting and destroying witches, as well as studies on the more constructive role witchcraft may have offered women and communities. The course will be organized chronologically and move back and forth between history, such as the Salem witch trials, and the representations Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3647 of that history in art, literature and film. Particular emphasis will be placed on the visual arts, from the engravings of German Renaissance artists such as Albrecht Durer and Hans Baldung Grien, the gothic paintings of Francisco Goya during the Romantic period, to contemporary artist Louise Bourgeois' monument to those executed as witches in Norway. The course will end with analysis of images of witches in popular culture, movies and television, and with a discussion of the modern representations of the domesticated witch and the femme fatale. Cross-listed with: HIST 292N
/Maximum of 18 Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
ART H 301 Egyptian and Mesopotamian Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art history 301 provides an introduction to the arts of the Ancient Near East including those of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The class is dealt with chronologically. Works studied in class include papyri, seals, fabric, codices as well as sculpture, architecture, and painting. Additional readings of primary sources focused on mythology, and religion will form a key element in the structure of the class. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers
A survey of the art of Western Europe from the Early Christian era through the Ottonian Empire, c.300-1050 CE. ART H 302 Illuminating the Dark Ages (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 302 concentrates on the art of northern Europe between 600 and 1050 CE, from the years which saw the art and culture of the migration period in Europe meet and merge with the Greco-Roman traditions of the Mediterranean, to the beginnings of Romanesque art. Arts of the Jewish and Islamic traditions will also be discussed. Works studied include architecture, manuscript painting, ivory carving and goldsmith work, most of which were produced by or for members of the clergy, royalty or the lay aristocracy. The basic structure of the course is chronological. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender, sexuality, and race. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to early Medieval art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
The major arts in Italy from the thirteenth century CE through the Renaissance; emphasis on sculpture and painting. ARTH 303 Italian Renaissance Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 303 provides an introduction to the art of the early and "high" Renaissance in Italy, conceived in chronological terms as the period from c. 1300 to c. 1530, and embracing developments from the emergence of the Mendicant orders on the later 13th century to the rise of Mannerism in the 16th century. Monuments form all parts of the Italian peninsula will be considered, with emphasis on the major centers of Florence, Siena, Venice, Rome, Milan, and Naples, as well as Mantua, Ferrara and Urbino. The basic structure of the course is chronological, and is divided into three sections corresponding to the three centuries defined by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists. In each section, an attempt will be made to present the careers and major works of the most significant artists in relation to their historical and cultural context. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to Italian Renaissance art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
A survey of painting and sculpture in Europe 1780-1860, from the origins of Neoclassicism through Romanticism and Realism. ARTH 305 European Art from 1780-1860 (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 305 provides an introduction to the painting, sculpture, and graphic arts of Europe between ca. 1780 and 1860, with an emphasis on selected developments in France, Spain, England, and Germany. The course begins with the origins of Neoclassicism and the revolutionary art of Jacques Louis David. Art is examined within the context of the tumultuous history of this period, such as the decline of the French monarchy, the French Revolution and the rise and fall of Napoleon. The course will examine the rise of Romanticism, as seen in such diverse expressions as Goya's horrific images of inhumanity, Fuseli's dreams, Tumer's sublime landscapes, Friedrich's frozen visions of Gothic ruins, Delacroix's colorful battles of beasts. Realism emerges in the biting social conunentaries of Daumier, the meticulous detailed paintings of the English Pre-Raphaelites, and the raw reality of Courbet's paintings. The course ends with the extraordinary art of Manet. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political,
ARTH 306Color across Cultures: A Global History of Pigments, Dyes3
Metals and Other Colorants in Art Color across Cultures offers an introduction to color from the perspective of global art history. Through documents, art works and specimens of historic colorants, we will explore geological and mineral sources of mined pigments, as well as natural sources of historic dyes; students will learn techniques for identifying many such mineral and organic sources of color in works of art. We will browse a global variety of artists' recipe books for making pigments, and we will attempt to recreate a few of their colors. We will explore the ritual use of colorants, such as ochre (which, in early indigenous cultures of North America, was turned red with fire and then used to paint images of fire deities), "Maya blue" (which was used to paint both votive objects and victims of blood sacrifice), or vermilion (a red used to represent the transformative blood of Christ in medieval art because it was made through transformative alchemy). We will consider the economics of color: the capacity of purple dye to signify royalty in the pre-modern Mediterranean world, the global traffic of color-making technologies along the Silk Road, and the colonial exploitation of coloring resources (most notably in the case of enslaved populations forced to cultivate indigo for British trade in the 18th century). Students will gain an introduction to different color theories, from Sir Isaac Newton's light- refraction theory, to Goethe's emphasis on the instability of retinal color, to Thomas Young and Sir James Clerk Maxwell's RGB vision models; artistic uses and responses to such theories will be explored. We will also examine different color organization systems (the rainbow, the palette, color wheels, the Munsell system, Pantone, Hexcode numbers) from which artists have drawn their ideas about color. Among such color-organization systems, we will also explore the many, frequently problematic attempts to delineate biological species and races using color as a criterion. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
History of art in the English colonies and the United States from the seventeenth century to the present. AMST 307N / ARTH 307N Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3649 American Art (3) (GA;US)(GH)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. American art, from the colonial period to the present, is examined through paintings, sculpture, buildings, prints and photographs, as well as exhibitions and national/world fairs. The class places special emphasis upon the predicament of national identity by examining the ways in which the very notion of the "American" has historically been highly contested. Special points of emphasis include: negotiations between indigenous, colonial and European artistic styles, representations of and by displaced populations (colonial subjects, Native Americans, African Americans), myths of the American landscape, the cult of domesticity and the gendering of American citizenry, later transatlantic experiences of expatriate artists, conflicts between urban and rural conceptualizations of the "typical" American experience, the role of the American avant-garde after World War II, and debates over federal funding for the arts. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross-cultural issues as representations of gender, race, and ethnicity. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to American art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. Students will learn both the common vocabulary of art history and method of critical analysis in the field. Cross-listed with: AMST 307N Bachelor of Arts: Arts United States Cultures (US) General Education: Arts (GA) General Education: Humanities (GH) General Education - Integrative: Interdomain GenEd Learning Objective: Global Learning GenEd Learning Objective: Integrative Thinking GenEd Learning Objective: Key Literacies
History of the architecture of the United States, as well as its Native American and colonial antecedents. AMST / ARTH 308N American Architecture (3) (GA;GH;US)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This Art History course (cross-listed with American Studies) will cover the history of American architecture and its historical contexts, from its Native American roots and colonial antecedents, through the formation of the United States, to the present. A sample of the topics that will be covered are the architecture of: Native Americans, Spanish Colonial missions, 17th-century Virginia, Puritan New England, Georgian America, Southern Plantations and Slave Cabins, Thomas Jefferson, the new federal city of Washington, D.C., the Greek Revival, the industrial revolution, utopian religious communities such as the Shakers, Gothic Revival cottages and villas, Victorian Philadelphia, Henry Hobson Richardson, the birth of the skyscraper in New York and Chicago, the City Beautiful Movement, Frank Lloyd Wright, Arts & Crafts California, Henry Ford's Michigan, Art Deco New York, Mies van der Rohe and the glass box, Levittown, Disneyland, Louis I. Kahn, Post-Modernism, Frank Gehry, and Green Buildings. Selected major buildings, architects, ideas, and urban
ART H 311 Greek and Roman Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 311 provides a survey of Greek and Roman art. Included are the Orientalizing, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods of Greece and the Republican and Imperial Rome. Special attention is paid to politics, culture, and literature The focus of this class is painting, sculpture and architecture; ceramics and other minor arts are also addressed. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross-cultural issues as representations of gender. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to Ancient Greek and Roman art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Survey of the architecture, sculpture, and painting of the Christian church in western Europe from 1000 to 1500. ARTH 312 Romanesque and Gothic Art (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 312 concentrates on the art of northern Europe between A.D. 1000 and 1500, from Ottonian art to Romanesque art continuing to the beginnings of Gothic art. Works studied include architecture, manuscript painting, ivory carving and goldsmithwork, most of which were produced by or for members of the clergy, royalty or the lay aristocracy. The basic structure of the course is chronological. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to Romanesque and Gothic art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
. Dutch and Flemish painting in the seventeenth century. ART H 314ART H 314 Art in the Age of Rembrandt (3) (GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 314 explores the relationship of the visual arts to power structures, political events, and social and religious issues in the Netherlands and Flanders, c. 1585-1672. Topics include the function of art in constructing national and urban identities, social distinctions and gender roles, the contrasting needs burgher and court patrons, the effect of the open market on both the production of and the look of artwork, the impact of foreign investment and exploration on visual imagery, and the processes of artistic collaboration and competition. Particular attention is paid to the works and careers of Hendrick Goltzius, Frans Hals, Clara Peeters, Hendrik Terbrugghen, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Rubens and Jan Vermeer. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender. Requirements include essay exams and at least one paper. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to the Age of Rembrandt to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
A survey of European painting, sculpture, and photography from ca. 1850 to ca. 1940. ARTH 325 Impressionism to Surrealism (3) (GA;IL) (BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Art History 325 is a survey of European painting and sculpture from approximately 1860 to the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940. This course will provide an introduction to Impressionism (Manet, Monet, Renoir, Morisot), Post-Impressionism (Seurat, Czanne, van Gogh, Gauguin), Symbolism, the Nabis, Edvard Munch, Rodin, Fauvism (Matisse), Cubism (Braque, Picasso), Italian Futurism (Boccioni), Expressionism (Kirchner, Kandinsky), Dada (Duchamp), De Stijl (Mondrian), Suprematism (Malevich), Russian Constructivism (Tatlin), the Bauhaus, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, and Surrealism (Ernst, Miro, Dali). The course will close with Surrealist work done prior to the onset of the Second World War. The course is designed to meet two principal goals. The first is to increase students' powers of visual analysis and help them build a critical vocabulary for discussing an art object's medium, composition, style, and iconography. The second is to foster an understanding of the deep implication of the visual arts in their social and cultural contexts. The course therefore involves significant material relating to political, economic and religious issues. It investigates problems in patronage, function, reception and censorship. It considers such intra- and cross- cultural issues as representations of gender. As a general education course in the arts, this course provides an introduction to European art to a student of any major. This course has no prerequisite, and presumes no prior exposure to fine art. Students majoring in Art History will learn in it both the common vocabulary of the field and the outlines of the field that form the foundation for future study. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
An international survey of painting, sculpture, photography and other media since 1940. ART H 326 Art Since 1940 (3) (GA;US;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course offers a survey of art objects and practices after 1940. The class is international in scope, exploring the ways in which artists of different countries have responded to each other's work, and to international cultural and political events. Though the class will develop chronologically, lectures will be thematic in their emphasis. Topics to be covered include Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and other forms of art relying upon methods of appropriation, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Fluxus and Performance Art, Land Art and Site-Specificity, and Art in protest movements (such as the Civil Rights movement). The course will also address such larger issues as: 1) the means by which art works engage in critiques of racial, sexual and national identity; 2) the politica uses to which contemporary art has been put (often by figures other than the artists); 3) the dominant critical paradigms through which art has been filtered; 4) the relationship of art works to commodity culture and late capitalism; 5) and the ways in which contemporary art works Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3651 challenge notions of exhibition, patronage, and ownership of art. This course should be of interest to students of Art History as well as to students interested in post-war history, literature and intellectual culture. It should also be of use to those enrolled in studio art, architecture and other practicum areas. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Introduction to the visual arts of Africa, including contemporary African art and the influence of African art outside Africa. ARTH 335 / AFR 335 African Art (3)(GA;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. The course will examine the arts of various African peoples in historical, religious, sociological and geographic contexts, providing an introduction to the many visual art forms of Africa including masquerade, costume, and indigenous architecture. While many of the arts in this field of study are from west and central Africa, the course will also include materials from southern and eastern Africa. Contemporary African art, African Diaspora arts, and the influence of African art on European art are important topics that may be included. In addition to the traditional format of a geographic organization of the material, students will explore thematic approaches. Each of the assignments requires completion of essays which draw upon the multiple course texts and readings. Exams include image identification and short essays. Cross-listed with: AFR 335 Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
ARTH 350WUndergraduate Seminar in the History of Art3
An introduction to original research, methodology, analysis, and writing on a scholarly level. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: Fourth-semester standing and 6 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts Writing Across the Curriculum
/Maximum of 9 l Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 Developments in Greek art and architecture, tenth century B.C. to first century B.C.; emphasis on the importance of Greek sanctuaries. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Specific stylistic periods in manuscript painting from A.D. 500-1500 in Western Europe and Byzantium. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 6 Selected period or theme in the development of modern architecture during the nineteenth and/or early twentieth centuries. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
An introduction to the professional activities that occur in art museums. ART 409 / ARTH 409 Museum Studies (3)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course introduces students to the broad field of art museum work, specifically museum administration, education, curatorial work, registration, and exhibition design. Readings by authors in each field provide current theoretical and philosophical frameworks for all areas, which are then followed by discussions and practical experiences with professional museum practitioners, including the staff of a museum, for example, the Palmer Museum of Art, and invited guests. Museum Studies is open to students who have complete six credits in art, art education, or art history. This course is especially beneficial for majors in art, art education, and art history who are considering a career in an art museum or who want to become more aware about how an art museum functions. In addition to providing an in-depth introduction to art museum work, the course encourages students to build the critical thinking and response skills that are crucial to success in the real-world environment of a museum. The readings provide a solid foundation for later reference or further study in the student's chosen field. Offered every spring, this course will have a maximum enrollment of 20 students. Grades are based on class participation, four out-of-class projects, and a final project. Extra credit is offered for an off-campus visit to a museum, among other options. Cross-listed with: ART 409 Bachelor of Arts: Arts
History and literature of art criticism demonstrating the varied philosophic, cultural, iconographic, technical, and visual approaches. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Specific aspects of Romanesque and Gothic church architecture of western Europe, especially France and England, between 1000-1500. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Origin and evolution of the skyscraper as seen against the background of cultural conditions and technological factors. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts United States Cultures (US)
/Maximum of 6 Selected time periods and/or issues in the art of the United States. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts United States Cultures (US)
ARTH 418The Real Rebels: Postwar Avant-Garde Art of Asia3
From Akasegawa Genpei's Model 1,000-Yen Note (1963), which led to a trial of the artist in Tokyo, to Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's Dogs that Cannot Touch Each Other (1993), which brought bomb threats when exhibited in Guggenheim, New York in 2017, contemporary art from Asia continues to pioneer, to shock, and to provoke heated debates. This course introduces major movements of avant-garde art in Asia after 1945, which, despite
Russian architecture from the first Orthodox churches of the late tenth century to the end of the Soviet Union. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 Specific studies of western European sculpture, 300-1500, with attention to sources, styles, type, and iconography. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 Specific studies of Italian Renaissance art, including the work of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
ARTH 426Iconoclasm: Powerful Images and their Destruction3
Iconoclasm: exploring the political, religious, and social motivations behind the destruction of powerful imagery throughout history. ART H 426 Iconoclasm: Powerful Images and their Destruction (3) (US;IL) (BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements.Images have been granted extraordinary powers in many human societies, and their purposeful destruction has been a recurrent feature of political, religious and social strife around the world. This course explores how and why humans have granted such power to images, and the subsequent reactions that have resulted in periodic outbreaks of iconoclasm. Topics include the historical specificity of image destruction, the role of art and its detractors in precipitating the Protestant Reformation, and the Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3653 manipulation of iconoclasm in modern mass media. Victimized images covered may include the bronze bust of Sargon (3rd millennium BCE) and early Renaissance altarpieces through the statues of Saddam Hussein and beyond. We will read primary and secondary materials ranging from Biblical texts to letters to the editor in the New York Times. Through careful consideration of iconoclasms' historical contexts, we will explore art's ability to function as a societal lightning rod. This course has two major objectives: to introduce students to a subject matter that holds great relevance for our time, and to train them in the methods and ethics of scholarly research. This course fulfils elective and 400-level requirements in Art History and General Education (US and IL), but it is intended also to complement concentrations in History, Visual Studies, Religion, and Communications. It would be offered every two to three years. Evaluative criteria include analytical reading and discussion, written components such as critical essays and a research projects, and analysis of relevant current events and their media coverage. Requires a classroom with digital audio-visual capability. Course may include museum visits or field trips where appropriate. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 6 Explores a specific time period in art history cross-culturally in Europe, Asia, Africa, and/or the Americas. ART H 427 Topics in Global Artistic Communication (3 per semester/maximum of 6) (IL) This course explores specific time periods and/or issues in global artistic exchange among several diverse cultures. The course may be taken up to two times, if the topics are different. One semester the topic might be "Ca. 1800: Arts and their Global Colonial Contexts." Another semester the topic might be "Global Modernisms ca. 1930," or "Ca. 1600: Global Artistic Exchange in an Era of Increased Contact." Each offering will include theoretical discussion of the goals and challenges of such intercultural study. It will then explore the artistic traditions and responses to foreign contact of diverse cultures. The course will consist of lectures, discussions, and, in many cases, visits to the Palmer Museum of Art for the study of objects in its collection. Through critical reading, listening and looking students will develop an appreciation for the range and diversity of cultural production, and the historical specificity of responses to contact with the unfamiliar. Themes touched upon may include ethnic or religious identity, gender, cultural resistance, rejection or embrace. Learning evaluation may depend upon a combination of class participation, analytical reading, essays or research papers, and examinations. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH
Selected topics in the painting, sculpture, and architecture of seventeenth-century Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, and Spain. ART H 429 Studies in Baroque Art (3) (IL)This course addresses aspects of European art of the seventeenth century, a rich and complex period in which illusionism and powerful visual effects in the arts reached maturity. Baroque painters went beyond the realism of their Renaissance predecessors to explore both the sensuous aspects of the medium of oil painting and their own increasingly subjective vision. In all the
This course examines the history of art in Britain, with particular attention to the 18th and 19th centuries (1707 to 1914). Works of visual art are considered in close relation to history, especially the history of the Britis imperialism and evolving notions of British culture and identity. Among the artists whose works are addressed in this course are William Hogarth, Angelica Kauffman, Joshua Reynolds, Mary Moser, J.M.W. Turner, William Blake, the Pre-Raphaelites, Julia Margaret Cameron, James McNeill Whistler, and Vanessa Bell. Along with contextualizing works of art in their socio-historical milieu, this course also attends to the historiography of British visual culture to show how art historical scholarship propels or disrupts prevailing beliefs regarding aesthetic value, nationalism, and cultural identity. Study of the visual arts will be further augmented by selected works of relevant literature by such authors as Henry Fielding, William Wordsworth, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 6 Lectures focusing on a selected movement of nineteenth- or twentieth- century art. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 An exploration of major Asian sites and monuments through a focus on their historical and cultural significance. ART H (ASIA) 440 Monuments of Asia(IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. In this course, major Asian monuments are introduced in their physical, historical and cultural contexts. Students are also exposed to various theoretical approaches through which these monuments will be studied. Some of the themes around which the course is structured include patronage, religious practice, cultural meaning, political relevance and the shifting meanings of monuments over time. Students will learn to understand and discuss ways of defining monuments, their formal character and lineage, historical and cultural contexts and their representation across space and time.Each semester monumental sites will be organized around a common theme such as, Hindu and Buddhist Sites across Asia: Historical Significance and Contemporary Relevance, Patronage and Religion, Islam across Asia: Global Ideas and Local Contexts, Political and Symbolic Centers in Asia: Between Early Modernity and the Nation State or Early Modern Asia: Empire and the Built Environment. Alternately, these topics will be incorporated within a multi-themed structure.The objective of the course is to expose students to the histories and cultures of Asia in a globalizing world. Another objective is to equip students with the methodological tools of art history as a discipline, even as they learn about specific monuments. The course will build on the foundation laid by survey courses in Art History, Architectural History and Asian Studies. Weekly readings will be assigned and discussed in class. The development of analytical and writing skills will be stressed, and grades will be based partly on essay exams and short response papers. In addition, students will write a research paper, to be completed by the end of semester. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: ARTH 100 or ARTH 120 or ARTH 315 h or ARTH 320 or ARTH 330 Cross-listed with: ASIA 440 Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
ARTH 447Topics in the Art of the African Diaspora3
/Maximum of 6 Selected topics in arts of the African Diaspora (South America, Caribbean USA) including masquerades, textiles, architecture and other art forms. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Cross-listed with: AFR 447 Bachelor of Arts: Arts Bachelor of Arts: World Cultures
The history of photography from 1839, with particular emphasis on the relationship with the plastic arts. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Monumental and minor arts of Byzantium and related areas from the reign of Justinian to the Turkish conquest of Constantinople. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
This course examines palace architecture and decoration in Italy, France, England, and Germany from 1450-1700. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
This course examines the architecture and urbanism of cities from 1600-1800. This course will examine what transformed the cities into centers of power, culture, and learning. We will look at new building types, the creation of civic institutions, and changes in the urban plan. Undergraduate - The Pennsylvania State University 2026-2027 3655 The course will therefore provide an overview of the architecture and urbanism of the period and also explore the political and social contexts that made them possible. Topics include capitals of great political importance such as Paris, Beijing, and London as well as smaller centers like Turin and Lisbon that underwent major urban and architectural transformations. The social function of buildings that mark these capitals, from poor houses to opera houses, will also be explored. Primary and secondary reading, ranging from Pepy's Diary to Habermas' examination of the public sphere will offer period accounts as well as conceptual frameworks for understanding the capital. The objective is to challenge students to think deeply about our urban environment and its debts to this earlier era. This course fulfills elective and 400- level requirements in Art History and General Education (IL), but it is also designed to complement concentrations in History, Music, and Architecture. , Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH
1-12 ARTH 462 Studies in Latin American Art 3 3 ARTH 499 Foreign Study--Art History 1-12 3 ASIA 3 Introduction to the Religions of the East 3 3 ASIA 4 Introduction to Asian Literatures 3 3 ASIA 7N Seven Things That Changed the World 3 ASIA 83S Asian Studies First Year Seminar 3 3 ASIA 100 What is Asia? 3 3 ASIA 101N Sports in Asia 3 3 ASIA 102 Asian Popular Culture 3
/Maximum of 6 Specific studies of the visual and material culture created in Latin America from the colonial through the modern era. ART H 462 Studies in Latin American Art (3 per semester/maximum of 6) (IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course analyzes the art and architecture created in Latin America from the first moments of European contact (1492) until the modern era. Each time it is taught, the class will refine its focus to study the artistic production of a specific time period (such as the early colonial period, the nineteenth century, or the modern period), a specific geographic expanse (such as the modern nation state of Mexico), or perhaps a distinct cultural group (indigenous artists). Core to this course is the study of the interaction of seemingly divergent social groups and the ways in which artistic production both reflects and reinforces the resulting cultural systems. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 A focused investigation of a special topic relating to art made after 1940. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Select 12 credits of electives in ARTH 12 At least 12 credits of Supporting Courses must be take at the 400 level or higher. GA double count. Prerequisites for studio art classes may apply. Courses that address multiple geographies may count for any one requirement from the geographic categories.
History and theories of contemporary digital art emphasizing humanistic approaches to technology. ART 476 / ARTH 476 History and Theory of Digital Art (3)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Approaches to Digital Art is a survey class that will offer the web designer, cyberspace architect, MUD traffic controller or enthusiastic surfer an opportunity to examine the humanistic aspects of contemporary digital art. Through readings and direct interaction with digital media and digital artists, the class will develop an appreciation of the ways in which the interface between human beings and technology has been historically constructed and is subject to critical investigation. The goal of the class is to prepare each student so that she or he may engage with digital media in a way that is every more historically and socially self aware.Students will address the ways in which digital technologies transform artistic practices such as museum display, the writing of art criticism, the definition of works of art, changing role of the artist and the changing space of the art studio. More important, however, by engaging with digital works of art students will learn to think critically about technology and its engagement with culture at large. They will be encouraged to think about the political, economic and social impact of digital technologies. This humanistic approach to technology would make this course particularly useful to students of art history, philosophy, comparative literature, art education, and the visual/plastic arts. A significant portion of the course will be devoted to the ways in which art on the internet and digital art in general challenge the integrity of categories such as race and national identity. For example, students will have an opportunity to engage with African American artists such as Keith Obadike, whose on-line performances include an attempt to put his "blackness" up for sale on ebay.com in August of 2001. Students may also look at the ways in which net.art (Art made to be viewed on the internet) can critique commercial cooptation of global culture: etoy.com, for example, is an international and collaborative artist's group that satirizes global capital by camouflaging itself as a multinational corporation.This class will depend largely upon written responses and class discussion, rather than upon tests. Thus, students will learn how to approach difficult theoretical sources that have been assigned to them, and they will learn how to ask the kinds of questions that will help them understand such sources. This course will emphasize critical thinking rather than memorization, so students will develop analytical skills that will be useful in many other contexts. Because students will be given weekly writing assignments, they will be able to improve their skills in composition. Enforced Prerequisite at Enrollment: 3 credits of ARTH Cross-listed with: ART 476 Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 18 Supervised off-campus, nongroup instruction including field experiences, practica, or internships. Written or oral critique of activity required.
/Maximum of 999 Supervised off-campus, nongroup instruction including field experiences, practica, or internships. Written or oral critique of activity required.
/Maximum of 9 Supervised individual instruction beyond the classroom within a cultural, museum, gallery, or other institutional or professional context allied to the study, collection, preservation, and/or display of cultural or natural heritage. Students secure an internship prior to enrollment; enrollment requires prior approval from the Director of Museum Studies or their designee. Written and oral critique of activity required.
/Maximum of 18 Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 18 Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
/Maximum of 9 Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest. Bachelor of Arts: Arts
Preparation of graduate students for professional careers in academia and museum work, involving creation of publishable articles and grant writing. In the academic world, and particularly in the humanities, the publication of articles and books is understood to be a marker of success and, along with teaching skills, the basis on which appointments are made and tenure granted. Essential to this body of production is the execution and placement of one's research undertakings, skills that the "Methods Seminar" is designed to hone. No less valued by those who make appointments and offer promotion are the grants and fellowships that a candidate has won. Indeed, since research in art history involves travel to and residence at museum, library and archive sites- whether these be in North America or abroad-financial support is a necessity for most aspiring professionals and is regarded as evidence of external validation of their investigations. Training in "grant writing" is also covered in the seminar. Even before field work is undertaken, the investigator must be aware of the "state of research," work normally undertaken at one's own university library. In this domain there are better and worse ways of taking notes. The seminar discusses these methods and goes beyond them to consider the optimum means by which such records are organized and assembled prior to the delivery of papers and the production of articles. The nature of an oral presentation and a publishable paper are distinct activities and this difference needs to be learned. The more complex skills involved in the writing of articles, the securing of photographs and concomitant permissions, and the choice of the journal to which the "finished" piece should be submitted are dealt with at even greater length.
